ATLANTA — Free agency begins the day after the World Series ends, at which point the Atlanta Braves will have five days to re-sign Max Fried if they have any serious interest in doing that before the left-hander is permitted to sign with any team.
That five-day window is the exclusive period in which teams can retain their own free agents. After that, the players can sign with the highest bidder or any other suitor. They can negotiate with any team during that window but must wait five days to sign with a new team.
There figure to be multiple teams interested in Fried, who’s a little older than ideal for a free-agent pitcher — he’ll be 31 in January — but is 71-31 with a 3.06 ERA in 145 regular-season games since the beginning of 2019, the second-most wins in that period behind Gerrit Cole (79-33, 2.98 ERA).
Age and injuries — a forearm strain that shelved him more than half of the 2023 season, forearm neuritis that put him on the IL for 2 1/2 weeks after he pitched in the 2024 All-Star Game, finger blisters, other nagging issues in past seasons — will be the factors that could keep Fried’s contract a little lower than those that some other pitchers of his ilk signed in recent years.
But his consistent performance and reputation as a tireless worker, tremendous competitor and great teammate are intangibles that could help offset those concerns. Those latter factors endeared him to teammates, coaches and other Braves officials.
“It was phenomenal — he’s a dog,” Braves center fielder Michael Harris II said of playing behind Fried during Harris’ first three MLB seasons. Harris was using “dog” in the slang sense as high praise, a compliment to describe a tough, aggressive competitor.
“He wants to get the ball any chance he can, he’s going to do everything he can to try to get that win,” Harris continued. “Just knowing his mentality and how he loves the game and prepares for the game, and how much he wants to go out there and do his best for the team, is something I hope he can bring back next year.”
Harris said those words in a somber visiting clubhouse in San Diego after the Braves’ 5-4 postseason-ending loss to the Padres in the second game of the Wild Card Series. Fried was hit in his left glute by a 100 mph line drive in the first inning and lasted only two innings, giving up eight hits and five runs.
If it was the end, it was a brutal way to finish an eight-year career with the Braves, the only organization Fried has known since they traded for him in December 2014, while the former first-round draft pick was recovering from Tommy John surgery that he had in his second year in the Padres organization.
Fried, who debuted in 2017 with Atlanta and moved into the rotation full-time in 2019, has been a three-time Gold Glove winner, two-time All-Star, Silver Slugger Award winner and twice a top-five Cy Young Award finisher including runner-up in 2022. Braves fans will long remember that he was the starter and gutsy winning pitcher in the Braves’ 2021 World Series-clinching Game 6 win in Houston.
He was asked after that playoff loss three weeks ago what his time with the Braves means to him.
“To me, it means everything,” said Fried, a Los Angeles-area native (Santa Monica) who made his year-round home in Atlanta in recent years. “It’s the organization that traded for me and gave me the opportunity to come to the big leagues and become an established big-league player. Everyone from my teammates here, coaching staff, front office, organization, fans, city.
“Obviously I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I have absolutely loved every minute of it, and hope to have many more.”
Teammates want him back, though most realize the Braves, whose payroll exceeded luxury-tax thresholds each of the past two seasons, are unlikely to get in a bidding war for Fried. Not when they return presumptive 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale, Reynaldo López and rookie sensation Spencer Schwellenbach, along with Spencer Strider, the 2022-2023 MLB strikeout leader who had elbow surgery after just two starts in 2024 and is expected back within the first month or two next season.
Alex Anthopoulos, Braves president of baseball operations and general manager, was asked two days afterward about Fried being emotional following the loss at San Diego, when he talked quietly about what playing for the Braves has meant to him and how he hoped to be back.
“Obviously, he’s been here since I’ve been here,” said Anthopoulos, who was hired away from the Dodgers. “I joined the organization in November of 2017, and my first year was 2018. And he was up and down (from Triple A) in ’18 and then he became a mainstay in 2019. So I feel like I’ve had a front-row seat for Max’s entire major-league career with the Atlanta Braves.”
Anthopoulos referenced Fried’s reputation, saying, “From a GM standpoint, he’s been a partner. Anything we needed as an organization, anything we needed from him — hey, can you go on short rest? Can you move a day? Can you do this? ‘Whatever you guys need, whatever you guys need.’”
Then, Anthopoulos gave what sounded like a reality-check quote: “These guys that become great players, rightfully so, they become really sought after (as free agents). So, we’ll see where that goes. I don’t have anything beyond that, other than, if we would have had an announcement, we would have had it. So we’ll just see how the offseason goes. But Max is … you know, I’m a big fan.”
While most expect starter Charlie Morton to retire, until the soon-to-be 41-year-old says he’s not pitching again — or the Braves say they’re not re-signing him — there’s always a chance Morton returns, though presumably it would be for significantly below the $20 million he earned each of the past three seasons.
The Braves have internal options to round out the rotation including Ian Anderson, AJ Smith-Shawver and 2023 first-rounder Hurston Waldrep. Anthopoulos might sign another veteran innings-eater type to a short deal to add some back-end insurance to the rotation, especially if Morton isn’t returning.
Prospect Drake Baldwin could arrive in ’25
When Sean Murphy strained an oblique on Opening Day and spent two months on the injured list, the Braves brought Chadwick Tromp from Triple A and gave the journeyman 16 starts behind the plate in the team’s first 49 games.
If there’s a catching injury to Murphy or veteran Travis d’Arnaud next season, the Braves could turn to Drake Baldwin, 23, who’s continued an impressive 2024 with a strong showing in the first Arizona Fall League. He hit .310 with three extra-base hits and an .892 OPS in seven games for Peoria before Wednesday.
Baldwin is a strong defender like Tromp, but a far better hitter. He improved after each promotion in the minor leagues, which is always an encouraging sign.
A third-round pick out of Missouri State University in 2022, Baldwin spent most of 2023 at High-A Rome, where he posted a .385 OBP, 40 extra-base hits (14 homers) and an .851 OPS in 92 games before brief stints at Double A and Triple A to end the season.
He only had four homers and a .650 OPS in 52 Double-A games to start 2024. But after a promotion to Triple A, Baldwin figured some things out with Gwinnett hitting coach Dan DeMent, and scorched at a .298 average, with 12 homers and an .891 OPS in 72 games. He also homered in the Futures Game.
“The way he’s played, he’s definitely a phone call away at this point,” Anthpoulos said. “We’ve got two guys at the big-league level we’re really fond of. The young catching position, to me, it’s like breaking in a glove, right? There’s just so much more to it with the information (including advanced analytics).”
In other words, if Baldwin spends most of another year at Triple A learning the position, after another spring training working with the big-league catchers, that wouldn’t necessarily be a negative.
“Yeah, you can look at the (offensive) numbers, but there is so much thrown at these guys with the game planning, the game calling,” Anthopoulos said. “I don’t think you ever go wrong at that position getting more time to develop. … Look, he’s one of the best prospects in the organization. He’s one of the best prospects in the game. That goes without saying.”
As things stand, the Braves will have Baldwin and Tromp back at Triple A. Tromp is arbitration-eligible for the first time, after spending parts of five seasons with San Francisco and Atlanta and hitting a career-best .250 with six doubles, six RBIs and a .625 OPS in 54 plate appearances in 2024.
“(Hits) left handed. The makeup’s off the charts,” Anthopoulos said. “If we would have had injuries (late in 2024), he absolutely could have been in the mix. But yeah, him being in Gwinnett next year (puts him) definitely in play.”
(Top photo of Max Fried: Brett Davis / USA Today)
