Atlanta Braves: Just how good can Max Fried be?

When the Atlanta Braves began their long road of rebuilding at the end of the 2014 season, they had a clear plan in place: accumulate farm system depth – specifically, pitching depth – and a lot of it.

Usually, the safeguard in that strategy is knowing that if you obtain such a high volume of arms that, while most of them will predictably flame out once nearing the big leagues, you might get a special few who manage to live up – or surpass – the expectations. The Atlanta Braves‘ Max Fried might very well fit that bill.

It seems appropriate, in fact, that Fried was actually the first starting pitching prospect that the Braves collected when the rebuild officially went into action.

It’s hard to believe that 4.5 years have passed since the deal with the San Diego Padres took place, sending the left-hander and former top 10 draft pick to Atlanta.

Now in his fifth season with the organization, sometimes it’s a shock to remember that Max Fried is just 25 years old and still certainly coming into his own as a legitimate major-league rotation piece.

Growing Pains

The Braves knew initially that they’d have to be patient in their expectations of Fried.

When he was acquired in December of 2014, he had just underwent Tommy John surgery, which ultimately sidelined him for the entire 2015 season.

Perhaps it was worth the wait.

Fried spent all of his comeback season in 2016 with the Class-A Rome Braves, pitching to a 3.93 ERA and slowly building a reputation for himself in Atlanta’s bolstering farm system of pitchers.

Success didn’t come as easily for Fried when he made the jump to Double-A Mississippi in 2017. In 19 starts with the ‘Sip, he struggled to the tune of an ERA near 6.00, mostly the result of trying to work through reoccurring blister issues.

The injury bug bit again in 2018, landing Fried on the DL twice: once for the ongoing blister predicament, and again for a groin strain.

Through it all, though, Fried marveled when healthy. Atlanta knew the upside of the 6’4″ lefty, which is why they gave him chances in the major-league rotation in both 2017 and 2018.

With his impressive repertoire and quality pitching makeup, Max Fried has always seemed like the kind of guy that could explode to an elite level if the proverbial “top” ever comes off.

In 2018, when Fried was pitching healthy, the “top” began to wiggle.