Max Fried may want to stay with the Atlanta Braves long-term, but that ball is entirely in Alex Anthopoulos’ court.
Entering his contract season, look for Max Fried to ball out for the Atlanta Braves regardless.
Fried may have lost his arbitration case to the Braves, but he harbors no animosity towards the organization. They have games to win anyway. As long as he stays healthy and plays up to his lofty standard, Fried is poised to be a very wealthy man. Of course, he may be better paid by another MLB franchise besides the only one he has ever played for. What are the Braves to do?
David O’Brien of The Athletic wrote about how Fried is feeling entering the biggest year of his life.
As far as other guys getting extended before him internally, Fried would offer the following.
"“I couldn’t be happier for them. I was going up and giving them hugs and sitting in their press conferences … There’s no anger or animosity. Just two sides going at it in business, that’s kind of the way I see it.”"
Even if the opportunity presented itself before, Fried always made it a point to hit free agency.
Regardless, he seems to be in great spirits about the situation and said dialogue has been good.
"“I’ve seen that’s been more a topic of conversation (in social media) recently. Me and the team have always had really good dialogue. We’ve been able to have some good communication. I’ve really loved my time here and I love the team.”"
Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos will extend his players, but is never down with paying a premium price when it comes to fair-market value.
Look no further than the Marcell Ozuna debacle after the COVID season…
Max Fried wants to be extended, but will the Atlanta Braves make that happen?
Braves Country has seen first-hand how Anthopolous operates. If a strong player is on the good side of 30 and has plenty of years of arbitration left to be had, of course, he will fork over a long-term contract extension. When it comes to trading for a guy, as long as he is not 30 and plays a key position in the field, you too will be getting a contract extension! But what about the others?
Anthopoulos did let Freddie Freeman walk two free agencies ago. He offset this by trading for Matt Olson and extended the Lilburn native to a massive contract. This past winter, he let Dansby Swanson go in favor of developing Vaughn Grissom’s glove. This freed up capital allowed him to trade for Olson’s former Oakland Athletics teammate Sean Murphy to be their long-term catcher.
At the very least, Anthopoulos is consistent. You may not love it, but you can learn to respect it. However, Fried is a different case than Freeman or even Swanson. He is one of the best starting pitchers in the game and an incredibly athletic player from the left side of the rubber. Fried is not yet 30, but will be hitting that benchmark on whatever new contract he signs. This one is tricky…
Investing a ton of money into a starting pitcher rarely goes according to plan. Fried’s game should age gracefully, even when he inevitably loses velocity off his fastball. However, the quickest way towards irrelevancy is paying an arm and a leg for a starting pitcher who no longer has an arm and is losing his legs. The Braves have the intel on Fried, so they will make the best decision they can.
Because a team is going nowhere in October without high-end starting pitching, you have to roll the dice, even when a pitcher feels as close to a sure thing as Fried is presently. For that reason, Anthopoulos is more likely to buck the trend of letting his stars walk like Freeman and Swanson before him. Fried could regress in his 30s, but who can you really get to appropriately replace him?
Ultimately, this is the one player it will be hard for Braves Country to rationalize seeing Fried potentially in his hometown Dodger Blue. The native Angeleno grew up idolizing Sandy Koufax and Clayton Kershaw, so if it’s fate, it’s fate. However, you don’t want to tempt fate here. Wouldn’t you rather reinvest in the one who has already brought you so much joy over the last half decade?
Fried may have to take a “hometown” discount to stay in Atlanta, but Anthopoulos can’t be pinching pennies either.