NASHVILLE — On a practical level, the question of when the Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, and others learned that pitcher Aroldis Chapman was involved in a domestic violence complaint in October is moot. We are where we are, and the Dodgers are reportedly unsure of whether to trade for Chapman now that he’s under investigation by MLB:
#Dodgers meeting to decide what to do on Chapman after scouring legal reports: pivot to something else or wait and see how this resolves
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) December 8, 2015
Still, the issue of whether the Dodgers would trade for a pitcher knowing he allegedly choked a woman and fired off a gun in his home is a touchy one. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman declined to say when he learned of the allegations against Chapman, which were first reported by Yahoo.com Monday night. Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig is currently under investigation for an incident that might fall under the league’s domestic violence policy, too.
Tuesday at the Winter Meetings, MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre said that the league learned of the incident around the same time the public became aware Monday night.
“We did not get that information until late yesterday,” Torre said. “That’s the first we heard about it. And obviously it happened, you know, much earlier than that. So it takes time to gather information, and the same thing with the José Reyes (incident, which is also being investigated by MLB). We want to make sure we have all the information and then the decision will be made. The only timetable is when we feel we’ve got as much information as we can get.”
