Braves place Aaron Blair on the 15-day DL with left knee strain

Last week, Aaron Blair returned to the Braves’ major league squad and had a less-than-stellar start against the Giants. Shortly afterwards, the Braves announced that they’d be skipping his turn in the rotation, with Mark Bowman reporting that the reasoning behind this was so that Blair could work on his mechanics.

Unfortunately, Aaron Blair will be missing more than just one turn in the rotation, and he’s got a bit more than just his mechanics to work on. As it turns out, Blair has a left knee strain and, as a result, has been placed on the 15-day DL.

Aaron Blair will be replaced on the roster by Brandon Cunniff. Cunniff was actually sent down to Gwinnett back on Tuesday, so this is a bit of a swift return for him back to the big league squad. Brandon has made five appearances so far this season, with his last one being a bit of a disaster against the Giants in the same game that involved Blair’s most previous start.

Meanwhile, this is the capper on what’s been an unfortunate return to the big leagues for Blair. His start in San Francisco went poorly, he was skipped in the rotation, and now this injury has come up for him. I’d venture to say that this is probably the end to what’s been a somewhat rough rookie campaign for Blair.