Aroldis Chapman has been preparing all spring as if he’ll be in the starting rotation, but Paul Daughtery of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the Reds have decided to shift him back to the closer role.
Chapman always wanted to remain in the bullpen and manager Dusty Baker wanted to leave him at closer too, so in the end their preferences won out over the front office wanting to see if Chapman could thrive in a 200-inning role instead of a 70-inning role.
Cincinnati spent $21 million on Jonathan Broxton this offseason so he could step into ninth-inning duties and make moving Chapman into the rotation less of an issue for the bullpen, but now they’re paying $12 million per season for a setup duo of Broxton and Sean Marshall.
There have certainly been several instances of a dominant young reliever struggling with a move into the rotation, due to poor performances and/or injuries, but Chris Sale is a recent prominent example of that shift working out brilliantly. Obviously having Chapman around to shut down opponents for 60-70 high-leverage innings as a reliever is hardly some disastrous scenario, but it would have been fun to see if he could follow Sale’s footsteps into No. 1 starter territory instead of becoming a career-long reliever at age 25.
