The Braves have placed catcher Brian McCann on the 10-day injured list due to a left knee sprain, the team announced. Alex Jackson has been called up from Triple-A to take McCann’s roster spot.
The injury occurred in last night’s 5-1 win over the Marlins, as McCann left the game after the third inning. The injury isn’t considered to be overly serious, as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets that the Braves hope McCann is out for “just a couple of weeks.” McCann missed time due to arthroscopic knee surgery last season, though that procedure was on his right knee, rather than his left.
While McCann may not be out for too long, his absence comes at a time when Atlanta is missing a worryingly large number of position players. Dansby Swanson, Nick Markakis, Ender Inciarte, and Austin Riley are all on the IL, with only Swanson and Riley potentially able to return before the end of August. The Braves have the cushion of a six-game lead over Washington in the NL East, though 23 of their remaining games are against the Nationals, Mets, Phillies, and Giants, all of whom are still vying for the NL wild card.
McCann has hit .264/.336/.423 with 10 home runs over 274 PA with the Braves this season, delivering a solid bounce-back performance after last year’s injury-shortened campaign with the Astros. McCann’s offense has helped balance out a down year at the plate for Tyler Flowers, who has only a .696 OPS this season after hitting .261/.360/.411 over his first three seasons (330 PA) in Atlanta.
A right hamstring strain briefly sidelined McCann back in April, opening the door for Jackson to make his Major League debut in the form of three games for the Braves. Jackson was the sixth overall pick of the 2014 draft, though after his career was seemingly stalling out as an outfielder in the Mariners’ farm system, he converted to catcher after joining the Braves’ organization prior to the 2017 season. Jackson will serve as Flowers’ backup until McCann is back in action.
Figured this was coming, no need to rush Bmac back before rosters expand anyway.
Let’s see what Alex Jackson can do. I don’t think he has much more ceiling than he’s shown in the minors. Should hit some homers at least.
So the Braves have lost their starting C, SS, RF, CF, and their 4th/platoon OF. Seems less than ideal.
Still in first too
And they’ve actually gained in the standings and improved their winning percentage since then.
If surgery is necessary, will it be performed by the McDonalds staff knee specialist using a…
(Wait for it)…….
A MCCANN Opener ???
Nah chief- this ain’t it
You aren’t very good at telling jokes are you?
Nentwigs, I hope your day
job isn’t comedian!
ESPN just reported a right knee sprain. smh What are they smoking? It could help Brian’s “right” knee sprain I bet.
I think they just assumed it was the same knee that he injured last season. I hope this left knee isn’t as bad as his right was. That pretty much ruined his season last year and if he has to undergo the same surgery on this knee at his age no one will be able to tell how productive he’ll be able to be next season. I was hoping he could stay healthy and the Braves could sign him to another cheapie one year deal to be the starting catcher again next season. We just need some productive Band-Aids to hold the pieces together until Langoliers is ready for the majors. If McCann can’t do it hopefully Flo, Jackson and Contreras can. Do we still have Contreras or was he part of that Shane Greene trade?
We still have him. He’s in AA now.
well if it gets longer than anticipated watch the waiver wire for catchers
.
I think that’s where Murphy comes in.
Didn’t Jackson convert BACK to catcher? I thought the Mariners moved him from behind the plate after giving up on his defense.
Correct
Suzuki should have been kept and Flowers let go.
Flowers has the rep as the better defensive catcher.
Agreed, but I prefer Suzuki as he can hit and Flowers cannot. People are always a bit negative about Suzuki and his so called ‘pitch framing’ and throwing baserunners out.
Mac will be fine. Duval DFA this off-season.
Not fun to lose starters to the DL. But so long as Freeman, Acuna, Albies and Donaldson stay healthy. Braves should be OK.
Still think the Nats are gonna catch them. You can’t play the Marlins every night.