Yankees' Aroldis Chapman Will Finish Rehab Assignment With Triple-A Before Return From IL
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NEW YORK — Aroldis Chapman isn't ready to return from the injured list and his left Achilles tendinitis on Monday, but he will be in the next couple of days.
The left-hander will make one more rehab assignment appearance, pitching for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Tuesday, per manager Aaron Boone. After that, assuming all goes well, he'll rejoin the Yankees in the bullpen for the conclusion of their series against the Athletics on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium.
Chapman has already pitched twice on his rehab assignment, throwing two scoreless innings with the Double-A Somerset Patriots last week.
"He threw eight pitches his first outing and then 11 yesterday," Boone said Monday afternoon. "He was good. I talked to him a little bit and he feels good, feels fine. We feel like it's best to get one more."
Chapman endured an awful stretch before he was placed on the injured list on May 24. The southpaw allowed at least one run in five consecutive outings for the first time in his career, posting a 14.73 ERA in that span (six earned runs in a total of 3.2 frames).
In his absence, right-hander Clay Holmes has distinguished himself as New York's closer, blossoming into one of the best relievers in all of baseball. Holmes has given up just two earned runs all season long, saving 12 games this year (more than Chapman's nine).
Boone has been asked repeatedly about how Chapman and Holmes will coexist in the back of his bullpen once the lefty returns. On Monday, he reiterated that as much as Holmes has "earned" the closer role, there will be times where he summons the right-hander earlier in a game, extinguishing a rally or facing the heart of an opposing order in a non-save situation.
"The biggest thing is I want to get Chappy in a good place delivery-wise and throwing the ball like he's capable of," Boone added. "If we get that then we get another back-end monster to mix in. And then hopefully [Jonathan Loáisiga] working his way back a couple of weeks after that. Excited about the pieces that we're going to be getting back here soon."
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