Braves Activate Max Fried, Designate Dalton Guthrie For Assignment

Aug 6: Guthrie has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A, as noted by Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Going forward, Guthrie figures to provide the Braves with solid depth in the minor leagues as a utility option with previous big league success (albeit in a small sample) and solid defensive versatility.

Aug 4: The Braves announced this morning that the club had designated outfielder Dalton Guthrie for assignment. Guthrie’s spot on the 40-man roster will go to left-hander Max Fried, who was activated from the 60-day injured list this morning.

Guthrie, 27, made his major league debut with the Phillies last year but has bounced around multiple organizations this season. He was first DFA’d by the Phillies back in June after posting a meager .167/.286/.208 slash line in 23 games at the big league level for Philadelphia this season. He was then swapped to San Francisco in a cash deal shortly thereafter, though he spent only nine games in the organization before being designated a second time and claimed off waivers by Atlanta. His tenure in the Braves organization now seems likely to come to an end after a similarly short ten-game stint in Triple-A with the club.

Overall, Guthrie sports a career slash line of .244/.393/.333 with a 25% strikeout rate and a 16% walk rate in the major leagues, though those numbers come from a sample of just 56 trips to the plate. In more robust sample size of 694 plate appearances at the Triple-A level, Guthrie has posted a .296/.359/.455 triple slash with a 20% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate. In addition to his solid bat, Guthrie offers valuable versatility, with considerable experience at second base, third base, shortstop, and all three outfield spots.

All of that makes it seems fairly likely that Guthrie will be once again claimed on waivers by a club with 40-man roster space and an interest in adding an optionable utility piece to their big league bench or minor league system. That being said, if Guthrie does go unclaimed on waivers, the Braves will have the ability to assign Guthrie to the minors outright, retaining him in the organization through the end of the season without requiring a 40-man roster spot.

Guthrie’s exit from the organization makes way for Fried to return from the injured list ahead of his planned start this afternoon against the Cubs. The runner-up in NL Cy Young award voting last year, Fried is on the shortlist of the game’s best left-handed starting pitchers with a career 3.05 ERA and 3.29 FIP in 658 1/3 innings. He’s missed nearly the entire season due to a forearm strain, with just five starts under his belt to this point in the season, though he did manage to post a sparkling 2.08 ERA in those 26 innings of work.

Fried’s absence has forced the Braves to piece together production from a bevy of young arms including Jared Shuster, Dylan Dodd, and AJ Smith-Shawver, as well as veteran arms like Kolby Allard, Michael Soroka and Yonny Chirinos. That group has largely struggled, with Smith-Shawver’s 4.57 ERA the only figure among them that clocks in under 5.00, but that hasn’t stopped the Braves from storming to an MLB-best record of 69-37. Fried’s return to the rotation alongside the likes of Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton, and Bryce Elder should only bolster the club’s chances of holding their already-significant 11.5 game lead in the NL East.