Aroldis Chapman Delivers a pitch against the Dodgers Friday.
Finally the Reds brass made it official yesterday, Aroldis Chapman will be the closer for the 2013 Reds and Mike Leake will be the teams 5th starter. It was obvious for the past several days that this was going to be the outcome but for whatever reason the Reds chose not to announce it until now. Here is the transcript from Friday's announcement from manager Dusty Baker and G.M. Walt Jocketty:
Baker: You know we made a decision on our rotation. It's Cueto,Latos, Bronson, Homer Bailey, and Leake.
Reporter: So the other end of that is pretty obvious then.
Baker: You figure it out.
Reporter: What ultimately swayed you to having Chapman in the Bullpen?
Baker: Well, umm Walt..
Jocketty: Well I think like last year it was a tough decision but I think we felt what gave us the best opportunity
as an organization to win this year was to leave the rotation as is. We had 4 guys who pitched 200
so that's a very strong rotation and putting Chapan back in the closer role uh bringing Broxton,
Broxton might close some games. It gives us a very strong bullpen. You know as we evaluated it we
just felt that was the best way and Leake's had a good spring. We think he's pitched very good.
Dusty's been happy, Bryan's been happy, and I've been happy and so as long as we felt he was close
to you know
Baker: Yea, and see we didn't think it was built up to be like Leake vs Chapman, that's not how it was. We
lined them up on the same day in or Chapman if we thought it was better for our team and give us a better chance to win and settin' up
our bullpen.
Reporter: Seems like it woud be a different situation if you guys were like kind of rebuilding. I mean the
decision with Chapman seems like it would be different if maybe you were lookin' at maybe third
or fourth place and you're lookin' to next year but you're ready to win now.
Jocketty: We're a team built to win now and this gives us the best, in our opinion give us the best
opportunity to do that.
Baker: It's not like Chapman didn't have success. I mean this guy's an all-star. He had 47 whatever it was
saves, so..
Jocketty: and we, he some day may be a starter here
Baker: Right
Jocketty: Right now this puts us in the best position to be successful
Reporter: Is he strictly going to be a 1 inning guy or is there any thought, he's stretched out a little bit
Baker: Well, last year he started out as a two inning guy remember? You know and he's a setup man so
right now we're just going to try to get him into situations similar to the game where he's pitch 1
every 4 or 5 days and get him in games where his arm will rebound back to back games. So
that's why we felt the need to do it now while we had a few days of spring trianing left.
Reporter: So he's going to be the closer or are you going to use him and Broxton. There's not....
Baker: No, he's the closer and then on days he can't pitch then we have Broxton. It's no different than last
year, you know were going to consecutive days just like we did last year.
Reporter: You guys gave Broxton closer like money in the contract.
Jocketty: Well, it depends on what level of closer,. What did Soriano just sign for? 14, Papalbon 15?. Closers
are getting 12-15 million. The late inning, quality setup guys are getting in the range that Broxton
got, Affeldt
Baker: It shows you the importance of that job.
Jocketty: And it was important that we sign him back to give us the bullpen, the flexibility in the bulklpen we had
Reporter: Safe to say he's on board, Broxton. You guys talk to him, he's on board with..
Baker: We talked to everybody. We talked to everybody before we talked to you guys.
Jocketty: He had said, told Dusty that he would pitch in any role
Baker: He jsut wants to win
Reporter: He knew that coming in when he signed right?
Jocketty: Yep. That was expressed when we signed him.
Reporter: When Chapman said, I want to be a closer it got such publicity but within your minds did that factor in at all?
Jocketty: No, well here's what I would say, My answer is, number one, we don't let players tell us where they want to
play. You know Joey might want to play third base or something. But you know I think it certainly is a
factor because he's comfortable in that role and he had success in that role but ultimately...
Baker: But sometimes you ask him. I didn't ask him, he unsolicited he said that because you want a guy at a
comfort level. But you're payin' somebody they're not going to..you know, you tell your boss what to do?
You won't be working' long. Plus that don't interest us and that's not really and it don't have any
factor in the decision.
Reporter: There's been a lot of outside debate. People are in one camp or the other. Was there a split in the
organization?
Baker: Well it was the same when I go to the streets last year.
Jocketty: John let me clarify this. You guys were making a big deal out of this and it's not you know.
You've exaggerated the point where you think there's a big in-house battle. There is not a
big in-house battle. We approached this spring exactly the same as last year with Chapman.
That he was going to be either a starter of closer. We waited until the end of last spring trianing,
maybe a few days earlier because of injury but to see what, what puts us in the best position
to win and that's all we're concerned with is...
Baker: And contrary to what people think. They're always trying to have a division and a wedge between
the manager and general manager. This ain't the first time this has happened but it seems like, it
seems like for a lack of a story that's not right but it is what it is.
Reporter: Pretty boring camp otherwise..
Jocketty: It's been pretty boring, you're right
Reporter: Every national guy that came in, that's what he wrote about
Baker: Oh do I know...(laughter) We're ready to get our team together and play ball
Reporter: I know you have to get to October first by winning the division but like last year, you guys didn't
have much opportunity to use Chapman in the closer role because of the situations. When you don't
have access to him as much is that a way of not having one of your better arm available to you more
time?
Baker: Well where would he have...
Reporter: I'm saying if he is a starter
Baker: Listen, where would we have been had he not been in that role? We might not have even made it
to be in that situation not to use him> Like I told you earlier, he had a chance to be our best starter
ad our best closer, our best reliever. And that being said I've been in this situation before with Billy
Swift. At the time we discussed it and wheat we needed that time was Billy Swift tostart. And like
what did Chapman account for, 60% of our wins?..umm 58, 59at least right? O aom't that good with
math.
reporter: The arguement so often comes down to number of innings, the impact a guy can have on a number
of innings. Do you feel that maybe a closer can have (more ) impact on one inning than ..because you
say a guy who pitches 200 innnings if he's your best arm, 200 innings is better than 50 innings
Jocketty: We wouldn't have gotten 200 innings out of him this year.
Baker: And there's another point you know. Number 1 starter is worth more than your closer but how do you
know he's a number 1 or not? I mean and hopefully someday, I'm serious. Hopefully someday we'll find that
out.
Reporter: Was there any thought of doing something liek what the Braves did with Medlen last year or is that just
a...
Jocketty: Then we were talking about usage, innings and stuff, that was what I discussed with Bryan at one
point but we never really devised an exact plan.
(note: there were a number of reporters in the room but becasue I didn't know some of them I decided just to use the generic "reporter")
Mike Leake was named the 5th starter Friday.
Cueto to start the Opener
Johnny Cueto was officially named the Opening Day starter Friday. The pitching rotation is now set. Cueto, Mat Latos, Bronson Arroyo, Homer Bailey, and Leake.
Magic
Dusty Baker and Joey Votto visit with Magic Johnson before Friday's game.
