When the Reds fired Dusty Baker and hired Bryan Price as their new manager there was speculation that it could lead to Aroldis Chapman moving from the bullpen to the rotation, as Price had previously indicated he’d be in favor of getting more innings out of the stud left-hander.
However, now that Price actually has the job it sounds like Chapman will remain the Reds’ closer. Via Mark Sheldon of MLB.com here’s what general manager Walt Jocketty said during an MLB Network radio interview yesterday:
I’m all for giving young pitchers every opportunity to become 200-inning starters before relegating them to a 60-inning role for the rest of their careers, but in this case Chapman has been truly spectacular as a reliever--posting a 2.40 ERA with 14.7 strikeouts per nine innings--and he hasn’t started regularly since 2010 at Triple-A.
On the other hand, Price told C. Trent Rosencrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he still thinks there’s a way to get more value out of Chapman than a traditional one-inning closer role and indicated that he could be used for multiple innings at a time in 2014. This year Chapman appeared in 68 games and logged 63.2 innings.
