Chap sticks

In this intensely polarized world, who doesn't appreciate compromise... both sides accepting a fallback. Instead of hot pants, bell-bottoms! Instead of piercings, tattoos! Instead of gonorrhea, herpes! Last night, at about 20 minutes to dead midnight, the Death Star and Aroldis Chapman split the diff on a long-term deal and signed a pact to keep El Chapo in happy pinstripes for one more year... three more, overall.

He'll be a Yankee through 2022, at $18 M per season, the fourth-highest paid player (after Giancarlo Stanton, Masahiro Tanaka, and Jacoby Ellsbury.) The deal appeals to both sides, though I'd argue the Chap-Stick would have been lucky to score more on the free agent market.

The key is whether ol' Chappaquiddick can become an artsy, finesse pitcher, because his fastball is dropping faster than Kamela Harris, losing velocity, except for when it's thrown 10 feet over the catcher's head. He's no longer Earth's most feared flame-thrower. If anything, Yank fans have come to fear him. 

Still, a compromise is a compromise... 

I can't lie: I hoped he'd jump. I hate to wallow in economics, because the one-percent Steinbrenners have more money than most Third World countries; they are Putin-level rich, and I refuse to accept Food Stamps Hal's little parlor game of poor-mouthing. For Hal, there is no payroll budget beyond an arbitrary number, which he imposes for self-gratification. There is no earthly reason why the Dodgers, Cubs and Redsocks should ever outspend the Yankees, yet that's what we have witnessed. And if Hal, for the goof of it, is seeing just how cheaply he can build a World Series champion, he has failed. Look at those top three salaries - only Tanaka is worth it - and our fourth highest-paid player this year was J.A. Happ, who couldn't warrant a playoffs start. 

So, it's the Chapster for three more years. It could be worse. But he's like a spouse who has been caught in bed with the pool boy. Things have happened that cannot be unseen. Remember when he blew the lead and needed to be bailed out by Chasen Shreve? Or when when the rookie Rafael Devers hit that game-tilting HR off him, effectively killing the Yankees' season? And then there is this year's season-ender, just another addition to the memory pile.

The Man of Chap's numbers peaked between 2014 and 16, when he was virtually unhittable. Then, his highest ERA was 2.00. Two years ago, it drifted to 3.22, pretty lame for a closer. This year, he finished at 2.21 - not horrible, but every game seemed to end with the tying run at third, and the winning run at second. He'll turn 32 in February... 35 when this contract ends. 

Well, he's ours. It's one less item on our punch-list, I suppose. A compromise. Let's see what happens next. Winter is here.