Max Fried went to the Arizona Fall League single-minded in his determination to boost his candidacy for a spot in this year’s Braves starting rotation. And the left-hander reported to spring training this week with that same sense of purpose.
“My goal was to put myself in the best position to try to make the team out of camp,” the rookie left-hander said. “I felt like if I had a really good performance out (in Arizona), it would help it, and now I’m just trying to continue that through camp.”
Fried was 3-1 with a 1.73 ERA in six starts in AFL, led the prospect-laden league in strikeouts with 32 in 26 innings, and led all starting pitchers with a .163 opponents’ average. His fastball velocity stayed in the mid-90 mph range and topped out at 98 in the fall league, impressive considering he was well over his previous career-high innings total for a single year by that point.
After the AFL season schedule was completed, Fried was rated the 10th-best prospect in the league by Baseball America, a list topped by Braves outfield phenom Ronald Acuna (the AFL’s youngest-ever MVP) and Nationals outfield prospect Victor Robles.
Now Acuna and Fried are at Braves spring training, with 20-year-old Acuna trying to secure the opening-day left field and Fried competing for one of two vacancies in the starting rotation behind Julio Teheran, Mike Foltynewicz and veteran newcomer Brandon McCarthy.
His chief competition is expected to come from Luiz Gohara, 21, a clear favorite to win one of the spots, and lefty Sean Newcomb, 24, who spent more than half of the 2017 season in the Braves rotation, battling control problems at times while going 4-9 with a 4.32 ERA in 19 major league starts.
“Everyone here is fighting for a job,” said Fried, who turned 24 in January. “I feel like you can really get distracted if you focus on other people, so I’m just going to go out there and do what I have to do to get ready for the season, whether it’s starting in the big leagues or starting in the minor leagues. For me it’s all about getting ready for at some point this year – hopefully at the beginning – to be helping the team compete at the big league level.”
It’s the second major league spring training for Fried, and the difference in his demeanor is obvious from a year ago, when he was reserved and quiet in camp. Now his natural tenacity is coming out in workouts, though the California native is still as polite and amiable as ever away from the field.
“Really confident young man right now,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s here to make the club. That’s great. In talking to him, I think he feels really good about his time in the fall league. The added innings, and taking that after experiencing the major leagues, was a huge thing for him. He’s that much farther ahead now coming into camp, and coming in to make an impression and trying to win a job.”
Going through big-league camp and pitching in Grapefruit League games a year ago gave Fried a springboard into the season.
“Let’s put it this way: I didn’t really know what to expect (entering 2017 spring training),” he said. “Now having been through a big league camp and being in the big leagues a little bit, I feel like I have a nice foundation I can build off of. I really don’t have the same nerves I had last year, and I’m just ready to get into it and compete.”
His 2017 season wasn’t without setbacks. Fried had a recurring finger blister that eventually landed him on the disabled list at Double-A Mississippi, where he had a 6.33 ERA in 19 starts.
Once he got the blister situation under control, he was called directly from Double-A to the majors in early August. He posted a 3.81 ERA in 26 innings over nine games, including four starts, struggling at times and excelling at others while totaling 22 strikeouts with 12 walks and 30 hits allowed.
The Braves had him make four relief appearances -- something new for Fried – before giving him his first start. He did well in the relief role in all but one outing, at Coors Field when he gave up three runs in 2 2/3 innings. He allowed one run in four innings over his other three relief appearances and said those outings helped settle him in before his first start.
“Never being able to experience facing big-league talent, you don’t really know how you stack up against it,” he said. “When I got there (and contributed in a relief role) I felt like I can compete, and as soon as I realized that it was kind of, let’s go. It really did help experiencing it, even if it wasn’t the most storybook way to get there. But for me to be able to just experience that against big-league hitters, to know that I can have success up there, is invaluable.”
If the four get-the-feet-wet relief outings weren’t storybook, his first start was: At Wrigley Field on a Sunday against the defending World Series champions. In front of a packed house, Fried allowed four hits, one run and three walks with four strikeouts in five innings of a 5-1 win for his first big-league decision.
Less than six weeks after his win at Chicago and nine days after pitching 4 1/3 innings on short notice in the Braves’ season-finale win at Miami, Fried was pitching in the Arizona Fall League, getting the innings that he missed while on the DL and continuing to make starts against strong competition.
“I’d say it was a big help,” he said of being sent to the fall league. “I went out there and kind of just wanted to have an established routine that I wanted to get through, kind of a mentality with pitching that I wanted to try out more often because I felt like I was getting into a groove.
Everything seemed to work out pretty good there, so now (it’s just about) continuing that into this year.”
He's at the point of his career that most believed he would have reached two years ago if not for Tommy John surgery that caused the former Padres first-round draft pick to miss most of two seasons. The Braves traded for Fried while he was recovering from surgery, getting him as part – the part they wanted most – of a December 2014 deal that sent Justin Upton to San Diego.
Adversity has toughened him and only increased his appreciation for the journey and his desire to get where he’s been aiming to be for a long time.
“Obviously if I could redo it, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to get hurt,” he said. “But I learned a lot about myself and the work ethic that you need to have to be successful throughout a full season, staying on top of the physical, the mental, the day-in, day-out of being a starting pitcher in professional baseball. I was able to pick the brains of a lot of guys through rehab who would come in and out, so I felt like that was really beneficial.
“I got surgery at the end of 2014, was out all of 2015, came back 2016. So for me to kind of see how much I’ve grown in that time – big help on my confidence. Coming into (the new season), I’m honestly just excited to see where it goes.”
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