Braves GM on Max Fried joining the Yankees

The Braves rotation has been pretty damn good of late, but it doesn’t make the sting of losing Max Fried hurt any less, who is dominating early on for the New York Yankees. The longtime former ace in Atlanta has a 6-0 record so far in Pinstripes with a league-leading 1.29 ERA and 305 ERA+ (205% above league average).

If there were any question about Fried handling the pressure that comes with playing in the Bronx, he’s responded with one of the best starts of any marquee free agent that’s signed with the Yankees, something Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos saw coming.

“He’s (Max Fried) had phenomenal years, ERAs in the 2.00s, second in Cy Young to Sandy Alcantara one of the years, pitched one of the biggest games in the history of the Braves, Game 6 of the World Series and stepped up huge for us,” Anthopoulos said.

“Got the biggest contract in the history of the game for a left-handed starter and well-deserved,” Anthopoulos continued. “No one prepares better. He works his butt off, studies, the athleticism is off the charts, won a Silver Slugger, was the last National League guy to win a Silver Slugger. Obviously, we don’t have him, he got an unbelievable contract and I’m thrilled for him. I told him this as well: he’s going to have an opportunity to be in the postseason basically every single year of his career. The Yankees don’t really miss the postseason. He was apart of an incredible seven-year stretch here, that he can legitimately go wire to wire and make the playoffs the entire time. Can’t say enough good things about him. He was great from a front office standpoint.”

Sounds like a guy the Braves should have never wanted to leave their building, but an eight-year contract worth over $218 million is a risky proposition for any player, especially in today’s age for a pitcher, who are affected by long-term injuries more than any other position in all of sports.

But if Max Fried is able to stay healthy, Alex Anthopoulos doesn’t believe there will be any drop-off in his performance over the course of his new deal.

“I said this 3-4 years ago, he’s someone that’s going to age exceptionally well because of the athleticism and how he takes care of himself, but he can just flat pitch. When I got here, he was fastball/curveball, and then eventually starts developing a slider. Then, Cole Hamels comes in and he starts tinkering with a changeup even more. Then, starts tinkering with a two-seamer even more. He’s got the aptitude, the work ethic just to continue to develop. I think you’re going to see Max Fried — obviously health for any starter, you don’t know how that’s going to go — I think you’re going to see Max Fried pitch as long as he wants.”

With the Yankees, Fried will be on the big stage as much as possible, and the noise if he succeeds will be impossible for baseball fans down south to ignore. It never quite seemed that the Braves had too much of an interest in retaining him, but Alex Anthopoulos did have a nugget in a a recent interview with 680 The Fan that sounded a lot like contract negotiations he may have had with Fried.

“We explored a deal, I don’t want to say when cause the timing will make it very obvious who the player was, but we were right there and ultimately, we could’ve said yes and we would’ve blown way past the tax and it wouldn’t have been an issue…” Anthopolous said. “And what stopped it was ultimately the length of the deal. The length of the commitment to the player. It had nothing to do with money, AAVs, taxes, none of that kind of stuff.”

Eight year contracts in Major League Baseball typically turn sour sooner rather than later. Fried’s start to his Yankees career could not have gone any better, but he’s still got a long way to go to prove worthy of $218 million. The good news is he’s doing it in another league. This situation would be a whole lot worse if Fried were doing this for a club like the Mets, Phillies, or Dodgers.

Braves fans can appreciate from afar for now, but given the success of the Braves and Yankees, there’s a chance these two clubs eventually meet with everything on the line in October.