Braves fans might pack Max Fried’s bags for LA after another playoff meltdown

Despite some ups and downs throughout the year, Atlanta Braves southpaw ace Max Fried overall put together another stellar regular season in 2024. In 29 starts, he finished the year with a 3.25 ERA and 1.164 WHIP. And really, he's been that or better for his entire career with only two seasons since his debut in 2017 with an ERA over 3.30 and only one over 4.00 (a 4.02) in 2019. The playoffs, however, have been another story.

That was certainly on the mind of every Braves fan on Wednesday night as Fried took the mound for Game 2 against the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card series after losing on Tuesday night and facing elimination in the best-of-three slate.

And unfortunately, the narrative about Fried in the postseason didn't dramatically change in the do-or-die situation for Atlanta.

Max Fried suffers perhaps one last postseason meltdown for Braves

After the Braves got off to the right start in the first inning with a Marcell Ozuna sac-fly driving in Michael Harris II, Fried escaped a bases loaded jam in the bottom of the first. He was not so lucky in the bottom of the next frame, however, and the Padres took full advantage. But first, Kyle Higashioka got things evened up with a solo shot to left center. That's when the bases got juiced with Manny Machado coming to the plate.

When Fried hung a sweeper over the middle of the plate, the Padres star didn't miss, roping it into the left field corner to drive in two runs and give San Diego the 3-1 lead. It didn't stop there, however, as rookie Jackson Merrill came up next and nearly took Fried deep the dead-center but settled for a two-RBI triple and a commanding 5-1 lead.

To put Fried's struggles in the playoff into perspective, while he has a career 3.07 ERA in the regular season, that has skyrocketed up to 4.57 in the postseason. But wait, it gets worse than that. Since pitching six scoreless innings in the 2021 NLDS against Milwaukee, Fried has made six starts in the playoffs but has averaged less than 5.0 innings per outing while posting a 6.21 ERA, allowing 20 earned runs in 29.0 total innings while striking out only 25 with eight walks.

Perhaps the real cherry on top for this wild card outing and meltdown in the second inning from Fried is the fact that he's set to hit free agency this offseason. Much of the speculation has been that the lefty could end up with the Los Angeles Dodgers and, more importantly, most likely not with the Braves.

After seeing another postseason shortcoming, especially in a do-or-die moment, perhaps Braves fans won't be quite as sad about that should it come to pass. Hell, they might even help him pack in the heat of the moment.