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Yankees: Aroldis Chapman provides update on his return to team

By Thomas Carannante

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 18: Aroldis Chapman #54 of the New York Yankees looks on against the Houston Astros during the ninth inning in game five of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium on October 18, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 18: Aroldis Chapman #54 of the New York Yankees looks on against the Houston Astros during the ninth inning in game five of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium on October 18, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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The feeling is that Aroldis Chapman could rejoin the Yankees very soon.

Remember when Aroldis Chapman came back to Yankee Stadium after being away from the team for weeks because of a positive COVID-19 test and then promptly made his way to Scranton for whatever reason? That had a lot of Yankees fans asking questions.

Since then, it was said the team was taking their time with the left-hander. After all, the bullpen was absolutely cruising before the series against the Rays, and Zack Britton is leading Major League Baseball with seven saves already.

Now, Chapman has weighed in on his situation, and addressed how he’s feeling after being away from the team for so long.

“I feel good,” Chapman said via the team’s Spanish interpreter, per Brendan Kuty of NJ.com. “I felt good throwing and playing catch. I faced hitters for the first time (Tuesday). It felt better than expected. I think I’m going to have another outing Thursday or Friday, and I hope I can rejoin the team after that.”

Pitching coach Matt Blake weighed in as well, reiterating that the team wants to continue taking it slow with the closer. After Chapman’s next outing, the Yankees will see if he needs one more tune-up before returning to the bigs. If not, he could be back as early as this weekend, it seems.

Truth be told, the Yankees are going to need him back relatively soon. The bullpen has been used fairly heavily over the last week, and now without Giancarlo Stanton for about a month and Aaron Judge all of a sudden dealing with an injury, shutting it down at the end of games will be of paramount importance.

But there’s nothing to be imminently worried about at the moment. The team is chugging along, the bullpen is doing just fine, and the Yankees have 12 wins. When Chapman comes back, whenever that is, they’ll be even stronger.

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