DALLAS – While the Yankees were celebrating winning the Max Fried “tug-of-war” – MLB insider Ken Rosenthal’s words – with the Red Sox and Blue Jays on Tuesday evening, Boston made their own pitching announcement:

The signing of hard-throwing former Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $10.75 million deal is now official.

Signing Chapman, the first player ever suspended under the MLB/MLBPA Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy, signals an end to the organization’s longstanding zero-tolerance policy for bringing in players who’ve been suspended until the joint policy. Chapman was a prime example, once upon a time. The Red Sox almost acquired from the Cincinnati Reds at the Winter Meetings almost exactly nine years ago, but backed out of the agreement after their background check revealed the incident that culminated in said suspension. In October 2015, Chapman allegedly choked his girlfriend around the neck, then irrefutably fired several bullets in the garage of his Florida home while she hid.

At spring training in March 2016, after the Red Sox and Dodgers had both dropped out of trade agreements and the Yankees had swooped in, Chapman told reporters he’d erred in judgement by firing the gun. He denied putting his hands on his girlfriend.

“This is a decision that we took incredibly seriously, and our background and reference-checking was extensive,” said chief baseball officer Craig Breslow on Tuesday evening. “This is a guy who’s been in good standing across five organizations for the last eight years, and in no way does that diminish the severity of what happened, but we talked to former teammates, coaches, officials, executives. I talked individually to a number of people within the organization to get a sense for kind of, who the person was that we were getting, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive about Aroldis as a teammate, as a positive influence on other players in the clubhouse, particularly some of the younger Latin players.

“He’s a guy with incredible work ethic. And ultimately, we were comfortable with the decision to move forward. But again, would want to reiterate that that does not ignore what happened, and we’ll continue to take these on a case-by-case basis, but we felt like we had kind of run this extensive process and collected as much information as we possible could.”

Chapman’s work ethic, however, has also been called into question, far more recently than his suspension. Two years ago, his seven-year tenure with the Yankees came to an abrupt end when he skipped a mandatory workout and was subsequently left off the team’s ALDS roster. Manager Aaron Boone told reporters Chapman was in Miami and had not provided “an acceptable excuse” for missing the work. General manager Brian Cashman, who’s been with the Yankees since 1986, told reporters he fined Chapman, and that he couldn’t remember any other player missing a mandatory workout during his long tenure.

That was the end of Chapman’s tenure with the Yankees, but the months leading up weren’t perfect, either. He hadn’t recorded a save since mid-May, and had missed several weeks in August and September when a new leg tattoo became infected.

“You got to be all in this time of year. It’s disappointing,” Cashman said at the time. “There’s some questions about whether he’s been all in or not for a little while. He’s maintained verbally, but the actions don’t match those words.”

Breslow and Co. know all of this, thanks to their extensive evaluation.

“We collected a ton of information,” he reiterated. “We talked to teammates, coaches, front office, support staff, and felt like we had gotten as complete a picture as we could. And there were many, many instances where the praise was not just strong, but effusive.”

Breslow also had conversations with Red Sox ownership before proceeding with Chapman.

“In this particular case I did feel like it was important to get the position of ownership, of a number of people in the organization, and then a number of people outside the organization,” Breslow said. “We felt like we needed to get as much information as we possibly could, and that was the reason that the process was so comprehensive. Ultimately, we landed on being comfortable, and so we moved forward.”

Whether the public, particularly those who’ve suffered domestic violence or assault or know someone who has, are comfortable with Chapman donning the uniform remains to be seen. Fan reactions to the signing on social media, however, have been overwhelmingly negative. Two former high-ranking Red Sox figures told the Herald they were shocked by the move.