AROLDIS IS
Girardi lauds closer’s athletic
TAMPA — Aroldis Chapman is the Cuban Missile, a physical marvel capable of throwing 105 mph, beating speedster Billy Hamilton in a 100-yard dash during his younger days with Cincinnati and doing 1,000-pound leg lifts this offseason.
But more than anything, Chapman wants to snap his 0-fer at the plate. “Yeah, I need a hit,” said Chapman, who is 0-for-3 in his career with two strikeouts. Then he laughed.
Chapman, who returned to the Yankees on a five-year, $86 million contract over the winter, made quite an impression on his manager with his athletic prowess in his first goaround in pinstripes last season.
“I didn’t know how good of an athlete he was when you talk about the speed he has, and I’m sure the power he has when he hits,” Joe Girardi said Thursday before Chapman’s first appearance of the spring. “We were joking about it the other day. He was pretending to hold a bat, and I said maybe you can pinchrun. We had a good laugh about it. But he’s a really good athlete. To be able to repeat his delivery as hard as he’s throwing and with that arm speed is incredible.”
Chapman then went and struck out a pair of Orioles during a 1-2-3 fourth inning, hitting triple digits on the radar gun in the Yankees’ 8-1 exhibition win over Baltimore’s B team. He doesn’t know how he does it.
“It’s something I don’t have an explanation for,” Chapman said. “I guess it’s God-given talent.”
Chapman comes from an athletic family. He realized he could throw harder than everyone else when he was around 15. In 2016, he threw 538 fastballs over 100 mph while tying his own MLB-record with a 105.1 mph heater. It’s the result of a repeatable yet intimidating delivery.
“It feels like you’re catching a building block,” Gary Sanchez told YES Network. Austin Romine told YES that catching 105 is “a different beast.”
“I turn into a hockey goalie, basically,” Romine said.
During his time in the majors — over parts of seven seasons — the 29-yearold closer has averaged 99 mph with his fastball, with opposing batters hitting .163 against it, according to Pitch/FX data.
“I caught him last year during spring training, and it’s pretty intense,” Kyle Higashioka said. “He’s obviously the hardest thrower in the big leagues, and you can definitely tell just by the way the ball comes out of his hand. You always have to be on your toes.”
The Yankees hope Chapman can stay healthy throughout the duration of the contract, which includes a full no-trade clause for