And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes in Unison

(Cincinnati Enquirer/Liz Dufour)

When the Reds make a big roster decision, you look to your manager to talk about how that move is going to help the ball club. Here’s Dusty Baker’s vote of confidence concerning Aroldis Chapman’s move to the starting rotation:

“This is an organizational decision, I’m not the whole organization. I’m one that has to speak about it.”

Gives you the warm and fuzzies, doesn’t it?

I’ll go on the record as saying that moving Chapman to the rotation is a bad idea. I’m not saying he can’t succeed there, I just don’t think it’s a necessary move. Oh, and I don’t think he’ll succeed there.

The rotation was good enough to win the division last year, and last time I checked, Chapman did an okay job as closer. This isn’t about changing one person’s role; it actually affects at least three people. Now the Reds have Jonathan Broxton as their closer, an unproven (MLB) starter in Chapman, and a big question mark for Mike Leake.

(One can argue that Leake has always been a big question mark, but that’s not the point.)

Whether or not Chapman even makes the rotation remains to be seen, but it’s worth noting that Bronson Arroyo and now Baker have both gone on the record saying they don’t agree with the Chapman move.

You want Spring Training drama — you’ve got it!