The Braves sure could have used an arm like Max Fried this year

The Braves’ late-season surge has many wondering what could have been if just a few things had gone differently.

What if Atlanta didn’t start 0-7? What if the entire rotation didn’t collapse with injuries? What if former All-Stars didn’t play like AAA fill-ins for half the season? And most of all — what if Alex Anthopoulos hadn’t sat on his hands for four months and let the offseason pass him by?

The Braves had glaring needs heading into the winter, most notably in the rotation. It was a paper-thin group that was ultimately decimated by injuries. Atlanta lost nearly 350 innings when Charlie Morton and Max Fried walked in free agency, yet Anthopoulos didn’t spend a dime to replace them. Letting Morton walk was defensible, but Fried? He might have been the difference between a lost season and another October run.

The 31-year-old just wrapped up his first season with the Yankees after signing a record-breaking eight-year, $218 million deal — the largest contract ever handed to a left-handed pitcher. The Braves never seemed to seriously challenge New York’s offer, but perhaps they should have.

Fried’s debut season in the Bronx couldn’t have gone much better. He finished the regular season with a seven-inning gem against the White Sox, securing his league-leading 19th win and posting a 2.86 ERA, the second-lowest full-season mark of his career.

Anthopoulos has always been cautious with pitchers in free agency, almost to a fault. Since taking over as GM in 2018, he hasn’t given out a single multi-year contract to a free-agent starter — a claim even the penny-pinching Oakland A’s can’t make after handing Luis Severino $67 million last winter.

And this approach has burned the Braves before. Atlanta has entered nearly every postseason under Anthopoulos short on arms. Even during the 2021 World Series run, the Braves had to rely on a patchwork group that included prospect arms like Tucker Davidson and Kyle Wright to finish the job.

Anthopoulos’ philosophy is a double-edged sword. Sure, there are plenty of names he’s avoided that would have been financial disasters. But Max Fried — arguably the most consistent starter of the last six years — is the type of ace you make an exception for. A little extra push to keep him in Atlanta might have saved the Braves’ 2025 campaign. Now, they’ll have to continue to search for his replacement this offseason.

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