The Braves recorded their 9th shutout of the season last night against the Nationals with a 2-0 victory behind another gem from Max Fried.
In the win, Fried threw 8.0 innings of no-run ball, allowing seven hits and issuing just one walk while striking out six, dropping his ERA below 3.00 and extending his record to 5-2. Impressively, he accomplished something that hasn’t happened in eight years for the Braves:
Since coming out of the gates struggling, Max Fried has settled in nicely, pitching the tune of a 1.43 ERA over his last seven starts, including a complete game shutout his last time out against the Cubs.
Amid a contract year, Fried might be putting together the best season of his career, which will certainly help his free agent case. I expect the Braves to make a run at the southpaw, but is it possible that we are currently watching Max Fried price himself out of Atlanta?
Alex Anthopoulos doesn’t pay sticker price for anything, especially starting pitchers, evident in the cost-friendly acquisitions of Chris Sale and Reynaldo Lopez. However, Max Fried may be the exception.
Over his career, Fried is 67-28 with a 3.02 ERA and is well on his way to a nine-figure free agent deal. The Braves have never handed out that kind of contract. The highest has been Austin Riley, who inked a 10-year, $212 million extension a few years ago.
At this rate, Max Fried’s trajectory will be in the ballpark of $30 million per season; that’s $7.5 million more than Riley’s deal. The Braves will have a difficult decision to make if Fried turns in another Cy Young-caliber campaign and remains healthy going into the Winter.
On the latest episode of SportsTalkATL, Chase and I discuss the likelihood that Max Fried is potentially pricing himself out of Atlanta.
You can catch SportsTalkATL on The Fox 5 Local App every Monday-Friday from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET. Segments like the one below can also be found on our YouTube channel (@SportsTalkATL).
More must-reads: