Aroldis Chapman gets 'incredible' greeting from Yankees fans in Bronx debut

NEW YORK - With sirens blaring from the speakers at Yankee Stadium and flames lighting up the horseshoe-shaped LED board, Aroldis Chapman jogged in from the bullpen beyond center field and onto the mound for the ninth inning Monday night. After more than a month away from the New York Yankees, he had returned and there was certainly nothing inconspicuous about it.

Chapman had been nothing more than a forgotten man for the club since the end of spring training. While they sank to the bottom of the American League East standings, he remained anchored in Tampa. A team built around its dominant bullpen was without the hardest-throwing arm in the sport as he served a 30-game suspension from Major League Baseball as the first player punished by Commissioner Rob Manfred for violating the sport’s domestic violence policy.

Now, here he was, donning Yankee pinstripes in a regular season game for the first time since he was acquired from the Cincinnati Reds in December. In the bullpen, Dellin Betances bet on how hard Chapman would throw and his manager gawked from the dugout at the radar gun readings on the scoreboard. Chapman’s first pitch hit 100 mph and he topped out at 101 during a 17-pitch outing to finish off the Yankees’ 6-3 win over the Royals - striking out two and allowing a run.

And there was no ambiguity in how he was greeted, although even Chapman wondered how the crowd might react when he entered the game. He heard nothing but applause during his lone inning.

“After the reaction I got today, it was incredible,” he said.

But the night was not as simple as a desperate team finally getting back an integral piece of its roster. Chapman returns as the lone precedent for baseball’s newly installed rules and the tradeoff the Yankees made in acquiring him. As controversial as the deal was in the offseason, the Yankees need Chapman more than ever.

His return, however, has not been quiet or fluid. Chapman has not apologized or shown much contrition for the actions that led to his suspension. He is alleged to have choked his girlfriend and fired eight gunshots in his garage during a turbulent incident at his Davie, Fla., home last October. While Chapman was not ultimately charged by local prosecutors, Manfred handed down his own sentence under his new powers which allow him to unilaterally penalize players for domestic violence allegations.

Chapman has maintained his innocence and he caused more waves this weekend when, in an interview with the New York Times, he said Latino players were targets. While it was perceived to be directed at Major League Baseball, Chapman explained Sunday that he was speaking in general terms.

“As a Latin player, you come to this country, we don’t know the language, we don’t know the laws,” he said. “And sometimes we can become a target by people who are really trying to take advantage of us and get us in a bad situation where sometimes we don’t understand much.”

The only stability and calm in Chapman’s return has been in his role with the Yankees. Manager Joe Girardi proclaimed that the left-handed reliever, a four-time All-Star, will take over the closer’s role - usurping Andrew Miller, who has six saves, 20 strikeouts and not allowed a run in 12 appearances so far this year.

Miller has been one of the few bright spots for the Yankees so far. They sit at just 12-18 and six games behind the Orioles. Their disabled list reads like the list of baseball’s top salaries - with Alex Rodriguez and CC Sabathia both injured. Jacoby Ellsbury and Starlin Castro are both hurt, too, and were not in Monday’s lineup. Before five home runs against the Royals, their offense ranked among the worst in the American League.

Their rotation, aside from ace Masahiro Tanaka, is a nightly mystery and even the bullpen is mediocre. It ranked 14th in baseball entering Monday with a 3.76 ERA despite the dominance of Miller and Betances.

Chapman will help solve some of those issues. With his comeback, the Yankees now have three dominant arms to finish games and ease the burden on the starting staff. That he returns against the Royals is only appropriate - their bullpen’s late-inning dominance has led to two straight World Series appearances, one title and the model for teams short on reliable starters.

“I know how tough it is against us so I would imagine it would be exactly the same against them, especially with Chapman coming back,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Betances was an All-Star last year, Andrew Miller is fantastic, and now with Chapman coming back you better have a lead by the sixth inning or it’s going to be a dog fight.”

But figuring out how to deploy Chapman and that bullpen is only part of the story for the Yankees. The organization that acquired him while he was already under legal scrutiny must now also welcome him back onto the team. While Girardi makes it seem like a simple process, how Chapman is received around baseball remains to be seen.