Braves To Place Max Fried On Injured List
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
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
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
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.
More from the NL East…
- Nationals president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo is only under contract through the 2023 season, and there hasn’t been any indication that the two sides have discussed an extension. (Understandably so, given how the organization is mourning the recent passing of owner Ted Lerner.) Even if an extension doesn’t come, Rizzo isn’t worried, as he told Andrew Golden of the Washington Post that “it’s not the first time, won’t be the last time, I’m on a lame-duck contract. It doesn’t affect me….I was an area scout. I worked on 20 one-year contracts in a row, so I’m no stranger to limited security. My work will be my résumé, and we’ll see how it goes on from there.” Rizzo is one of the longer-serving executives in baseball, having led the Nationals’ front office since 2009. Between Lerner’s passing, the seemingly stalled efforts to sell the team, and the Nationals’ ongoing rebuild, Rizzo’s status is only one of many major issues facing the organization.
- “There’s no anger, animosity or anything” for Max Fried in the aftermath of losing his arbitration hearing with the Braves, the ace told reporters (including MLB.com’s Mark Bowman). Fried will now earn $13.5MM in 2023, and he’ll have one more year of arb eligibility remaining before he can become a free agent in the 2024-25 offseason. An extension would naturally change that timeline, and while Fried seemed to imply that a longer-term deal hadn’t yet been broached, “we’ve been able to have some good communication. I really love my time here and I love the team. So if [an extension] is something that comes to the table, it’s something we’ll talk about.” Atlanta’s flurry of recent extension has put a lot of longer-term commitments on the team’s books, though a lot of money might be coming off the books next winter depending on how many (or any) club options the Braves choose to exercise. As Bowman notes, however, Fried’s closer proximity and the high cost of free agent pitching would seemingly require the Braves to offer a contract with a club-record average annual value in order to keep Fried off the market.
Max Fried Loses Arbitration Hearing Against Atlanta
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.
Requested Salary Figures For 33 Players Who Didn’t Reach Agreements By Arbitration-Filing Deadline
January 13 was the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to exchange salary figures in advance of possible hearings, and as usual, the large majority of players worked out one-year agreements (or extensions) for their 2023 salaries. MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker detailed these agreements, though there is still quite a bit of unfinished business, as 33 players still don’t have their deals settled, and thus their 2023 salaries could be determined by an arbiter.
Typically, arb hearings take place in February or March, yet there isn’t anything officially preventing a team from still reaching an agreement with a player up until the moment an arbiter makes their ruling. However, most clubs employ the “file and trial” strategy as a way of putting more pressure on players to accept agreements prior to the figure-exchange deadline. In short, once the deadline passes, teams head to hearings with no more negotiation about a one-year salary, though clubs are typically still willing to discuss multi-year extensions.
Here are the 33 players who have yet to reach an agreement on their 2023 salaries, as well as the players’ requested salary and the team’s counter-offer. As always, clubs (and the league as a whole) pay very close attention to arbitration salaries, since any outlier of a number can serve as a precedent in the future, thus raising the bar for both one particular players and perhaps players as a whole. This is why teams are generally adamant about the “file and trial” tactic and taking the risk of a sometimes-awkward arb hearing, even in cases where there is a relatively small gap between the club’s figure and the player’s figure.
[RELATED: Arbitration projections from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz]
Nineteen of the 30 teams have at least one unsettled case remaining, with the Rays (by far) leading the way with seven players on pace to reach hearings. Given that Tampa Bay entered the offseason with an enormous 19-player arbitration class, it perhaps isn’t surprising that the Rays still have a lot of work to do, even after trimming that initial class size with non-tenders and trades. Teoscar Hernandez’s $16MM is the largest figure submitted by any of the 33 players, while Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette have the largest gap between submitted figures, each with a $2.5MM difference between their hoped-for salaries and the numbers respectively submitted by the Astros and Blue Jays.
The total list (which will be updated as settlements are reached and hearing results become known)….
- Hunter Renfroe: $11.9MM in desired salary….Angels offered $11.25MM
- Gio Urshela: $10MM….Angels $8.4MM
- Luis Rengifo: $2.3MM….Angels $2MM
- Kyle Tucker: $7.5MM….Astros $5MM
- Cristian Javier: $3.5MM….Astros $3MM
- Bo Bichette: $7.5MM….Blue Jays $5MM
- Max Fried: $15MM….Braves $13.5MM
- Corbin Burnes: $10.75MM….Brewers $10.01MM
- Ryan Helsley: $3MM….Cardinals $2.15MM
- Genesis Cabrera: $1.15MM….Cardinals $950K
- Josh Rojas: $2.9MM….Diamondbacks $2.575MM
- Tony Gonsolin: $3.4MM….Dodgers $3MM
- Jon Berti: $2.3MM….Marlins $1.9MM
- Agreed to one-year, $2.125MM deal with 2024 club option
- Jesus Luzardo: $2.45MM….Marlins $2.1MM
- Teoscar Hernandez: $16MM….Mariners $14MM
- Diego Castillo: $3.225MM….Mariners $2.95MM
- Dylan Moore: $2.25MM….Mariners $1.9MM
- Jeff McNeil: $7.75MM….Mets $6.25MM
- Victor Robles: $2.6MM….Nationals $2.3MM
- Austin Voth: $2MM….Orioles $1.7MM
- Agreed to one-year, $1.85MM deal with 2024 club option
- Jose Alvarado: $3.7MM….Phillies $3.2MM
- Agreed to one-year, $3.45MM deal; later signed additional two-year, $18.55MM extension
- Seranthony Dominguez: $2.9MM….Phillies $2.1MM
- Ji-Man Choi: $5.4MM….Pirates $4.65MM
- Yandy Diaz: $6.3MM….Rays $5.5MM
- Jeffrey Springs: $3.55MM….Rays $2.7MM
- Harold Ramirez: $2.2MM….Rays $1.9MM
- Colin Poche: $1.3MM….Rays $1.175MM
- Pete Fairbanks: $1.9MM….Rays $1.5MM
- Ryan Thompson: $1.2MM….Rays $1MM
- Jason Adam: $1.775MM….Rays $1.55MM
- Brady Singer: $3.325MM….Royals $2.95MM
- Luis Arraez: $6.1MM….Twins $5MM
- Won hearing against Marlins (who acquired him in trade after figures were exchanged)
- Gleyber Torres: $10.2MM….Yankees $9.7MM
Sandy Alcantara Wins National League Cy Young Award
Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara has won the National League Cy Young award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. It was a unanimous victory, with Alcantara receiving all 30 first place votes. He was followed in the voting by Max Fried of the Braves and Julio Urías of the Dodgers.
Alcantara has been the presumptive favorite for quite some time, and the unanimous voting serves as a particular testament to the caliber of season he put together. The right-hander easily lapped the field in innings, soaking up 228 2/3 frames that cleared second-place finisher Aaron Nola by 23 2/3. Alcantara and Nola were the only Senior Circuit pitchers to throw multiple complete games; Nola went the distance twice, while Alcantara did so six times. He also faced a league-leading 886 batters, with Nola’s 807 batters faced an extremely distant second.
That kind of throwback, workhorse mentality was part of what set Alcantara apart from the rest of the league, but he continued to perform brilliantly on a rate basis. Among NL starters with 100+ innings, he ranked fourth in ERA (2.28) and sixth in ground-ball percentage (53.4%). His 23.4% strikeout percentage was more good than elite, but he rarely issued free passes and kept the ball on the ground while consistently going deep into games.
Along the way, the 27-year-old earned the second All-Star nod of his career. Alcantara had posted an ERA between 3.00 and 4.00 in each of his first four seasons with the Fish to emerge as a top-of-the-rotation caliber arm. Miami inked him to a $56MM extension last offseason, a deal that extended their window of control through 2027. That seemed a strong move for general manager Kim Ng and her staff at the time, and it now stands as an absolute bargain with Alcantara cementing himself upon the game’s top handful of pitchers.
It’s the first Cy Young nod for the native of the Dominican Republic, who’d never previously appeared on an awards ballot. Fried and Urías each picked up some support for the second time. The Atlanta southpaw finished fifth in Cy Young balloting in 2020, while the L.A. hurler placed seventh last year. Both earned a top-three placement for the first time this year, with sub-2.50 ERA showings. Fried twirled 185 1/3 innings of 2.48 ball, while Urías led qualified starters with a 2.16 ERA.
Fried picked up 10 second-place votes, and Urías was the runner-up on seven ballots. Nola, Zac Gallen, Carlos Rodón, Corbin Burnes and Edwin Díaz were the other players to receive at least one second-place vote. Nola and Gallen placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Rodón, Burnes, Díaz, Yu Darvish, Kyle Wright, Logan Webb and Ryan Helsley were the other players to appear on a ballot.
Full voting breakdown available here.
MLB Announces 2022 Gold Glove Winners
Major League Baseball announced the 2022 Gold Glove award winners this evening. This season was the first in which the league added a “utility” award to honor multi-positional players, in addition to the standard nine positions in each league. There are 20 winners overall, 14 of whom received a Gold Glove for the first time. Only two players who won last year claimed the award yet again.
Five teams had multiple winners, with the AL Central-winning Guardians leading the pack with four honorees. Cleveland ranked fourth in the majors (third in the American League) in turning balls in play into outs, with opponents managing a .274 batting average on balls in play against them. That excellent defensive group was an underrated part of the quality run prevention unit that helped Cleveland to a surprising playoff berth.
Here are the full list of winners:
American League
Pitcher: Shane Bieber (Guardians), 1st career selection
Other finalists: José Berríos (Blue Jays), Jameson Taillon (Yankees)
Catcher: Jose Trevino (Yankees), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Sean Murphy (Athletics), Cal Raleigh (Mariners)
First Base: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Blue Jays), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Luis Arraez (Twins), Anthony Rizzo (Yankees)
Second Base: Andrés Giménez (Guardians), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Jonathan Schoop (Tigers), Marcus Semien (Rangers)
Third Base: Ramón Urías (Orioles), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Matt Chapman (Blue Jays), José Ramírez (Guardians)
Shortstop: Jeremy Peña (Astros), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Xander Bogaerts (Red Sox), Carlos Correa (Twins)
Left Field: Steven Kwan (Guardians), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Andrew Benintendi (Royals/Yankees), Brandon Marsh (Angels/Phillies)
Center Field: Myles Straw (Guardians), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Cedric Mullins (Orioles), Michael A. Taylor (Royals)
Right Field: Kyle Tucker (Astros), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Jackie Bradley Jr. (Red Sox/Blue Jays), Max Kepler (Twins)
Utility: DJ LeMahieu (Yankees), 4th career selection
Other finalists: Whit Merrifield (Royals/Blue Jays), Luis Rengifo (Angels)
National League
Pitcher: Max Fried (Braves), 3rd career selection/3rd consecutive win
Other finalists: Tyler Anderson (Dodgers), Corbin Burnes (Brewers)
Catcher: J.T. Realmuto (Phillies), 2nd career selection
Other finalists: Travis d’Arnaud (Braves), Tomás Nido (Mets)
First Base: Christian Walker (Diamondbacks), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Paul Goldschmidt (Cardinals), Matt Olson (Braves)
Second Base: Brendan Rodgers (Rockies), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Jake Cronenworth (Padres), Tommy Edman (Cardinals)
Third Base: Nolan Arenado (Cardinals), 10th career selection/10th consecutive win
Other finalists: Ke’Bryan Hayes (Pirates), Ryan McMahon (Rockies)
Shortstop: Dansby Swanson (Braves), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Ha-Seong Kim (Padres), Miguel Rojas (Marlins)
Left Field: Ian Happ (Cubs), 1st career selection
Other finalists: David Peralta (Diamondbacks/Rays), Christian Yelich (Brewers)
Center Field: Trent Grisham (Padres), 2nd career selection
Other finalists: Víctor Robles (Nationals), Alek Thomas (Diamondbacks)
Right Field: Mookie Betts (Dodgers), 6th career selection
Other finalists: Juan Soto (Nationals/Padres), Daulton Varsho (Diamondbacks)
Utility: Brendan Donovan (Cardinals), 1st career selection
Other finalists: Tommy Edman (Cardinals), Daulton Varsho (Diamondbacks)
Braves Place Max Fried On Concussion-Related Injured List
The Braves placed left-hander Max Fried on the seven-day injured list for concussion-related injuries. Righty Jay Jackson was called up from Triple-A to take Fried’s spot on the active roster.
Fried’s placement is backdated to August 8, two days after the southpaw took an awkward fall while attempting a fielding play in Atlanta’s 6-2 loss to the Mets. Fried was holding his head in the aftermath of the play but remained in the game and tossed three more innings.
After a few days of further evaluation, it appears as though the Braves have decided that Fried needs some more time to recover. He’ll miss his next start but hopefully no more, though it is hard to predict when concussion symptoms could fully dissipate.
Fried is in the midst of another excellent season, with a 2.60 ERA/3.36 SIERA over 22 starts and 138 1/3 innings. Despite a middling strikeout rate, Fried has been excellent at inducing grounders (50.5% groundball rate) and soft contact, and his 4.5% walk rate is among the best in the game. The 28-year-old has emerged as a front-of-the-rotation ace, and his health is key to Atlanta’s chance of repeating as World Series champions.
Since today is an off-day for the Braves, the team has a bit of flexibility in aligning its rotation in Fried’s absence. The left-hander was scheduled to start against the Marlins on Friday, but Atlanta could simply bump the other starters up one day and hope that Fried is able to return before his next turn in the rotation. The recently-optioned Ian Anderson is likely the first choice for a spot start should Fried have to miss more time.
Max Fried Wins Arbitration Hearing Against Braves
Braves lefty Max Fried won his arbitration hearing against the Braves and will be paid a $6.85MM salary for the current season rather than the $6.6MM sum submitted by the team, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (Twitter link).
Fried, the No. 7 overall pick by the Padres in 2012 who came to the Braves by way of the 2014 Justin Upton trade, has emerged as Atlanta’s most consistent starter in recent years. The 28-year-old broke out with a huge 11-start showing during the shortened 2020 season and built upon that success in 2021, pitching to a 3.04 ERA with a solid 23.7% strikeout rate, an excellent 6.1% walk rate and a strong 51.8% ground-ball rate — all while tying his career-high in innings pitched (165 2/3).
That success has carried over into the 2022 campaign as he’s posted nearly identical numbers — 2.77 ERA, 23.7% strikeout rate, 4.3% walk rate, 51.6% grounder rate — although this year’s consistency wasn’t a factor in the hearing. Despite being conducted during the ongoing season, arbitration hearings were based solely on prior statistical performance, as is the case in a typical offseason when they’re conducted in February. (That was not possible this winter, given the league-implemented 99-day lockout.) Players with unresolved cases have been paid at the team-submitted figure prior to hearings. Now that he’s won his hearing, Fried will be credited with retroactive pay to make up the difference to this point, and he’ll be paid at the new rate moving forward.
This is Fried’s second time through the arbitration process, and he’ll be eligible twice more by virtue of his standing as a Super Two player. He’s controllable by the Braves through the 2024 season — barring a long-term contract extension.
The $250K gap between the figures submitted by the team and player will strike most fans as trivial, and while that’s largely true, both parties have reason to take a hard stance. Any arbitration ruling becomes a data point for future arbitration negotiations among all 30 teams — arbitration is based on precedent among statistical comparables — so making even small concessions has a compounding impact over time. (MLBTR chatted with several general managers, assistant GMs and other front office execs about the system and going to trial over at-times trivial sums a few years back, for those who’d like to read more on the matter.) For Fried, he’ll now earn at a higher rate this season, and his subsequent raises over the next two seasons will now be built upon a slightly larger baseline.
With both Fried and Marlins catcher Jacob Stallings now seeing their pending arbitration cases resolved — Stallings recently lost a hearing against the Marlins — Yankees superstar Aaron Judge is the last remaining case to be settled. His hearing is reportedly set to take place on Friday.