Report: Incident pauses Chapman deal

The deal involving an MLB All-Star and a pair of yet-to-be-named prized prospects that was poised to kick off a flurry of Winter Meetings moves late Monday morning is reportedly on hold hours later.

The Dodgers were set to acquire closer Aroldis Chapman for two Minor Leaguers, according to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal, pending only a review of medical records. However, reports emerged Monday evening that the deal was paused when the Dodgers learned Chapman was accused of choking his girlfriend and that he fired eight gunshots in the garage of his Miami-area home late on the night of Oct. 30. Although no arrests were made, Tim Brown and Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports have obtained a police report relating to the violence.

Reds president of baseball operations Walt Jocketty indicated to C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer that in light of the police report, a Chapman deal with any team will take time.

"We've talked to several clubs. I notified all of them tonight that we'd step back a couple of weeks or whatever it takes," Jocketty told the paper.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association agreed to a domestic violence policy in August, and a Major League Baseball spokesperson told Yahoo Sports that MLB will investigate the incident.

Jay Reisinger, an attorney representing Chapman told Brown and Passan, "I've reviewed the facts as portrayed. On behalf of Mr. Chapman, we vehemently deny allegations as stated. Beyond that, we have no further comment at this time."

Nonetheless, the incident complicates the possibility of a deal involving the 27-year-old left-hander. Rosenthal tweeted that it would be "difficult to see any club trading for Chapman now," unless the team had full faith in Reisinger's denial.

Chapman is coming off his fourth straight All-Star season as the closer in Cincinnati, during which he earned 33 saves while posting a 1.63 ERA and 1.15 WHIP with a knee-buckling 116 strikeouts in 66 1/3 innings. His 15.7 K/9 rate in 2015 was by far the highest in the Majors among pitchers with at least 60 innings, beating out second-place Andrew Miller (14.6) by a full strikeout-per-nine.

He has just one year of arbitration left before he becomes a free agent following the 2016 season. Before reports of the incident broke, MLB Trade Rumors projected him to earn about $12.9 million in arbitration. Based on that number, a projected 2016 fWAR of 2.0 and research on prospect trade values, MiLB.com analyzed in last week's Toolshed that Chapman would return something in the way of Dodgers No. 5/No. 58 overall prospect Grant Holmes plus another prospect in any potential Reds deal with Los Angeles. CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman reported that none of the Dodgers' top three prospects (Corey Seager, Julio Urias, Jose De Leon) would be included in the deal.

Should the original deal eventually go through, the defending National League West division winners will add a premier closer to a bullpen that already includes Kenley Jansen (36 saves, 2.41 ERA, 80 K in 52 1/3 IP), who's held down the closer's role in Los Angeles since 2012. Jansen is also scheduled to become a free agent next offseason and would no doubt prefer to highlight his value as a closer in the final year of his current contract.