Braves activate Matt Kemp and recall Aaron Blair

Matt Kemp started the season as one of the Braves’ hottest hitters (that title is now obviously firmly in the hands of Freddie Freeman). Before tweaking his hamstring, Kemp was slashing a cool .500/.529/1.125 line in the four games he played in to start the season. Obviously that isn’t sustainable, but his presence in the middle of the lineup was missed, especially when you consider how thin/bad the Braves bench is and having to press Jace Peterson into playing left on a regular basis on top of that.

Kemp’s return from the DL today was a fairly well-known thing. However, the rest of the Braves’ roster moves today were a bit more surprising.

Aaron Blair’s return to the big leagues comes with some questions as to what his presence portends for the rest of the rotation, but he looked pretty good for Gwinnett this season. After a rough first start, in his last two starts he has thrown 11 IP while giving up a total of 3 earned runs while striking out 13 and walking 5 batters. His delivery is certainly different from last season as well as he is now more on a line to the plate and less coil in his wind-up.

Luke Jackson will continue to ply his trade in Gwinnett and potentially continue to get stretched back out as a starter. He gave up a pair of earned runs in his 3 innings (3 appearances) for the Braves in his short stint with the big league club. Johan Camargo appeared in five games for the Braves as a late inning sub and went 1-4 in his plate appearances before being sent back down to Gwinnett today as well.

***UPDATE***

Looks like Blair is going to be the long man in the bullpen for a few days