Max Fried

Max Dorian Fried (/ˈfriːd/ FREED;[1] born January 18, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the first round, seventh overall, in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft. He made his major league debut in 2017. His 17 wins in 2019 were 2nd-most in the National League, and his seven wins in 2020 were again 2nd-most in the NL. In 2020 he also won the NL Gold Glove Award at pitcher and the Fielding Bible Award at pitcher, and was named All-MLB First Team.

Max Fried
Fried with the Atlanta Braves in 2019
Atlanta Braves – No. 54
Pitcher
Born: (1994-01-18) January 18, 1994
Santa Monica, California
Bats: Left Throws: Left
MLB debut
August 8, 2017, for the Atlanta Braves
MLB statistics
(through 2020 season)
Win–loss record26–11
Earned run average3.52
Strikeouts289
Teams
Career highlights and awards
Medals
Representing  United States
Maccabiah Games
2009 Israel Junior baseball

Early life

Fried was born and grew up in Santa Monica, California, the middle son of Carrie and Jonathan Fried, and is Jewish.[2][3][4][5] He attended synagogue on High Holidays, and had a bar mitzvah.[5] His younger brother Jake, also a pitcher, attends the University of Arizona.[6][7]

High school

For high school Fried first attended Montclair College Preparatory School, in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, where he played baseball, football, and basketball.[4] In 2009, he was a member of the gold medal-winning 2009 Maccabiah Games Team USA Juniors baseball team.[8]

As a high school sophomore, with Ethan Katz as his pitching coach, he was 10–3 with a 1.81 earned run average (ERA), while batting .446 with four home runs and 40 RBIs, and was named the Olympic League MVP and to the All-California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division V first team.[9][10][11][12] In his junior year Fried was 7–3 with a 1.31 ERA, with 100 strikeouts in 69 innings, as he also played outfield and batted .360 with four home runs and 30 RBIs.[13][14] He was named the 2011 So Cal Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Male High School Athlete of The Year.[11]

After Montclair Prep cut its baseball team and other extracurricular activities subsequent to his junior year, Fried transferred to Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, where he wore uniform # 32 in honor of Sandy Koufax and played with fellow MLB pitchers Lucas Giolito and Jack Flaherty.[8] In his senior year in 2012 Fried was 8–2 with a 2.02 ERA, and 105 strikeouts in 66 innings.[15][16] He was a 2012 Rawlings-Perfect Game 1st Team All-American.[17]

Draft and minor leagues

San Diego Padres

The San Diego Padres selected Fried in the first round, with the seventh overall selection, of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft.[18] Baseball America rated him the top left-hander available in the draft, high school or college.[19] Though Fried had committed to the UCLA Bruins baseball team, he chose instead to sign with the Padres for $3 million.[2][20]

Fried made his professional debut for the Arizona League Padres in 2012 and spent the whole season there, going 0–1 with a 3.57 ERA in 17.2 innings pitched. He played for the Fort Wayne TinCaps in 2013 where he compiled a 6–7 record and 3.49 ERA in 23 starts. At the end of the year, Fried was ranked the 43rd-best prospect in the minors by MLBPipeline.[21] He was also named an MiLB.com Padres Organization All Star, and Baseball America ranked his curveball as the best in the Padres' minor league system.[22][23]

In 2014, he was ranked the Padres' top pitching prospect, and their No. 2 prospect overall, by MLB.com.[22] Fried was also ranked 53rd in Baseball America’s 2014 pre-season rankings.[24] Fried was injured for much of the year and did not make his season debut until July. The next month, on August 20, Fried underwent Tommy John surgery; he missed the remainder of the 2014 season.[21]

Atlanta Braves

On December 19, 2014, the Padres traded Fried, Jace Peterson, Dustin Peterson, and Mallex Smith to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Justin Upton and Aaron Northcraft.[25] Fried missed the entire 2015 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.[21]

He returned to action on April 9, 2016, for the Rome Braves.[26] Fried spent all of 2016 with Rome, pitching to an 8–7 record and 3.93 ERA in 21 games (20 starts). Fried ended the season ranked by Baseball America as the 6th-best prospect in the South Atlantic League.[27] His fastball, clocked at 93–94 mph, reached 96–97 mph in the second half of the season.[28] The Braves added Fried to their 40-man roster after the season.[29]

Fried was invited to spring training for the first time at the start of the 2017 season.[30] Fried began the season at the Class AA level with the Mississippi Braves.[31][32] He was ranked as the Braves' No. 8 prospect overall by MLB.com.[33] He was named Southern League Pitcher of the Week for the week ending April 30.[34] In July, MLB.com ranked him the #89 prospect in minor league baseball.[35]

Major leagues

2017: Major league debut

Fried was called up to the Atlanta Braves on August 5, 2017.[36][37] He was called up straight from Class Double-A to the big leagues, without pitching in Triple-A.[38] He debuted on August 8, throwing two scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, displaying what David O'Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called "a devastating curveball".[39][40] Two weeks later, Fried returned to the minor leagues, joining the AAA Gwinnett Braves.[41] In 26 innings pitched for the Braves for the season, he was 1–1 with a 3.81 ERA.[42]

At the end of the 2017 season, Fried joined the Peoria Javelinas of the Arizona Fall League, for whom he was named league Player of the Week on October 31.[43][44] He led the league with 32 strikeouts in 26 innings (3rd in the league), and was 3–1 with a 1.73 ERA (6th in the league) in six starts.[45][46] He ranked first among starters with a .163 opponents’ average, was second in fewest-baserunners-allowed-per-nine-innings (7.96), and was named to the AFL’s Top Prospects Team.[45] Baseball America rated him # 3 on the AFL Hot Sheet.[47] In December, Braves manager Brian Snitker said that he might look at Fried, Lucas Sims, or another pitcher as the team's fifth starter in 2018.[48]

2018

Fried began the 2018 season with the Mississippi Braves. After one game, he joined the Gwinnett Stripers.[49] He was called up to Atlanta in April.[50] In 33.2 innings pitched for the Braves in the 2018 regular season, he was 1–4 with 44 strikeouts and a 2.94 ERA.[42] With runners in scoring position he kept batters to one hit in 30 at bats (.033); with RISP and two outs, opposing batters were 0-for-14 with eight strikeouts.[51]

2019

Fried was placed in the bullpen at the start of the 2019 season, and later moved to the starting rotation.[52][53][54] In a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 7, Fried was hit on his left hand by a batted ball from Alex Verdugo and left the game, but he made his next regularly scheduled start.[55][56][57]

In 2019 Fried was 17–6 with a 4.02 ERA, as in 33 games (30 starts) he pitched 165.2 innings in which he struck out 173 batters.[42] His 17 wins were 2nd in the National League, and his .739 won-loss percentage was 5th in the league.[42] He induced the second-lowest percentage of fly balls (22.2%), and the third-highest percentage of ground balls (53.6%), of all NL pitchers, and threw his curveball 24.6% of the time (6th in the league).[58] His 9.398 strikeouts/9 IP were the 7th-highest in a single season of any Braves pitcher in history.[59]

On defense, he led all NL pitchers in assists with 34, and had the 2nd-best range factor/9 innings pitched of 2.23.[42] He had a 6 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) rating, the best in the major leagues among pitchers.[60] Fried also batted .196 (9th among NL pitchers)/.262 (6th)/.268 (10th), and led all NL pitchers with at least 50 plate appearances in runs (11) and BB/SO ratio (0.31), while having the 2nd-lowest swinging strike percentage (7.1%), 3rd in contact percentage (81.6%) and tying for 3rd in walks (5).[61]

2020: Undefeated, Gold Glove and Fielding Bible Awards, All-MLB First Team

Going into 2020, Freddie Freeman predicted that Fried would be: "phenomenal, better than last year."[62] During the season Fried developed into the ace starting pitcher for the Braves.[63][64]

His four pickoffs through September 6 were the most in the majors in 2020, and he needed only 12 pickoff attempts to do so.[65] Since his major league debut in 2017, Fried's 14 pickoffs were the most in the majors, and he was successful on 19% of his attempts.[65] In that same time-span, pitchers in all of baseball had been successful in picking off runners in only 0.017% of attempts.[65]

Fried started the season by becoming the first left-handed pitcher to not allow any home runs through eight starts, with his team winning every game, since Babe Ruth in 1917.[66]

In the pandemic-shortened 2020 regular season, Fried was a perfect 7–0 with a 2.25 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP.[67] He led the major leagues in won-loss percentage (1.000) and pickoffs (4), led the National League in WAR for pitchers (2.9), was 2nd in the NL in Wins Above Replacement-all behind Mookie Betts, and tied for 2nd in the NL in wins.[68][69] Of all NL pitchers who pitched 50 or more innings, balls hit off of him had the lowest exit velocity (83.4 mph), and he gave up the lowest percentage of hard-hit balls (23.2%), the lowest percentage of barrels (3.3%), and the highest percentage of softly-hit balls (27.2%).[70] He was 2nd-lowest in home runs per nine innings pitched (0.32), 6th in ERA, ground ball percentage (53.0%), and highest percentage of ground balls (22.5%), 7th in LOB% (82.0%), and 10th in lowest batting average against (.209), lowest line drive percentage (19.5%), and lowest fly ball percentage (27.5%).[70] He allowed only two home runs (in 56 innings), both after he tweaked his ankle fielding a bunt in his only inning of work in his last start of the season.[71][72][73]

On defense, Fried led all major league pitchers in assists for the second consecutive season (with 15), tied for the MLB lead in pickoffs (with 4; with his 9 in 2019-20 were tops in major league baseball), and led all pitchers with five Defensive Runs Saved.[74][75][76][77]

Fried won the 2020 NL Gold Glove Award at pitcher.[78] He became the fourth Braves pitcher to win the award, joining Mike Hampton, Greg Maddux, and Phil Niekro, and the first Braves player to win the award for a pitcher in 17 years.[74][79]

He also won the 2020 Fielding Bible Award at pitcher.[80] The award honors the top fielder in the Major Leagues at pitcher.[80] He came in fifth in voting for the 2020 NL Cy Young Award.[81]

He was named a starter on the 2020 All-MLB First Team.[82]

Fried throws a 94–96 mph four-seam fastball.[83][24] He also throws two types of a 74 mph "plus" curveball (which he patterned after that of Sandy Koufax), an 84 mph slider (since 2019), a 93 mph sinker, and an 84 mph change-up.[83][24][84]

See also

References
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  3. "Max Fried Minor Leagues Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
  4. Linda Grasso (July 20, 2012). "Field of Dreams; Catching up with Max Fried, first round draft pick of the San Diego Padres … on the Encino pitcher's mound where it all began". Ventura Blvd Magazine. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
  5. David R. Cohen (April 25, 2017). "Max Fried's Birthright From Israel to SunTrust Park," Atlanta Jewish Times.
  6. Eric Sondheimer (January 30, 2015). "Pitcher Jake Fried of Sierra Canyon has committed to Arizona. He's the younger brother of Atlanta Braves P Max Fried," Twitter.
  7. "Trailblazers in College," sierracanyonathletics.com.
  8. Oster, Marcy (June 5, 2012). "Max Fried, 18, drafted by Padres". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
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