ATLANTA — Max Fried is on the injured list with a forearm injury for the second consecutive summer, but the Atlanta Braves and the All-Star left-hander have reason to believe this issue isn’t as serious as the one that sidelined him for three months last season.
Fried was diagnosed with left forearm neuritis and placed on the IL on Sunday, two days after an MRI revealed nerve irritation but no structural damage in his pitching arm. He pitched a scoreless inning with one walk in 10 pitches at Tuesday’s All-Star Game, where Fried felt something during his warmup but didn’t say anything at the time.
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“Didn’t think much of it. In this game, you feel things all the time,” Fried said. “Normally, they go away. Didn’t feel like I was in any jeopardy of really hurting myself. Was able to get through (the inning), felt good. Took the day off after the game to travel home and all that, came in (Thursday) for our workout, played catch, still was feeling it.”
Fried said at that point he knew he should say something so the Braves would have time to shuffle their rotation and have someone else start in his scheduled Sunday turn. He was sent for an MRI that showed neuritis, a condition caused by inflammation of a nerve or nerves.
Max Fried felt something in forearm when he was warming up for All-Star Game, Brian Snitker said, but Fried didn't think it was enough to stop him from pitching. When it lingered Friday, he told team, immediately had MRI. It showed no soft-tissue damage, but nerve irritation.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 21, 2024
A Braves official confirmed Fried does not have ulnar neuritis, which occurs when the ulnar nerve is irritated or compressed. That can be more serious.
“Everything structurally looks great, just a little irritated sensory nerve,” Fried said, “not one of the major muscle-functioning nerves. … Just going to let it calm down, and (I’m) hoping to be back soon.”
The Fried injury could make adding a starting pitcher before the trade deadline a priority again after that need seemed to lessen in recent weeks with the strong performance from rookie Spencer Schwellenbach.
Still, there was a sense of relief after the MRI results.
“Because obviously, it scares you or alarms you,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That’s why he wanted to get in front of it and make sure it wasn’t anything big. But it’s enough that they want to shut him down for a time, and once he’s asymptomatic, then he’ll start throwing again. Hopefully, that’s sooner than later.”
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Fried said that, from what he was told, it should not be a lengthy IL stint, though he wouldn’t speculate on how long he might be out.
“Everyone’s bodies (react) differently. I’m not going to put a firm timeline on it,” he said. “(Because) everything that’s been conveyed to me is it’s definitely on the shorter end.
“Definitely a relief to know that everything structurally is good and that it’s just a little bit of a freak accident. Just going to let it calm down for a little bit, and it should be good to go with no issues.”
Neither Fried nor the Braves mentioned anything about the situation until the team announced Sunday morning that he’d been placed on the 15-day IL, with lefty Dylan Dodd recalled from Triple A. Braves teammates didn’t know the severity of Fried’s injury, only that he was placed on the IL.
“Yeah, you hate that,” third baseman Austin Riley said before Sunday’s game. “Obviously, for what he’s meant to this clubhouse and this team, you hate that. I don’t know the extent of anything, but you hope that it’s minor.”
Fried said he first felt discomfort when doing “arm circles” in the bullpen as he warmed up before his All-Star Game appearance. He briefly considered not pitching in the game, his second All-Star appearance in three years.
“In the moment, when I was throwing in those circ*mstances, I thought it was one of those, ‘Just get through the outing. I’ve got one inning; it’s nice and easy,’ (then) be able to take a couple of days off, recover and feel good and be able to make my start and have no issues.
“And it just lingered a little longer than I was expecting.”
Fried, 30, was limited to 14 starts in 2023, when he was out for three months with a forearm strain and also missed time for a finger blister and a hamstring strain. He still posted an 8-1 record with a 2.55 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 77 2/3 innings, and many expected the Braves to sign him to a contract extension before this season, his last before free agency.
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It’s unclear how far the contract negotiations advanced, but there was no extension, and it seemed the price tag for Fried, the 2022 NL Cy Young Award runner-up, had climbed significantly with his performance this season.
He’s 7-5 with a 3.08 ERA and two complete games in 18 starts, including a 2.36 ERA in his past 16 starts with a .212 opponents’ average and a .567 opponents’ OPS in that span.
How much, if any, this injury will affect contract discussions with the Braves or his potential free-agent price will presumably depend on the length of his IL stint and his performance after he returns.
But for now, the Braves will hope for a quick return. They had a majors-leading 3.40 ERA before the All-Star break, in large part because of the performance of their All-Star starting pitching trio of Fried, MLB wins leader Chris Sale (13-3, 2.70) and ERA leader Reynaldo López (7-3, 1.88).
Sale, 35, has been terrific in his first season with the Braves, but the injury-plagued lefty already has pitched more innings (110) than he had in any season since 2019. López was a reliever in recent seasons and already has more innings (95 2/3) than in any season since 2019, the last year he was a starter for a full season.
The Braves have followed a strategy all season of giving their starters extra rest, using their three All-Star starters on regular rest (four days) just two times apiece, though they planned to have them pitch on regular rest more frequently for the rest of the season.
“All that extra rest and all that is really good,” Snitker said, “but if something (an injury) is gonna happen, it’s gonna happen, I think, regardless. But we’re going to do everything we can to check that box, to try and give these guys extra rest to get them through (the season).”
Snitker didn’t think Fried’s pitching in the All-Star Game had any bearing on the injury.
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“He was fully gassed up and everything,” he said of Fried being on regular rest before that one-inning appearance. “It could have been something that probably would have been worse if he had gone out today (to start for the Braves), did that and felt it warming up in the bullpen, and then all of a sudden we had to (scratch him).
“If it’s gonna happen, it’s probably the best-case scenario with the way it could happen, as far as us as a team.”
Even though the MRI results could have been worse, Fried said it’s frustrating to be injured again, especially before such an important stretch of the season.
“I love being able to go out there every fifth day and pitch and compete,” he said. “Not being able to go and do that and take the field with my teammates, it’s tough. So, I’m really just happy that it’s nothing serious, but at the same time, (I’m) definitely disappointed because I want to be out there.”
(Photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
David O'Brien is a senior writer covering the Atlanta Braves for The Athletic. He previously covered the Braves for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and covered the Marlins for eight seasons, including the 1997 World Series championship. He is a two-time winner of the NSMA Georgia Sportswriter of the Year award. Follow David on Twitter @DOBrienATL
