Baseball-Chapman deal on hold over alleged domestic incident

Dec 8 (Reuters) - A trade that would send Cincinnati Reds All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a pair of prospects may be on hold because of an alleged domestic violence incident involving the reliever. Yahoo! Sports reported that Chapman fired eight gunshots into the garage of his Miami-area home following an October argument with his girlfriend, who told police Chapman choked her and pushed her against a wall. The story said Major League Baseball has begun a domestic violence investigation into the incident. No arrests were made, but more than a dozen officers responded to the Oct. 30 call to police, according to police reports viewed by Yahoo! Sports. The Dodgers had no comment on the state of the deal, which on Monday was believed to be on hold pending a physical examination of the hard-throwing Chapman. "The trade is still possible," Reds president of baseball operations Walt Jocketty told reporters at MLB's winter meetings in Nashville. The 27-year-old Chapman is a free agent at the end of next season, and the Reds have made it plain they plan to trade him. "This actually came up the last 24 hours. That's not what held up the trade. We just weren't able to complete it as fast as we wanted to," said Jocketty. The Boston Globe reported on Monday that the Red Sox learned of the incident last month while doing a background check during trade talks with the Reds. Boston eventually made a deal with the San Diego Padres for reliever Craig Kimbrel. Los Angeles already have one player, Yasiel Puig, currently under an MLB domestic violence investigation for an alleged physical altercation with his sister preceding a fight with a bouncer at a Miami-area bar. Chapman has a 2.17 career ERA and 146 saves in 164 chances with 546 strikeouts in 319 innings during his six seasons in Cincinnati. Last season, he posted a 1.63 ERA with 33 saves in 36 chances. (Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)