Yankees: Mark Teixeira calls out Aroldis Chapman in radio rant

Former Yankee Mark Teixeira went off on Aroldis Chapman for head hunting.

All it took was one 101 MPH fastball from Aroldis Chapman to send Major League Baseball and the media into a frenzy. Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash blasted Chapman and the New York Yankees in his postgame press conference after Tuesday night’s game, which helped expedite suspensions for Chapman (three games) and manager Aaron Boone (one game).

There’s been a lot of discourse over Chapman’s actions, especially after he declined to speak with the media on Tuesday night and then left some comments open for interpretation on Wednesday in stating that the league’s suspension “a little harsh.” If he truly didn’t have any intent throwing at Mike Brosseau, he would’ve more appropriately said the punishment was fully uncalled for, right?

All of this led to former Yankee Mark Teixeira ripping Chapman this week.

“I’ve been so adamant about let’s make sure that we actually have real punishments when you know that a guy threw at somebody on purpose up high,” Teixeira told Michael Kay on ESPN radio Wednesday. “If you punish a player 10, 15, 20 games without pay for hitting somebody … I’m not giving up 10 games of my paycheck to settle a beef with somebody else. But if you suspend me for one start as a starter basically and you back up a start, or a couple games as a reliever and you still get paid, alright I’ll do it. I’ll take that bullet for the team.“Let’s look at the facts here. (Chapman) didn’t talk to the media afterwards. If I had done that and it wasn’t on purpose … First of all, I don’t stare the guy down after. You say, ‘Hey, I am sorry. It shouldn’t have happened. I didn’t mean it.’ Apologies to Brosseau, to the Rays and it’s over with. But that’s not what happened. He hid.“One thing that we learned as New York Yankees is we’re accountable after the games and we talk to the press.”

Teixeira has a point, but does he really need to be hopping on the radio and insinuating things as a media personality of his stature? He didn’t care to mention the fact the Rays’ pitching staff has been inching closer to hitting Yankees batters for the past two-plus years now. There’s proof all over the place.

One Chapman pitch, just because he throws super fast and is extremely intimidating, really tips the scales here? Not only that, Tuesday was Chapman’s fourth appearance on the year and he completed his third inning of work in 2020. We saw how inaccurate and erratic he’s been since returning from the COVID-19 list. He got knocked around by the Red Sox and Mets for crying out loud.

Care to mention any of that? Guess not. Everyone’s just going to go with the narrative that this was fully intentional even though there’s zero proof behind it.

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