One aspect of the Aaron Blair situation got overlooked with his recent struggles and demotion to Triple-A on Friday: The kid never got to work on things the Braves wanted him to work on the first time he was sent back to Gwinnett a month ago.
The Braves optioned him to Triple-A after his fifth major league start, an ugly outing in which Blair gave up nine hits and nine runs in just 1 1/3 innings against the Pirates on May 17 in Brian Snitker’s first game as interim manager.
They intended for him to make at least a few starts at Gwinnett and work on being aggressive and repeating his delivery, ironing out his mechanics, that sort of thing.
Instead, Blair pitched just three innings in one start before he was abruplty recalled to the majors due to injuries. And after one pretty good start May 28 against the Marlins in which he allowed five hits and two runs in 5 2/3 innings, Blair struggled mightily once again beginning June 2 against the Giants when he gave up six runs, three homers and four walks in four innings.
He pitched fewer than six innings in five of six starts since returning from Triple-A and was sent back after Friday night’s loss to the Mets when he gave seven hits, eight runs and three walks in 4 1/3 innings.
“I think it was to the point where I think he needs to maybe step out of the fray a little bit,” Snitker said. “I told him sometimes you’ve got to take a step back to take two steps forward…. When we sent him back before to do this the last time, he only pitched three innings (in Triple-A). He didn’t get three starts, he got three innings.
“So hopefully now it’ll be a situation where he can go back and maybe get two or three starts. I don’t know how long it takes to get himself back going to where we think he should be, where we want him to be.”
Blair was a consensus top-100 prospect in all of baseball entering the 2016 season, rated as high as No. 43 by Baseball Prospectus (he was No. 40 in Baseball America’s preseason list in 2015). The Braves got him from Arizona as part of the bounty they reaped in the Shelby Miller trade in December.
He just turned 24 last month and remains a big-time prospect, despite the rough start to his rookie season. He’s 0-5 with a 7.99 ERA in 11 starts, with as many walks (29) as strikeouts in 50 2/3 innings. And after posting a 3.31 ERA and .241 opponents’ average in his first three starts, he has a 10.22 ERA and .329 OA in his past eight.
This stuff happens on a fairly regular basis with pitchers at the outset of their careers, especially if they’re not quite ready but seem close enough for a team with a big need to give them a chance. When Blair was first brought to the majors he had dominated at the Triple-A level, but it should be noted that the former first-round draft pick out of Marshall made just 36 starts above Single-A before his major league debut.
“I told him, he’s a big part of what we’ve got going forward,” Snitker said of his conversation with Blair upon sending him down again. “It’s not like we’re giving up on you, we’re trying to help and do the right thing for you right now, what’s best for Aaron Blair, and I think that’s what’s best for him….
“He knows now, after experiencing everything he has, I think you can become a really good self-evaluator when you’re down there (in the minors), and it’s like, if I throw a pitch and I get an out, would I have gotten it up here (in the majors)? He’ll know more about what he needs to do and right now I think he’ll be all the better for it.”
