Yankees' Aroldis Chapman Lands on Injured List With Infection From Tattoo

New York is not planning on calling up a pitcher from Triple-A to replace Chapman on the active roster, waiting until Clay Holmes is ready to return from his own IL stint.

OAKLAND — Just when it seemed like Aroldis Chapman's dreadful season couldn't get any worse, the left-hander is headed back to the injured list.

Chapman was placed on the 15-day IL on Saturday afternoon with an infection on his leg from a recent tattoo.

"We were hoping he could knock it out and be able to take care of it the last couple of days, but it's still significant enough from a tattoo that he recently got," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before Saturday night's game at RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland. "He's got a pretty bad infection."

Chapman's return to the injured list is retroactive to Wednesday, an off day before New York embarked on their current 10-game road trip. Boone said Chapman was available leading up to Thursday's game against the Athletics, but he began feeling soreness shortly before first pitch. Since then, it's gotten worse. Not bad enough for the 34-year-old to take a trip to the hospital, but enough discomfort for Chapman to stay back at the team's hotel on both Friday and Saturday.

"I don't have tattoos. That's a personal choice, usually a pretty safe thing to deal with," Boone added. "This is more of an unfortunate situation that turned into an infection. My focus is on trying to get him right."

Prior to tonight’s game, the Yankees placed LHP Aroldis Chapman on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to 8/24) with an infected wound from a recent tattoo.

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 27, 2022

The Yankees' skipper also revealed that New York is not planning to call up a pitcher to replace Chapman in the bullpen. With closer Clay Holmes expected to come off the injured list (back spasms) on Monday, they'll roll with a short bullpen until then.

"Wouldn't be able to get anyone here today," Boone said. "We'll just kind of monitor the situation today if we need something for tomorrow."

Since he started the season with 12 scoreless outings in a row, Chapman has been a glaring liability out of the Yankees' bullpen. The left-hander has posted a 7.08 ERA in his last 24 appearances. At the beginning of that stretch, the longtime closer allowed at least one run to score in five consecutive outings for the first time in his career. That was the precursor to Chapman's first IL stint of the year (left Achilles tendinitis). 

There was a stretch recently where it looked like Chapman had figured it out. He threw 9.1 scoreless innings in a row from late June to the middle of August, limiting his walks while recapturing his swagger on the mound. That vanished a few weeks ago, though. He gave up three runs over his last two outings, walking four batters in that span.

Boone said that Chapman is being treated with medicine and antibiotics. He expects Chapman back soon, certainly before the end of this season.

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