Chapman pitched for the Yankees in New York the next day but signed with the Reds a few months later and launched what has proven to be a long and successful major league career.
Chapman, now 37, finally joined the Sox this season and has been one of the keys to their season with All-Star work as the closer.
Here’s a transcript of an interview we did this past week with the assistance of Red Sox translator Carlos Villoria-Benítez:
Statistically, this season has been one of your best if not the best. How do you rate it?
It’s not over yet, so we’ll see. But I’ve been very happy with how I’ve maintained my control during the season. I’m throwing more strikes. That was something I worked a lot on during the winter.
What would it mean to you to get back to the postseason? You’ve won two World Series already.
That was my main goal when I came here and I knew it was the team’s main goal as well, to get back to October. So I’m very excited to get back and pitch for the team in the playoffs.
Have you found any good Cuban food in Boston?
There are a few good places. I haven’t really been out much, but I know about a few places. I usually like to eat at home.
You said you don’t go out much. What do you do outside of baseball?
I haven’t been out much here in the city, just a few restaurants. Most of the time I’m at my house, then I come to the park early. That’s pretty much how I am during the season.
Why was baseball the sport you chose? You probably could have had a good career in another sport.
In Cuba, that was the national sport. So when I was a kid, everybody wanted to be a baseball player and that was it. It was always baseball for me.
Were you a pitcher right away?
Actually, no. I was a first baseman. I was a pretty good hitter when I was younger. But a coach I knew saw that I had a good arm and he tried me out on the mound. That was it. I was a pitcher after that.
(As an aside, Chapman has had two plate appearances in the majors. He is 0 for 2 but scored a run. On Aug. 31, 2015, while a member of the Reds, he entered a two-run game against the Cubs in the eighth inning and got two outs. The Reds batted around in the top of the ninth and Chapman reached on an error and scored from first on a double. “The third base coach told me to stop,” Chapman said. “But I kept going. That was the most I ever had to run in baseball.”)
Did you have a favorite player when you were a kid?
Oh, yeah, it was Jose Contreras. He was my favorite. I was able to meet him when I came to the United States. A great pitcher.
Which parks have the best bullpens? You must be an expert.
That’s a good one. New York, the Yankees. Texas and Atlanta. Those are the best. Very comfortable.
Who is the best closer in the game other than you?
I don’t know who is the best. But I like Edwin Díaz, Robert Suarez, and Andrés Muñoz. I have respect for them as pitchers.
You have played 16 years in the majors and you’re 37. How long do you want to keep doing this?”
Until they don’t want me anymore. I’d like to play a season in Japan just to have the experience.
Your teammates say you’re always working out. So how many times a day do you really work out?
I work out at a gym near my home in the morning. Or at the hotel gym if we’re on the road. When I come to the park, that is when I do some cardio workouts. If it’s a day game, I will do everything at the park.
Do you ever skip a day?
No, never. I can’t remember the last time.
Not even Christmas or your birthday?
Every day, every day. I will always take time to do it, even if it’s just a little bit. I always have to do something. I started in 2014, and I haven’t really stopped. It was something I used to just do in the offseason, then I started doing it during the season and I felt better. After that I just kept doing it. I really believe it has made a huge difference in my career.
Do you think you could make it to the Hall of Fame when you retire?
I don’t know. That will depend on when I retire and then the writers will have to decide. We’ll see what kind of career I’ve had after I retire. But I really don’t know. It’s something I think about. That is a goal for every player.
There have been more closers voted into the Hall in recent years, Billy Wagner was the latest, and Mariano Rivera and Lee Smith in 2019. Maybe closers are getting more respect?
Those names you mentioned, they’re up there and they made a difference in the game. We’ll see how it goes. That’s all I can say. I hope I get the opportunity.
Last one. Who are the one or two hitters you’ve never faced you would like to face, anybody from baseball history.
Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. Those two. I would love to have faced them.
Would you strike them out?
(Laughs) I better not say. I’ll leave that one alone.
OLD FRIENDS, NOW FOES
Roman Anthony and Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday have known each other since they were 17 and playing on the same summer circuit as other top prospects.
Now they’re 21, and last Monday they played against each other in the majors for the first time.
“It was good to catch up a little,” Holliday said. “I’m excited for him. We’re going to be here for a long time.”
Holliday is the son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday. Holliday’s brother, Ethan, was the fourth pick of the draft in June and signed with the Rockies for $9 million, a record for a high school player.
The Holliday family lived in Florida when Matt was playing for the Cardinals. They’re now in Oklahoma and have a sports complex on their family farm that includes a professional-level batting cage complete with the technology you’d find in a major league facility.
Anthony has been there to hit in the offseason many times and credits those experiences for helping him develop as a player.
“Roman has such a great approach at the plate,” Holliday said. “It’s extremely impressive to see what he’s done, the at-bats he takes. I need to pick his brain about how he’s doing it.
“The way he’s hitting for the Red Sox is the way he was hitting in high school. He knows exactly what he wants to do.”
Holliday was thrilled when Anthony agreed to an eight-year, $130 million contract with the Sox.
“He’s going to be a Red Sox for a long time. Great player and a great person,” Holliday said. “I was glad for him. I hope we play against each other for a long time.”
The Sox will be in Baltimore for a four-game series starting on Monday. Anthony and Holliday are planning to grab lunch.
“They were only in Boston for two days and we only talked at the park,” Anthony said. “It’ll be good to catch up. He’s been a good friend.”
A few other observations on the Red Sox:
⋅ For a team that invests so much in analytic brainpower, the Sox play a foolish brand of baseball at times.
Consider Tuesday night’s painful 4-3 loss against the Orioles in 11 innings.
In a 3-3 game, Baltimore reliever Yaramil Hiraldo walked Anthony, Alex Bregman, and Jarren Duran to load the bases with two outs. He threw them 14 pitches, 12 out of the strike zone.
Hiraldo had thrown 29 pitches in the inning at that point.
Trevor Story was next, and he swung at the first pitch, which was two balls below the bottom of the strike zone. He then grounded a 2-and-1 pitch to third baseman Luis Vázquez, who was shifted over to shortstop, to end the inning.
Understanding that baseball at the highest level is not Little League, doesn’t Story understand he has to take a strike there? If that’s not certain, shouldn’t Alex Cora tell him to?
You can argue that Hiraldo was desperate to throw a strike and would pipe one down the middle. Great, make him do it, then you’re free to do what you want.
“You can look at it different ways, but we trust our players,” hitting coach Pete Fatse said.
⋅ Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla visited Fenway Park this past week and asked Fatse to show him the team’s Trajekt pitching robot.
The machine can essentially re-create the repertoire of any pitcher in the majors, enabling hitters to work against the same pitches they would see in a game.
“Joe is curious about technology and how we go about our preparation and scouting,” Fatse said. “He asked a lot of good questions. It’s fun for me to get to talk to the coaches from other teams.”
ETC.
You’d think by now media and fans would be wise to Rob Manfred.
The commissioner loves trial balloons, floating ideas in a seemingly random way then sitting back and watching all the traditionalists grumble and declare that this time he has gone too far.
He usually wins in the end. Baseball adopted the universal DH and a pitch timer, along with ghost runners for extra innings, a limit on September call-ups, replays for contested calls, and automatic intentional walks.
There are advertising patches on uniforms, and the All-Star Game was actually decided by a mini home run derby.
Games have been on Facebook, Apple TV+, and whatever Roku is, along with YouTube and Peacock. There will probably be a challenge system for balls and strikes by 2027.
Baseball didn’t just survive, it has flourished. Attendance has improved, and the improved pace of games has made for a significantly better product to watch, in person and on television.
The game has a bright future.
Now Manfred had tossed out the idea that baseball could realign once there is expansion and that a 32-team league might not look like the current American League and National League.
It might be more of an East/West division with the conference champions playing in the World Series.
This wouldn’t happen until two expansion teams are ready to join the league, and that won’t be any time soon. The league first has to work out a stadium plan for the Rays and then select two new teams.
If the AL and NL structure fades away, so be it. All 30 teams play each other at least once every year already, and everybody plays by the same set of rules.
If the Red Sox end up in the same division as the Phillies instead of the Orioles, would your baseball-watching experience change all that much? Of course not.
The advertising patches are an abomination against all that is holy, that part is true. But the rest seems to work out. A Boston-Nashville World Series in 2038 would be a lot of fun. Meet you at Robert’s Western World on Broadway.
Andover’s Mike Yastrzemski has proven to be one of the best pickups of the trade deadline. He had five home runs, eight RBIs, and a .913 OPS in his first 17 games for the surging Royals after being acquired from the Giants. Yastrzemski, who turned 35 on Saturday, will be a free agent after the season … Aaron Judge has joined Babe Ruth (11), Lou Gehrig (5), and Mickey Mantle (4) as the only Yankees to hit 40 or more home runs at least four times … Cal Raleigh went into the weekend with 38 home runs while in the lineup as a catcher. The record is 42 by Atlanta’s Javy Lopez in 2003 … The supposed “best fans in baseball” are not coming to the ballpark in St. Louis. The Cardinals are averaging 28,829, a big drop from 35,532 last season. They drew 25,365 for a Sunday game against the Yankees on Aug. 17. Their previous Sunday game against the Yankees on July 2, 2023, was played before 44,676 … Juan Soto is having what would be a career year for many players — 4.3 bWAR, an .872 OPS, and on pace to hit 40 home runs and drive in 92 runs. But by his standards it’s a letdown season after agreeing to a 15-year, $765 million deal. “One hundred percent since Day 1, we believe in each other and believe we can make it to the playoffs,” Soto said on Thursday after the Mets’ 9-3 loss to the Nationals. It’s hard to imagine, but the Mets could go from a six-game National League Championship Series loss against the Dodgers to signing Soto and missing the playoffs … MLB awarded 12 scholarships to incoming college freshmen who are products of the league RBI program for baseball and softball. One of the $5,000 per-year grants went to Cathedral’s Karilyn Perez-Guerrero, who will enroll at Clark to play softball. She was in the Red Sox Foundation RBI … Happy birthday to Kip Gross, who is 61. The righthander appeared in 73 major league games from 1990-2000, including 11 for the 1999 Red Sox. The Sox signed Gross for $500,000 after he played in Japan from 1994-98. He made the team out of spring training and allowed one run over 7⅔ innings in his first seven games back in the majors. The next five games didn’t so nearly as well Gross was tagged for 10 runs on eight hits and six walks over five innings. He was sent to Triple A and didn’t return to the Sox that season. Gross was 55-49 with a 3.60 ERA in five seasons for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan and is regarded as one of the better American players who played in the NPB.
Peter Abraham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.