For a guy who's a Red Sox closer now, Aroldis Chapman has spent a lot of 2026 talking about the Yankees. Specifically about Brian Cashman, and specifically about an apology Chapman felt he was owed for how his Bronx tenure ended. That whole storyline just quietly deflated.
https://t.co/hTlbrmlT0r Aroldis Chapman tells The Post he no longer expects an apology from the Yankees. “Turned the page.” (plus notes on Contreras, Verlander and Skubal)
Heyman's report has Chapman telling The Post he's "turned the page" on the Yankees drama, dropping the apology demand he'd been floating just weeks earlier. It's a notably different tone from a guy who, not long ago, said he'd rather retire than go back to New York.
The root of all this goes back to October 2022, when the Yankees left Chapman off their ALDS roster against the Guardians after he reportedly skipped a mandatory workout. That decision effectively ended his run with the team and left a grudge that's simmered ever since, with Chapman periodically taking shots at Cashman and the organization in interviews.
Chapman signed with the Yankees back in December 2016 on a 5-year, $86 million deal, returning after the Cubs had rented him for a postseason run that ended with a World Series title in Chicago. That's the version of Chapman who was a Yankees icon — the guy who came back and instead left with bad blood over how it all unraveled.
Now pitching for Boston, Chapman doesn't have much left to gain by staying at war with his old team, and it sounds like he's decided that himself. No apology, no closure ceremony — just a shrug and a move on, according to what he told The Post.
Whether this actually cools any tension between Chapman and the Yankees front office long-term is unclear, but for now the loudest chapter of this feud looks closed. Given how often this stuff resurfaces whenever Chapman is a topic in trade rumors, don't be shocked if it's not the last we hear of it.