Aroldis Chapman Set To Sign With Cincinnati Reds

If you want to make it to the Major Leagues, one of the easiest ways is being a left-handed pitcher. If you want to make a boat load of cash in the Major Leagues, you may want to try being an extraordinarily talented left-handed pitcher. This is the exact path that Cuban defect Aroldis Chapman is going to take within the next few days when he is expected to sign a 5 year, $30 million contract with the Cincinnati Reds.

Chapman’s story is very intriguing. If you haven’t heard, he was blessed with the ability to throw a baseball around 100 MPH from the left side. Unfortunately he was cursed to have been born in Cuba with this phenomenal skill. As a member of the Cuban national team, Chapman fled from his teammates and authorities and went into hiding during a tournament in the Netherlands. Chapman then established residency (a must to become a MLB free agent) in Andorra while trying to negotiate a big league contract.

Chapman represents a big risk for the Cincinnati Reds organization and most in the business are surprised that the Reds won out. Many expected him to wind up with a larger organization like the Red Sox or Angels. Playing for a smaller market club may be a huge benefit for Chapman, however. While possessing all the talent in the world, the knock on the 22 year old fireballer is that he lacks maturity and perhaps coachability. Whether true or not, the bottom line is Cincinnati needs Chapman to make them look good here. Chapman is far from polished and will likely need at least a season in the Minor Leagues before becoming a fixture of the Reds’ rotation. In many ways this links the Reds with the Washington Nationals, and Chapman with Nationals’ first round selection Stephen Strasburg.

Both Chapman and Strasburg commanded huge paydays because of their electric arms. Strasburg is a lanky righty with a 100+ MPH fastball who signed for $15.1 million over 4 years after being selected with the first pick in the draft last June. And both the Reds and Nationals are hoping their young studs can be worth every penny before those players become too expensive for them to keep.