Aroldis Chapman is a professional baseball player who has made a name for himself in Major League Baseball (MLB), where he plays as a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees. The Cuban-American player has become the most expensive relief pitcher in the league since his debut in 2010 and plays for a number of teams. Learn all about him here.
Aroldis Chapman Biography
Albertín Aroldis Chapman de la Cruz was born on 28 February 1988 in the Province of Holguín, Cuba. Here he grew up at the side of two sisters. During his childhood, Chapman, whose grandparents were Jamaican immigrants to Cuba, lived in a small house with his father, who was a boxing coach, and his mother, who was a housewife.
What has made him very popular in the meantime is the baseball game he started to play in his home country Cuba. It started with a local baseball club when he was a teenager. He was the first baseball player at that time, but that changed later when his coach realized that he would make a better pitcher and so he converted him to the field.
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By the time he was 16 years old, Chapman had already secured a place with the Holguín Sabuesos, who played in the Cuban National Series League. It was not long before he was able to play for the Cuban national baseball team. He was a member of the team in the Pan-American Games, which they won in 2007, and in the World Baseball Championship that same year, which ended in silver.
Without letting his family or anyone else know, Aroldis Chapman defected from Cuba in 2009, and the following year he found himself with the Cincinnati Reds after signing a contract that would keep him in the club for at least 6 years.
From 2012 to 2015, when he left the club, he remained one of the most important throwers in the league with four consecutive All-Star teams.
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Aroldis Chapman Trade
The pitcher left the Reds 2015 for the New York Yankees in a swap where he switched teams with Caleb Cotham, Rookie Davis, Eric Jagielo, and Tony Renda. In 2016, he signed an annual contract with the team worth over $11 million. However, after a case of domestic violence against him, he was forced to miss 30 games.
Gleyber Torres, Billy McKinney, Adam Warren, and Rashad Crawford would be sent back to the Yankees in another Chicago Cubs barter for Chapman. This would not take long as the New York Yankees would return at the end of 2016 to re-sign him on a $86 million five-year contracts after he helped the Cubs win the 2016 World Series.
Girlfriend and Wife
Just as most of the pitcher’s life is interesting, no matter how you look at it, his relationship life is no different. He has lived in a number of relationships in the past.
When he defected for good from Cuba, Chapman had a girlfriend named Raidelmis Mendosa Santiestelas. Interestingly, he left only three days after Santiestelas’ birth of the couple’s daughter, Ashanti Brianna, whom he never saw before his defection. Although mother and child later joined him in the United States, the relationship later broke up.
After his relationship with Raidelmis Mendosa Santiestelas ended, the next woman Ardolis met with was Cristina Barnea. The relationship between the two became known in 2014, and she became publicly known as Tina, (as Cristina Barnea is also called) was openly reported on social media.
Nevertheless, the relationship seemed to have broken up in 2015, and the police were invited to the MLB house because there was a domestic violence case against him. According to the reports, Tina Barnea found something she didn’t like on Chapman’s phone and decided to confront him. In retaliation, she said he pushed her against the wall before she ran into the bushes and called the police. The MLB star also fired 8 shots; 7 into his garage wall and one through the window.
The two would soon put things back together and move much closer together. Although there is no evidence that the two are married, Tina, with whom the baseball player shares a daughter – Angelina Chapman – describes herself in social media as a wife and mother.
Chapman also has another son, Atticus Gabriel Chapman, who was born to him by an unknown woman on June 30, 2014.
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Net Worth
For a man who has played a significant role in MLB since his debut in the very long term, it is only right and proper to expect that he has good equity. Moreover, considering his recent five-year contract extension with the Yankees worth $86 million, Chapman can just as well be called the cash man. Other than that, he has a net worth estimated at over $12 million. There are other sources that classify him as rich as nearly $30 million.
Height and Weight
He may not be the biggest man out there, but Aroldis has very good size and bodyweight that help him to be the good player he is. Expressed in numbers, he stands at a height of 6 feet 4 inches and a bodyweight that measures 212 lb.