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As known quantity, Chapman a perfect fit for Yanks
- Updated: December 16, 2016
NEW YORK — Aroldis Chapman is officially back in the Yankees’ fold for the next five years, and even though the “No Run BMC” gang is not intact, Tyler Clippard, Dellin Betances and the hard-throwing left-handed Cuban should make a formidable bullpen trio for the coming season.
It’s a great signing for the Yankees at $86 million — $15 million a season and $1 million of an $11 million bonus to be paid in 2017. Chapman has an opt-clause in the contract after the ’19 season, but in a conference call on Friday, Chapman said he’s not even thinking about that.
“That’s [three] years from now,” he said through an interpreter. “That’s a long time.”
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Chapman was 3-0 with 20 saves, a 2.01 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings over the 31 appearances for the Yankees in 2016. Since the Yankees traded him to the Cubs on July 25, the signing came with no Draft pick compensation. That also made Chapman a better fit than Kenley Jansen, who decided to re-sign with the Dodgers.
“Chap handled New York — not everybody obviously can,” general manager Brian Cashman said about the pending signing last week on the final day of the Winter Meetings. “That was not in question. He came through. He proved that. There was an attractiveness to his availability in the market place, because it didn’t have a Draft pick attached to him. We know him, and that’s why we focused on him a little bit more than others.”
Even with the free-agent additions of Chapman and projected designated hitter Matt Holliday for one-year and $13 million, the Yanks should be in their best financial shape in more than a decade. They have shed about $70 million in player payroll since this past season’s non-waiver Trade Deadline, and for the first time in the competitive balance tax era, should dip under the new $195 million threshold and not have to pay any taxes on the acquisition of players above that …