PHILADELPHIA — Fifteen years ago, Aroldis Chapman viewed himself as a starting pitcher. Ten years ago, Raisel Iglesias made the first of what he hoped would be many Opening Day starts for the Cincinnati Reds.
Here they are now, two standout closers in the later stage of their careers, and they’re both in the All-Star Game in Philadelphia. Chapman, now with the Red Sox. ranks 10th all-time in career saves. Iglesias, now on the Atlanta Braves, ranks 35th. Among active pitchers, they rank third and fourth on the saves leaderboard. They’ve been two of the best closers of this generation.
Pitching out of the bullpen was the right call for each of them.
“I wouldn’t know (how I’d have done) as a starter because I’m a reliever,” Chapman said via an interpreter. “I’m really proud of the career I’ve had so far. I’m happy where I am right now.”
“I’m grateful for it,” Iglesias said via an interpreter. “Everything worked out. I’m grateful the organization made a decision (for me to start) rotating away from that and then now here we find ourselves. Luckily, it all worked out.”
The Reds signed Chapman out of Cuba in January of 2010 to a reported $30 million contract. The plan was that he’d start, and Chapman spent most of that season in Triple-A as a starting pitcher. He was moved to the bullpen down the stretch to manage his innings. Then, with the 2010 Reds making a push for a playoff spot, the Reds called him up to fill a need in the bullpen in the final month of the season.
Chapman posted a 2.03 ERA in 15 relief appearances in 2010. On the night that Jay Bruce hit a walk-off homer to clinch a playoff spot, Chapman pitched a scoreless ninth inning and earned the win.
“To have someone drop 105 mph+ as a 22-year-old in his first season in the big leagues was jaw-dropping,” Bryan Price said in a phone interview this week. “It brought attention, not just in Cincinnati, but league-wide. People were coming to see him, hoping he’d get into the game.”
Price, who was the Reds’ pitching coach from 2010-2013 and the Reds’ manager from 2014 through the first month of the 2018 season, vividly remembers how much it felt like a show when Chapman pitched in September of 2010.
“When he came into the game, you’d see the fans that might have been spread out down the right field and left field line, you’d see this movement of where people were sitting to get closer to home plate to watch him throw,” Price said. “He was like a magnet. His entry through the center field fence at Great American Ball Park would draw people from all over the stadium to get as close to home plate as possible.”
Heading into the 2011 and 2012 seasons, there were debates about whether or not to commit to developing Chapman as a starting pitcher, or whether to keep him in the bullpen.
“I’m a big believer that young pitchers who have a chance to be really good and have the equipment to start should stay in the starting rotation,” Price said. “That’s one of the reasons I was pro-Chapman remaining as a starting pitcher. We didn’t know yet what he could do.”
Manager Dusty Baker wanted Chapman in the bullpen.
“Dusty really saw his potential as a late-game bullpen piece more so than a reliable starter,” Price said. “He filled a need. And Dusty’s experience pushed (Chapman) in the direction of a closer. It ended up being the right decision. I was more of a proponent of continuing to have him start until he proved to us that he couldn’t. Dusty had the foresight and the experience to know that (Chapman) was best suited in the bullpen.”
Chapman had some struggles during the first half of the 2011 season pitching out of the bullpen, dealing with inconsistent command. He went on the IL in May and missed a month. He returned on June 25, and Chapman posted a 2.43 from that point on.
Heading into 2012, Chapman still wanted to start. Then during spring training, relievers Ryan Madsen, Nick Masset and Bill Bray all got hurt. The Reds had a need in the bullpen, so Chapman went back to the bullpen.
In 2012, Chapman made his first All-Star team, became the Reds’ closer and posted a 1.51 ERA.
“(The bullpen) was the best move, in retrospect,” Price said. “Dusty really pushed it hard. He was right. (Chapman) was about as lights-out of a pitcher as you could find in the sport.”
The bigger question, Price wonders, is how Iglesias would have fared as a starting pitcher.
The Reds signed Iglesias out of Cuba in 2014 to a reported $27 million deal. He debuted in 2015 and allowed one run in eight innings in his second career big league start. He had a full-time spot in the rotation throughout the second half of the season, posted a 3.39 ERA during that stretch and earned the Opening Day start for the 2016 season.
“He commanded the strike zone with multiple pitches and multiple arm slots,” Price said. “He was a superior athlete. He controlled the running game. He fielded his position. He could hit. He could get a bunt down. He gave us a good at-bat. He ran the bases confidently and successfully. He was an extremely polished young guy.”
To Price, Iglesias looked very well-suited to be a starting pitcher.
“There’s a really big difference between Iglesias and (Chapman),” Price said. “They’re both really intense competitors. But Raisel, you could see the joy in the game. Chappy was all attack mode. He had that fierce look on his face. You could tell with Raisel, there was a level of enjoyment.”
Shoulder injuries prevented Iglesias from sticking in the rotation. After a couple of stints on the injured list, the Reds decided that moving Iglesias to the bullpen was a necessity for his sake.
“We all wanted him to continue to start,” Price said. “The concern from our medical staff was that his shoulder wasn’t going to be able to put up with the workload as a starter. They weren’t confident that was going to happen. We were going to have a hard time keeping him on the field if we continued to start him.”
Price said that Iglesias bought in right away. By the end of the 2016 season. He was the Reds’ closer.
“He understood that we wanted him healthy and able to help our ball club,” Price said. “I’d use him for one-plus or two innings in games we were leading. He was our best chance to finish those last couple of innings. He’d come in the next day with (trainer and interpreter) Tomás Vera and said he’s good to pitch again today. He was super resilient.”
Iglesias posted a 2.49 ERA with 28 saves in 2017, a 2.38 ERA with 30 saves in 2018, had a down 2019 season (4.16 ERA, but he did have 34 saves) and a good 2020 season (2.74 ERA in the COVID-shortened year). At the end of the 2020 season, the Reds were slashing payroll and salary dumped Iglesias in a trade with the Angels. Iglesias has been even better over the last six seasons than he was with the Reds.
Just like with Chapman, the move to the bullpen worked out for Iglesias.
“(Iglesias) transitioned like (he) did from starter to closer because of his mentality,” Price said. “He struggled (at first) with left-handers. Now, he’s elite versus left-handed (batters) and better versus them. He has made that adjustment. That tells you about his adaptability.”If Chapman and Iglesias were coming up through the farm system in 2026, would they have gotten longer looks as starting pitchers? The game has changed a lot over the last decade. Most starting pitchers aren’t throwing 180-to-200 innings anymore, and more starting pitchers are showcasing their stuff across five-to-six inning starts instead of pitching deep into the seventh or eighth inning.
The prized starting pitching prospects now are the pitchers with the velocity and the stuff to get swing and miss, and those pitchers are being given more of a runway in the big leagues because they’re not being expected to pitch deep into a game. There are a lot more starting pitchers who only use two pitches. Also, putting a starting pitching prospect in the big league bullpen and having him “earn” his way into a rotation doesn’t happen nearly as often as it used to in MLB.
Maybe Chapman or Iglesias would have ended up in the rotation had the circumstances been different. But Chapman, now a 38-year-old All-Star, and Iglesias, a 36-year-old All-Star, have no regrets.
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