C. Trent Rosecrans

crosecrans@enquirer.com

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Aroldis Chapman wore a black hat with a golden emblem of two hands together in prayer, but the fact that he was released from the hospital on Saturday and in the Reds clubhouse on Sunday was already an answer to many prayers.

Just four days after being hit in the face by a line drive off the bat of Salvador Perez and three days from having a titanium plate placed in his head, Chapman visited teammates at the Reds' spring training complex.

He had some swelling around the bridge of his nose, a couple of marks on his face and two black eyes -- but for anyone who saw Chapman's injury, he looked remarkably good. And count Chapman among those who have seen the video.

"After I watched the video -- and I have been watching the video, repeating it many, many, many times and every time that I see it I feel really happy because this could be something worse," Chapman said through interpreter Tomas Vera. "The way how I am right now, the way how I feel I'm in no pain. I have no pain at all. How I've been progressing with has been great for me."

In addition to the black hat and t-shirt with metallic sleeves, Chapman wore another accessory -- a huge smile.

"I feel proud, I feel really happy to know there are this many people who came to see -- a lot of players, all my teammates, all the Cuban players in the area came to see me," Chapman said. "Not only have the physical visits, but also through social media, the number of people who have prayed for me and all the good wishes that people had for me makes me proud and happy for the many, many people who contacted me."

It was in that spirit, Chapman said, he posted a picture of the staples in his head, along with a picture of him smiling in his hospital bed, on his Instagram and Facebook pages on Friday.

"When you've got so many, many people trying to contact you and wishing you doing well, people asking how things going, you don't have time to reply to everybody," Chapman said through Vera. "So I decided to show them how I am and how I feel so I decided to put the picture on Facebook and Instagram just to tell them I'm doing OK."

Chapman got to see several of his teammates before they played against the Brewers Sunday at Goodyear Ballpark. Those players, like Sam LeCure and Brandon Phillips, took to Twitter to express their excitement over seeing their teammate in familiar surroundings.

While his father was already in Arizona -- and joined him on the field Wednesday after the incident -- the rest of his family will join him in Cincinnati this week.

"I'm so happy and glad that he was there with me when this happened," Chapman said of his father. "The rest of the family they all wanted to come over but it was my decision not to have the other part of my family here with me because I believe it would be too much impact for them. It would be too much stress for them. It would cause me to feel in a different way to my recovery."

That recovery will start soon, as he is expected to start cardiovascular training soon, followed by throwing. The latest prognosis has him being able to return to playing baseball in four-to-six weeks. He will start the season on the 15-day disabled list, but the team is so confident in his ability to return, that he will not be placed on the 60-day disabled list.

"Whatever they allow me to do, I'll do," Chapman noted.

As far as the mental side of returning to the mound, Chapman said he doesn't expect to feel any trepidation about returning.

"I haven't thought about what's going to happen with this. This could happen to anybody else," Chapman said. "This is just something that happened in my job, I got hit. I know this is something that can happen. I've got to get over it. Personally, what I'm thinking right now is that I'm going to have to throw more balls in now, I'm going to have to throwing inside more."