The start of trade season for the Atlanta Braves didn’t exactly come with fireworks as the team’s first move was to trade the recently DFA’d Stuart Fairchild to the Rays for cash.

Fairchild wasn’t exactly a critical piece of the Braves’ roster and the move didn’t really register on fans’ radar when it happened.

However, Atlanta’s decision to move on from Fairchild when they did was almost immediately vindicated.

Players like Fairchild have very narrow actual utility.

The light-hitting Wake Forest product has some defensive utility and can run, but those types of bench players aren’t nearly as valuable as they once were and are also a fragile lot as any minor injury issue can make them dead weight on the roster.

Without as much pinch-hitting late in games, teams have made the shift to more well-rounded players on the bench that can actually start games.

It does appear as though that the Braves may have ditched Fairchild at the right time because less than a day after getting traded, Fairchild was placed in the injured list with an oblique injury.

Stuart Fairchild landed on the IL almost immediately after the Braves traded him

One has to admit that the timing here is pretty hysterical.

The Braves had just sent Fairchild packing and found a team in the Rays to give them some cash in order to acquire him despite Atlanta very clearly just wanting to be rid of him.

Tampa was then immediately punished for that choice and now Fairchild has a dreaded oblique injury which can range from very minor to keeping a guy out for months.

Ultimately, this isn’t actually going to matter THAT much for the Rays. They probably weren’t going to be relying on Fairchild in any meaningful way to begin with and they have a pretty loaded farm system to go out and make a trade to fill basically any roster hole they want to.

This is unfortunately not Fairchild’s first injury this year as he missed time with a finger injury that occurred back in late May.

Thankfully, how to handle Fairchild’s injury is the the Rays’ problem and the Braves were able to unload him before his value completely evaporated.