Most Atlanta Braves fans expected Max Fried to leave in free agency this offseason, but that didn’t make it a less painful experience. While the Braves have done well to lock up many of their young stars on extensions, they also have been known to stick to their guns if the price gets uncomfortable. One need only look at the recent examples of Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson as data points here.
Fried was a tough call. On the one hand, he pitched extremely well for eight seasons in Atlanta and it is almost impossible to adequately replace a rotation arm that is in the Cy Young conversation seemingly every year. However, he is also 31 years-old and has had just enough injury issues in recent years to give one pause especially on a long-term deal.
Ultimately, Fried ended up getting an eight year, $218 million deal from the Yankees and more power to him. Braves fans should be wishing him nothing but the best (except against Atlanta) as any of us would probably jump at the chance to make that kind of money. However, recovering from the loss of Fried would be a lot easier if Spencer Schwellenbach can ascend the way many expect him to.
Despite the pain, the Braves letting Max Fried go could be for the best when it comes to Spencer Schwellenbach’s future
Anyone that is arguing that Braves are better off without Fried in 2025 is being a bit delusional. There are real baseball and payroll reasons to not give a pitcher in his 30’s a long-term deal, but Fried is likely to be pretty good to awesome this coming season and there is no reason to think otherwise.
However, that option wasn’t on the table. Giving Fried that kind of deal is the type of risk that the Braves’ front office basically refuses to take on and with Schwellenbach coming off a strong rookie campaign, Atlanta could have (and maybe should have) come to the conclusion that there won’t be all that much of a drop-off in production from their rotation when you factor in a full season of Schwellenbach starting. There is even some room for actual improvement as Schwellenbach could potentially miss more bats than the current version of Fried.
Conversely, let’s assume a world where the Braves gave Fried the exact same deal that New York gave him. That would put Atlanta in an uncomfortable position payroll-wise going forward and likely would have meant they could do very little of note next offseason when they may have to replace their closer and/or shortstop. Giving Fried that deal also would have made any other extensions problematic including Raisel Iglesias, Marcell Ozuna, and, yes, Schwellenbach himself.
In baseball, you can’t have everything you want and you can’t keep everybody. It may seem unfair or look like negligence in the moment, but players are going to come and go and resources are finite. However, if Schwellenbach can just continue the good work he started in 2024 when he established himself as one of the best young pitchers in baseball, the loss of Fried specifically might not feel so bad.
