Per Ken Rosenthal's article this morning.
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The worst-case scenario is that the Reds knew about the incident and tried to trade Chapman anyway, knowing full well that the clock probably was ticking toward a public-relations catastrophe.
If the Reds didn’t know about the incident until the deal neared completion, their conduct would be less distressing. Still, that would beg the question of how the Reds weren’t aware when the Boston Red Sox — who had interest in Chapman — learned of the incident in November while doing background work on him, according to a Boston Globe report Monday night.
According to MLB.com, Jocketty said late Monday, “The trade is still possible. We’ve talked to several clubs. I’ve notified them all tonight that we will step back for a couple of weeks or whatever it takes. They were fine. This actually came up the last 24 hours. That’s not what held up the trade. We just weren’t able to complete it as fast as we wanted to.”
* Regardless of whether Chapman is suspended, his trade value will plummet in the aftermath of a gun-related domestic violence allegation. General managers — and, more importantly, owners — would rightly be concerned about the message such a trade would send to the families who buy tickets and support their teams.
It’s doubtful the “several teams” Jocketty mentioned will be as enthusiastic about acquiring Chapman as they were before the winter meetings began.
* A lengthy suspension could have significant ramifications on Chapman’s baseball future.
Chapman had been on track for a major payday as a free agent following the upcoming season. Now it’s very possible that his market value will decrease by millions of dollars because of the incident.
Moreover, a lengthy suspension could mean Chapman no longer is assured of reaching free agency after the 2016 season. The reason: Players don’t accrue MLB service time while serving domestic-violence suspensions.
I still don't know how to feel about all of this. In one way, if this hadn't come to the forefront yesterday then Aroldis Chapman would already be a Los Angeles Dodger. Now, we have to wait two or three weeks or however long it takes the commissioner Rob Manfred to announce a likely suspension.
Jayson Stark was on ESPN Sportscenter last night saying that several of his sources told him the Dodgers are no longer interested in moving forward with the original trade they had on the table. And the Boston Red Sox lost interest in him back in November and decided to trade for Craig Kimbrel instead.
Does this re-open the door for an Aroldis Chapman trade to the Houston Astros?
Owner Jim Crane, has had his own bouts with the law in the past.
He's also a big Aroldis Chapman fan.
https://twitter.com/jcrasnick/status/672106868857286656I'm all for giving a guy a second chance if it was just one isolated incident. People make mistakes. It's the owner's call really.