Braves: Time to take off the kid gloves with Mike Soroka and Max Fried

In the next step of their transformation as top of the rotation starters for the Atlanta Braves, the kid gloves have to come off of Mike Soroka and Max Fried.

As the Atlanta Braves go into the 2020 season with hopes of not just making the postseason, but advancing, they need horses in the starting rotation like the Houston Astros and Washington Nationals have.

They need pitchers who can easily work deep into games and throw a lot of innings.

For very good reasons, Brian Snitker handled both Mike Soroka and Max Fried with kid gloves in 2019.

Soroka had shoulder issues coming into the season, and Fried has had his troubles with injuries in the past having Tommy John surgery back in 2014 and missing all of 2015.

There were several games last year where I thought Soroka could have gone deeper into the game, and should have gone deeper, but Snitker didn’t allow that to happen. He only threw over 100 pitches in a game three times last year (twice he threw exactly 100 pitches) and he never threw more than 109.

Fried’s highest pitch totals in 2019 were 100, 101, and 101. And Snitker really babied Fried down the stretch even though he was starting to pitch better after struggling in June and July.

I get why Fried was relegated to the bullpen in the postseason — especially after Chris Martin was injured– but in hindsight, he probably should have gotten a start.

Now I get that these two guys are still really young (Mike is 22 and Max is 26), but when comparing them to Stephen Strasburg, he threw over 100 pitches in 22 regular season starts last year and then four more times in the postseason.

Maybe Noah Syndergaard is a better comparison at age 27. He had 13 games last year in which he threw over 100 pitches.

Jose Berrios is 25 years old and had 12 games last season of 100 pitches or more.

I know these are established MLB pitchers, but that’s my point, this is the season where Soroka and Fried need to establish themselves as top of the rotation MLB pitchers.

And they can’t do that if their manager is still babying them.

Not to put all the blame on Snitker here, I understand that you want to protect your young superstars. But no more pulling them in the seventh inning of a tight game because they’re getting close to 100 pitches.

This is the season where they need to regularly go beyond 100 pitches and pitch that extra inning.

Soroka, who is great at getting ahead and limiting his pitch count, should be able to consistently go 7 innings and more regularly work into the eighth. And Fried should regularly be going 6 innings and getting into the seventh.

If you take into consideration the 9.1 innings Soroka threw at Triple-A last year while rehabbing and the brilliant 7-inning performance in the postseason, he actually threw 191 innings in 2019.

That means he could certainly blow by 200 innings in 2020 if he stays healthy.

Fried was one out shy of throwing 170 innings in 2019, so I’d like to see him get into the 190 range this upcoming season.

We can’t treat these guys like kids anymore. Yes, take care of their arms and get them out of games early when it makes sense. But at the same time, if the Braves want them to take the next step in becoming an elite Major League pitcher, the kid gloves have to come off in 2020.