Atlanta Braves Rumors: Shohei Ohtani link, outfield help coming, Max Fried update
By Mark Powell
Braves Rumors: When is Max Fried coming back?
Yes, Atlanta fans were promised Max Fried’s triumphant return sometime after the All-Star Break. I can assure you it is coming, as Fried is rehabbing well in the Braves minor-league system the last week or so.
House That Hank Built offered up a quick recap of Fried’s rehab starts, the most recent of which took place in Rome.
"“Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled content. The Max Fried rehab assignment. His first rehab start saw him go 1.1 innings in Gwinnett and throw 35 pitches. For Rome, Fried would only throw 30 pitches, but he would get through 3 innings. Fried’s final line: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K. Both singles were softly bounced through the infield. Arguably both are fielded with a major-league defense behind him. All of the batted balls against Fried were on the ground. As we know Max Fried, gets plenty of weak ground balls when he is on his game. Add a good strikeout rate and a patented pick-off, and Fried looked sharp.”"
Fried is making his way up the minor-league ranks, and it’s fair to expect him to make his MLB return before the MLB trade deadline. That will be useful for the Braves and Alex Anthopoulos, as the front office could prioritize rotation depth at the deadline. The urgency would go up a notch if, say, Fried were to struggle in his return or need more time than expected to return to form.