Max Fried

Kyle Wright Expecting To Miss Significant Time

By Darragh McDonald | May 10, 2023 at 4:10pm CDT

Braves right-hander Kyle Wright spoke to members of the media today, including David O’Brien of The Athletic, saying that he expects to remain on the injured list longer than his teammate Max Fried. He doesn’t provide a specific estimate but it’s a notable guess given that there was no previous timeline for Wright and the reported plan for Fried is to shut him down for long enough that he’ll need to completely build back up from scratch.

The club hasn’t provided any kind of specifics for what they expect for the two hurlers, but Mark Bowman of MLB.com interprets the situation by saying that the “expectation has been” that they will miss two months while O’Brien says that it appears Wright isn’t likely to be back until August.

The details are all murky at the moment but there seems to be little doubt that the club will be proceeding without two of its best starters for some significant amount of time that will likely be measured in months rather than days or weeks. The 27-year-old Wright got very limited big league action from 2018 to 2021 but had a breakout last year, posting a 3.19 ERA in 180 1/3 innings over 30 starts. He struck out 23.6% of batters faced while walking 7.2% and getting grounders at a 55.6% clip.

Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to build on that here this year, beginning the season on the injured list due to this shoulder issue. He was activated off the IL and made five starts but it’s now apparent that he wasn’t right in that time. His 93.6 mph fastball velocity was well down from last year’s 95.1 and he posted a 5.79 ERA.

Atlanta came into the season with a strong front four in its rotation, with Fried and Wright joined by Charlie Morton and Spencer Strider. The fifth spot was left open and Bryce Elder has seemingly taken the job over in recent weeks, posting a 1.74 ERA in seven starts so far this year. The club will now need to find replacements for Fried and Wright for the foreseeable future, with their depth having also taken a hit earlier this year when Ian Anderson required Tommy John surgery.

Options on the 40-man roster include lefties Dylan Dodd and Jared Shuster as well as righty Michael Soroka. The two lefties have each made a few starts in the big leagues this year but Dodd has a 6.46 ERA in his three outings whereas Shuster has an 8.31 ERA in his two. Soroka has hardly pitched at all since the 2019 season, mostly due to twice tearing his achilles tendon. He’s made five Triple-A starts this year, logging 20 2/3 innings with a 5.23 ERA in a once-a-week pitching schedule.

Looking outside the organization doesn’t provide many enticing options. Most teams are reluctant to part with valuable players at this time of the year when it’s too early for most to raise a white flag and start selling. Some players decently designated for assignment include Chase Anderson, Luis Cessa and Chase De Jong.

Max Fried Facing Notable Absence Due To Forearm Strain

By Steve Adams | May 9, 2023 at 9:04am CDT

9:04am: MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that while an MRI did not raise concern about Tommy John surgery for Fried, the Braves still don’t expect this to be a short-term absence. Fried will be shut down from throwing while his forearm heals, and while there’s no concrete timeline, it’ll likely be long enough that he’ll need to build back up from scratch.

8:31am: The Braves announced Tuesday that they’ve placed left-hander Max Fried on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left forearm. His placement on the IL is retroactive to May 6. Fellow left-hander Danny Young has been recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett in his place.

It’s the second IL trip of the young season for Fried, who exited his Opening Day start due to a hamstring strain that required an absence of a couple weeks. The Braves hadn’t given a concrete indication that Fried was dealing with an injury prior to this morning’s announcement, though manager Brian Snitker somewhat cryptically said over the weekend that the team was “going through some things” when determining the timing of Fried’s next start.

Fried, 29, entered his most recent start having yielded just one run through his first 20 innings of the 2023 season before being trounced by the Orioles for seven runs (five earned) in six innings. After averaging 94.8 mph on his fastball through the season’s first three starts, that velocity dipped to an average of 93.5 mph over his two most recent turns.

The Braves haven’t provided a timetable for Fried’s return or given any indication as to the severity of the strain at this time. Even if it’s only a minimal absence for Fried, it’s still a blow to an Atlanta club that was already operating with only four healthy starters. Right-hander Kyle Wright is out indefinitely due to a shoulder strain, and the Braves lost righty Ian Anderson to Tommy John surgery earlier in the 2023 season.

That slate of injuries had already left the Braves with Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Bryce Elder as their rotation options. Fried going down will likely require the team to call up two of Dylan Dodd, Jared Shuster and Michael Soroka from Gwinnett to step onto the starting staff.

Both Dodd and Shuster have been hit hard in limited MLB action this season, however, and both have displayed uncharacteristically shaky command in their handful of Triple-A starts as well. Soroka, meanwhile, pitched just 13 2/3 innings from 2020-22 (big leagues and minors combined) due to a series of injuries — namely a pair of Achilles tears. He’s gone more than four innings in just one of his five starts with Gwinnett and has been hit hard in each of his past two appearances, yielding a combined ten earned runs in seven innings of work.

There are other options to consider, though they’d require an additional 40-man roster move. Twenty-seven-year-old righty Allan Winans, for instance, has pitched to a solid 2.90 ERA in six appearances (four starts) with impressive strikeout and walk rates. He tossed six quality innings on May 3 and, speculatively speaking, could be an option in the next couple weeks if the Braves want to make space for him on the 40-man roster. Lefty Domingo Robles and righty Tanner Gordon were both recently bumped up to Triple-A after strong starts to the season in Double-A, but both have been hit hard in their first appearances with Gwinnett and neither is on the 40-man.

Certainly, in the event of a prolonged absence for Fried, it’s easier to envision the Braves going outside the organization to address the sudden vacancies in the rotation. That’s a scenario most Braves fans would prefer not to think about. The team figures to have more updates on Fried’s status in the near future.

In the meantime, Young’s recall from Gwinnett will give Atlanta an extra arm in the bullpen. He’s appeared in four games for the big league club already this season, holding opponents to a run on three hits and no walks with six punchouts in 3 2/3 frames. Things have been a bit rockier in Gwinnett, where he’s surrendered four runs on nine hits (two homers) and two walks with six punchouts in 4 2/3 innings. Young, 28, is a pure reliever whose lone professional start was with the Blue Jays’ Low-A affiliate back in 2015, so he won’t be a rotation option while Fried is on the mend.

Pitching Notes: Suarez, Sanmartin, Wood, Fried

By Mark Polishuk | May 7, 2023 at 9:58pm CDT

Jose Suarez will receive an MRI after leaving today’s game in the third inning due to discomfort in his left shoulder. The Angels starter was rocked for seven runs over 2 2/3 innings, with Suarez telling reporters (including MLB.com’s Brian Wright) that he first started feeling the shoulder soreness during the second inning but he tried to keep going.

Between the Angels’ six-man rotation and an off-day on May 11, Suarez could get over a week of recuperation time before he is next needed to pitch, so it’s possible he might avoid the injured list if the MRI comes back clean. However, it seems more likely that the IL might be in order to get Suarez feeling better, and to perhaps act as a reset button on the left-hander’s season. After posting decent results as a swingman for Anaheim in 2021-22, Suarez has a 9.62 ERA over 24 1/3 innings in 2023.

More on other pitchers around baseball…

Reds southpaw Reiver Sanmartin left today’s game due to elbow soreness, and he told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer) that a trip to the 15-day injured list is likely in order. Sanmartin said his elbow issue has been bothering him “for a couple of weeks now. I’ve tried to pitch through it….I don’t feel like I have full control of where I want to put it in the zone.” The lingering injury probably explains Sanmartin’s lack of results, as he has an ungainly 7.07 ERA over 14 appearances and 14 innings for the Reds this season. Sanmartin is in his third MLB season, and had very strong numbers as a reliever in 2022 (despite a 6.35 ERA over 57 innings that was inflated by four disastrous starts). Assuming Sanmartin hits the IL, Alex Young will be the only left-hander in the Reds’ bullpen.
Alex Wood began a Triple-A rehab assignment today, allowing two runs (one earned) over 3 2/3 innings of work. It’s probably safe to assume that Wood will make one more rehab outing before returning to the Giants’ rotation, unless the club wanted to bring him back in a limited capacity or perhaps in piggyback situation with Ross Stripling. Either Stripling or Sean Manaea seems like the odd man out when Wood does return at full health, and it already seems like Wood will beat the much longer initial timeline given when he first went on the IL with a hamstring strain on April 18. Wood was off to a nice start, posting a 1.80 ERA of his first three games and 10 innings this season.
While not exactly an injury update, Braves manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman) that “we’re just going through some things right now” in regards to when staff ace Max Fried might make his next start. Fried won’t pitch against the Red Sox as initially scheduled on Wednesday, and Snitker also didn’t say whether or not Fried might be available to face the Blue Jays on Friday. Since Atlanta has off-days on both Monday and Thursday this week, it’s possible the Braves are figuring out how to align its rotation, especially since Kyle Wright’s injury has left the club with just four starters. That said, Snitker’s rather vague comment created some doubt about Fried’s status. While nothing was reported health-wise following Fried’s last start on Friday, he did have a rough outing in allowing seven runs (five earned) over six-plus innings against the Orioles.

East Notes: Fried, Bello, Red Sox, Donaldson, Bader, Garcia

By Mark Polishuk | April 16, 2023 at 5:58pm CDT

Left-hander Max Fried is slated to make his return to the mound on Monday, when the Braves open up a three-game series against the Padres. Atlanta manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) that Fried will be activated from the 15-day injured list prior to the game. Fried will end up missing only 16 days due to a strained left hamstring, as he went to the IL on April 4 but with a backdated placement of April 1, so ensure a quicker return as long as the hamstring issue turned out to be pretty minimal.

With Fried and Kyle Wright now healthy, Atlanta’s rotation is more or less back in its expected form, with Fried, Wright, Spencer Strider, and Charlie Morton comprising the top four, and Bryce Elder pitching well in a bid to cement his spot. The Braves had planned to use Jared Shuster or Dylan Dodd as the fifth starter heading into the season, but while the two rookies have struggled against MLB hitters, while Elder has an impressive 1.53 ERA over three starts and 17 2/3 innings.

More from both the NL and AL East divisions…

Brayan Bello is also expected to be activated from the 15-day IL on Monday, as the Red Sox righty will make his season debut in a start against the Angels. Bello dealt with some forearm tightness early in Spring Training, which delayed his ramp-up enough that a short IL stint was necessary to open the season. With Bello expected to be a regular starter, the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier suggested that the Sox might utilize a six-man rotation until their next off-day on April 27, in order to give a bit more rest to a pitching staff that hasn’t many good results early in the season. Tanner Houck might ultimately be the odd man out of the rotation, and while Houck told Speier that he would prefer to stay as a starter, “I don’t have much say over it. We’ll have conversations, but I can only go out there and compete and put my best foot forward and continue to fight for the spot.”
The Yankees are likely to activate Josh Donaldson from the 10-day IL on Wednesday, manager Aaron Boone told ESPN’s Marly Rivera and other reporters. Donaldson will play in a minor league rehab game on Tuesday and then take the field against the Angels on Wednesday. A right hamstring strain sent Donaldson (retroactively) to the injured list on April 6, and his return will provide some relief to a lineup that is missing Giancarlo Stanton and Harrison Bader. In Bader’s case, he has been working out and taking part in baseball activities at Yankee Stadium, and Boone indicated that a minor league rehab assignment might begin this week as Bader makes his way back from a left oblique strain.
X-rays were negative on Avisail Garcia’s right wrist after the Marlins outfielder was hit while swinging at a pitch in today’s game. Jesus Sanchez had to replace Garcia to finish the rest of the plate appearance, but Garcia looks to have avoided serious injury, even if the Marlins might hold him out a day or two to monitor the wrist. After a rough first season in Miami, Garcia’s struggles have continued in 2023, as he has hit only .162/.225/.270 over his first 41 plate appearances.

Braves Recall Bryce Elder, Place Max Fried On IL

By Darragh McDonald | April 4, 2023 at 9:50am CDT

The Braves announced today that right-hander Bryce Elder has been recalled while left-hander Max Fried has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a strained left hamstring. Fried’s move is backdated to April 1.

Coming into the spring, Atlanta’s planned rotation has four spots taken by Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Kyle Wright. The final spot was left open for a spring battle, with the frontrunners considered to be Michael Soroka, Ian Anderson and Elder. Soroka got hurt in the spring while the other two hurlers struggled. Elder tossed 11 2/3 innings over three starts with a 6.17 ERA, striking out nine opponents while allowing five walks and 11 hits, including three home runs. Both he and Anderson were optioned in the middle of March, with rookies Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd out-pitching them and jumping them on the depth chart.

Wright also dealt with an injury in camp and eventually landed on the injured list to start the year, allowing both Shuster and Dodd to get big league opportunities alongside Fried, Strider and Morton. Fried then had to depart his Opening Day start with this hamstring issue, with manager Brian Snitker recently confirming that Fried would indeed be placed on the injured list, which is now official. It doesn’t sound like the club is expecting a significant absence, but he’ll miss at least a couple of weeks to rest up.

Shuster’s first start didn’t go especially well, as he allowed four runs in the first inning against the Nationals on Sunday. He eventually settled down and got through 4 2/3 innings but was optioned yesterday when Dodd was added to the roster.

It had been reported recently that Elder and Anderson were in contention to rejoin the rotation in Fried’s absence and Elder will get at least the first nod. Though he had a rough spring, he had an encouraging debut last year, posting a 3.17 ERA over 54 innings. His strikeout and walk rates were each a bit below average but he got ground balls at a healthy 49.3% clip.

With Wright and Fried on the IL and Shuster optioned, the club’s rotation currently consists of Strider, Morton, Dodd and Elder. The club’s next off-day isn’t until April 13, over a week away, so they will likely need to make another rotation move in the coming days or else have a bullpen day. Anderson started in Triple-A on Sunday but didn’t make it out of the first inning, allowing six runs, four earned. He tossed 37 pitches while walking two and allowing four hits, including three home runs. Soroka recently spoke about how the plan for him is to start for Gwinnett tonight but said he’ll likely be limited to three or four innings while continuing to build up from his interrupted spring. Shuster was just optioned yesterday and can’t be recalled for 15 days from that point unless another player is placed on the injured list. Wright’s 15-day IL placement was retroactive to March 27, meaning he can’t return until April 11 at the earliest.

Braves To Place Max Fried On Injured List

By Simon Hampton | April 1, 2023 at 1:34pm CDT

Braves’ manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including David O’Brien of The Athletic) that ace Max Fried will go on the injured list as he manages a hamstring problem. Fried exited his Opening Day start after just 43 pitches. It seems the team is in no hurry to make the move official though, and may wait until Fried’s next spot (Wednesday against the Cardinals) to finalize the move.

While the news that Fried is IL-bound is never positive, there’s still nothing to suggest his injury is any more or less concerning than when Snitker initially indicated he’d probably head to the IL after his start. Snitker indicated at the time that Fried may only miss one start, so unless anything changes there seems to be a good chance that Fried only misses the mandatory 15 days. Since up to three days of backdating can be attached to IL placements, Fried’s placement might technically begin on April 2, assuming he is indeed officially sent to the injured list on Wednesday.

A short trip to the IL is undoubtedly positive news for Atlanta, but it’s always a tough blow to lose the ace of the staff early in the season. Fried has been exceptional in the past few years, working to a 2.69 ERA across 407 innings between 2020-22. The best of those years came last season when he finished second in NL Cy Young voting to Miami’s Sandy Alcantara on the back of 185 1/3 innings of 2.48 ERA ball, which included an elite 4.4% walk rate.

It’s unclear yet who the Braves will turn to in Fried’s place on Wednesday, and their rotation picture has been muddied a little by the spring injuries to Kyle Wright and Mike Soroka. Wright is on the IL while Soroka is at Triple-A building back up after only getting one start late in spring training. Wright can’t return until April 11, and MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder are options to take Fried’s spot.

Braves Notes: Rotation, Soroka, Shewmake, Grissom

By Anthony Franco | March 31, 2023 at 11:19pm CDT

Braves ace Max Fried strained his hamstring during his Opening Day start, and manager Brian Snitker has already indicated the southpaw is likely to land on the 15-day injured list. Atlanta hasn’t made that transaction yet — IL stints can be backdated as many as three days — and the rotation plans for next week remain uncertain. Mark Bowman of MLB.com unsurprisingly tweets that right-handers Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder are under consideration to take the ball next Wednesday against the Cardinals in what would’ve been Fried’s spot.

Anderson and Elder entered Spring Training as the presumptive favorites for the fifth starter job behind Fried, Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Kyle Wright. Neither ended up securing the job out of camp, as prospects Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd jumped them on the depth chart. Both Elder and Anderson were optioned out; Shuster and Dodd each were penciled into the season-opening rotation when Wright started the year on the IL.

With Fried likely to join him, the Atlanta front office could have to choose between Anderson and Elder to fill in. The latter got the Opening Day start for Triple-A Gwinnett today, allowing four runs in six innings. He’d be lined up on standard rest for Wednesday’s outing if the Braves wanted to go in that direction.

Dodd, meanwhile, is listed as the probable starter for Tuesday’s matchup in St. Louis. That’ll be his major league debut, and the Braves will have to make a roster move before then. Atlanta has yet to select the southpaw onto the 40-man roster, preserving some flexibility in that regard until he’s tabbed to take the mound. The Braves’ 40-man is at capacity and the club doesn’t have any obvious candidates for a move to the 60-day injured list, so they could be faced with a DFA decision early next week.

Deeper on the rotation depth chart, Michael Soroka is slated to take the ball for Gwinnett on Tuesday in what’ll be his season debut. The righty was optioned after getting a late start in camp thanks to a hamstring issue. Soroka hasn’t thrown a major league pitch since 2020 because of a pair of Achilles ruptures. His 2022 campaign consisted of 25 innings between High-A and Triple-A.

Soroka tells Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal Constitution he’s likely “to be limited to about three or four innings (per outing) for a little bit.” He’ll work both in the rotation and out of the bullpen with Gwinnett as he and the club explore ways to gradually build his workload. Soroka indicated he’d be open to pitching in relief to get back to the MLB level if the team felt that the best course of action. He noted the club doesn’t currently feel low-leverage bullpen work is the best way to get him back to pre-injury form. Soroka started 37 games between 2018-20, throwing 214 innings of 2.86 ERA ball before his 23rd birthday.

That minor league experimentation isn’t limited to the pitching staff. Atlanta is using Braden Shewmake at second base in Gwinnett, as Burns writes in a separate piece for the Journal Constitution. The former first-round pick has only started nine games at the keystone — all last season — in his minor league career. The rest of his innings have come at shortstop, where he was competing for the MLB job this spring. Both Shewmake and Vaughn Grissom lost out to veteran Orlando Arcia in the camp battle, leading the two younger players to be sent to Gwinnett.

Grissom will get the majority of the shortstop reps there. Shewmake is regarded by evaluators as the superior defender of the two, while Grissom has a higher offensive ceiling. The Braves seem comfortable with Shewmake’s glove at shortstop as is, reasoning that giving the tougher reps to Grissom will hopefully lead to him taking a step forward. Whether the 22-year-old is up to the task defensively was a storyline of the offseason once it became clear the Braves would look internally for Dansby Swanson’s replacement.

Max Fried Likely Headed To IL Due To Hamstring Strain

By Darragh McDonald | March 30, 2023 at 3:50pm CDT

Braves left-hander Max Fried departed today’s Opening Day start after throwing just 43 pitches over 3 1/3 innings. The club would later announce that he was removed with left hamstring discomfort. After the game, manager Brian Snitker told reporters, including Mark Bowman of MLB.com, that Fried will likely go on the injured list. Snitker also said Fried has a hamstring strain, per Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

To this point, there’s nothing to suggest Fried’s injury is particularly significant. Snitker said that Fried would miss at least one start, per David O’Brien of The Athletic, but would likely go on the injured list. IL stints for pitchers have a minimum stay of 15 days, so it seems that the club is expecting Fried to miss an amount of time that’s roughly in that ballpark.

Though it’s possible his absence may be on the short side, it’s still not ideal for any team to lose its best pitcher on the first game of the season. Fried has been one of the better pitchers in the league over the past few years, coming into today’s action with a career ERA of 3.09, 23.8% strikeout rate, 6.6% walk rate and 52.8% ground ball rate. He’s coming off the best season of his career, as he made 30 starts last year with a 2.48 ERA, getting his walk rate all the way down to 4.4%. He finished second in National League Cy Young voting to Sandy Alcantara.

An injury to a player of Fried’s caliber would be problematic at any time but the rotation has some moving parts at the moment. Spring injuries to Kyle Wright and Michael Soroka, as well as underwhelming performances from Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder, mean that the club is planning to get starts from rookies Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd early in the season. Wright is expected back after a minimum stint on the injured list, but Fried’s absence will give the club an extra rotation hole to patch over for at least one turn in the rotation and perhaps a couple weeks.

NL East Notes: Mets, Britton, Rizzo, Nationals, Fried

By Mark Polishuk | February 18, 2023 at 7:47pm CDT

The Mets are “unlikely” to sign Zack Britton, a source tells MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, though New York was one of six teams in attendance at Britton’s showcase earlier this week. Brooks Raley is the only left-hander slated for a role in the Mets’ bullpen, so Britton would’ve added some southpaw depth that seems necessary on paper. However, DiComo writes that the Mets like the flexibility offered by having relievers available with minor league options, since it allows the club to shuttle fresh arms back and forth from the minors when necessary.

Britton and the Mets were seen as a logical match for much of the offseason, both due to the Mets’ needs for left-handed relief help and the past history between Britton and manager Buck Showalter from their time with the Orioles. With multiple teams (even beyond the teams who had scouts at his showcase) still showing interest in Britton, the two-time All-Star seems bound to land somewhere in what will essentially be a comeback year after two injury-marred seasons.

Max Fried Loses Arbitration Hearing Against Atlanta

By Simon Hampton | February 4, 2023 at 11:58am CDT

Atlanta’s Max Fried lost his arbitration hearing against the team, according to Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The CAA Sports client will be paid $13.5MM for the upcoming season, rather than the $15MM he’d filed for.

Fried’s been a quality starter for a number of years now, but put together his best season yet in 2022, tossing 185 1/3 innings of 2.48 ball. The left-handed Fried walked batters just 4.4% of the time – about half that of the league-average, while striking out batters at a 23.2% clip. That output was worth 5 fWAR, an All Star appearance and a runner-up finish in NL Cy Young voting. Fried also took home a Gold Glove for his defense.

The 29-year-old has been one of the sport’s best starters over the past few seasons. Since 2020, Fried owns a 2.68 ERA over 407 innings (69 starts). However, his brilliant season in 2022 evidently wasn’t enough to sway the case in his favor, and he’ll take home $1.5MM less than he’d argued for in his third season of arbitration eligibility (Fried is a Super Two player). It’s the second straight season Fried and Atlanta have gone to a hearing to determine his salary. Last season he took home a $6.85MM salary after winning his case against Atlanta, who had argued for a salary of $6.6MM – a $250K difference.

At times, the difference in salary can seem rather trivial given the salary being earned, and particularly in this case given Fried’s standing as one of the best pitchers in the game. So it’s worth taking a look at this article from MLBTR from 2015 for a deeper look inside the arbitration process, and why teams haggle over what can sometimes seem like rather insignificant sums of money.

This is Fried’s penultimate year of club control, and barring a long-term extension he’ll go through arbitration once more next winter before hitting free agency after the 2024 season. Of course, given Atlanta’s recent habit of tying up their stars to long-term contracts it certainly wouldn’t surprise to see them make a play at keeping Fried long term, although his output to date and dwindling years of club control would suggest it’d take a significant sum to get a deal done.

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