Aroldis Chapman battles for the 5th spot in the rotation.
According to Dusty Baker, Cincinnati phenom Aroldis Chapman might be back on the mound this Sunday against the Dodgers.
“It’s a possibility, he’s feeling good,” said Baker. “They said he threw long-toss and said he was cleared so far by the trainers…it was everybody else that was panicking.”
Chapman was removed from Monday’s game due to back spasms. The twenty-one-year-old lefty threw a long-toss session on Thursday and participated in conditioning drills today (Friday) and reported that he felt fine.
If Chapman wants to stay in the race for the 5th starter slot, he needs to perform well on Sunday, and most importantly, not have that back flare up again. Here’s a good piece from ESPN’s Tristan Cockcroft and another from MLB.com’s Peter Gammons.
Reds pitching coach Bryan Price says, “I can’t speak for the organization, but my feeling is that he’s going to need a certain amount of innings and pitches thrown to compete for that spot, this window of opportunity doesn’t stay open until April 5, at some point it’s going to become fairly urgent that he get on the mound to compete for the job.”
