Craig Breslow explains why the Red Sox signed Aroldis Chapman

The Red Sox’ second free agent signing of the winter became official Tuesday.

Left-handed relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman passed his physical and signed a one-year contract with Boston, worth $10.75 million.

The 36-year-old regularly throws 100 miles per hour, but he comes with baggage.

Chapman was suspended 30 games by MLB in 2016 under the league’s new joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy. He allegedly strangled his girlfriend and pushed her against a wall in October 2015. Chapman admitted to firing shots into the garage during the incident.

He was not arrested.

Now that Chapman is a member of the Red Sox, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow explained why the organization felt “comfortable” signing him. Breslow cited an “extensive” background check process that led to the deal.

“I can speak to our decision regarding Aroldis and say that it was a decision that we took incredibly seriously. And our background and reference checks were thorough,” Breslow said, via AthleticsThis is Jen McCaffrey. “This is a guy who has a good reputation in five organizations over the last eight years, and that doesn’t diminish the seriousness of what happened.

“But we spoke to former teammates, coaches, officials, executives. I spoke individually to a number of people within the organization, to get a sense of who the person we were meeting with was. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive about Aroldis as a teammate, as he had a positive influence on the other players at the club, especially some of the younger Latin players, and he was a guy with a work ethic amazing. And ultimately, we were happy with the decision to move forward.

Boston almost traded for Chapman after the 2015 season, according to former Red Sox executive Zack Scott. Scott said there was a deal in place between Boston and the Cincinnati Reds, but the Red Sox “discovered disturbing details” about the alleged domestic incident and the trade fell through.

“I guess enough time has passed without incident for the Sox to be OK now,” Scott shared on X last week.

Breslow doubled down on Boston’s efforts behind the scenes before signing Chapman to a contract.

“But again, we want to reiterate that this is not ignoring what happened and we will continue to deal with them on a case-by-case basis. But we felt like we went through this thorough process and collected as much information as possible.