Champlain will start Thursday's Cactus League game against the Brewers, Anne Rogers of MLB.com reports.
Champlain isn't a serious contender for a rotation spot out of spring training, but the 25-year-old righty will serve as rotation depth this season. Last year, Champlain was excellent at Double-A (29.5 K-BB%, 0.92 WHIP) as an older pitcher but was much less effective after a promotion to Triple-A (5.6 K-BB%, 1.40 WHIP). Still, he covered 140.1 innings last year, so he's ready to handle a significant workload again, and it's possible he can take a step forward in a return to the highest level of the minors.
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Royals' Chandler Champlain: Strong run at High-A
Rotowire
Champlain has a 3.03 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 34 strikeouts in 32.2 innings through six starts for High-A Quad Cities.
The 23-year-old righty posted a 9.84 ERA in 32 innings at High-A last season after getting traded from the Bronx in the Andrew Benintendi trade. Champlain worked in the offseason on improving his fastball command while also improving his fourth-pitch changeup. His fastball can reach the upper-90s and he has two quality breaking balls.
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