The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fried’s stint on injured list might be short
Braves are hoping ace of rotation can be back next week.
The Braves’ original rotation is down to zero.
Left-hander Max Fried was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left-side muscle spasm in his lumbar spine. The move was back-dated to Sept. 6. The ace experienced a sharp drop in velocity in his past start.
The Braves are hopeful Fried will return next week in the Sept. 16-18 range, when they will be on their final road trip of the season. Depending on how they handle the rotation, Fried could have two or three more starts before the postseason.
“During his last start he complained of some lowback tightness and pain,” general manager Alex Anthopoulos said. “He’d been getting treatment. We’d been waiting to see how he’s going to respond. At one point, there was talk thought that we could move him back a day or two to give it a little more time to respond. The more we talked about it as an organization, we decided the best thing was to put him on the IL, back-date it. With no off days, playing short and so on, this was the smartest thing to do in our minds.
“He’ll be eligible to be back on the 16th. It doesn’t mean for sure that he’ll make that start, but his concern was he’d miss too much time because he doesn’t think he’s that far off. Right now, we could plug him into that start the last game against the Orioles. If not, we’d expect it to be no later than Friday the 18th against the Mets on the road.”
Anthopoulos added that the organization is “extremely confident this will be short-lived.” For the Braves to make a postseason run, it has to be.
Fried was carrying the load for a decimated rotation, posting a 1.98 ERA across nine starts (50 innings). He’s the only starting pitcher averaging more than five innings (5.6), excluding Ian Anderson’s small sample size (three starts). Fried was firmly in the Cy Young Award conversation and has blossomed into a legitimate front-line starter.
The southpaw was leading a patched-together staff that lost the rest of its opening-day group. Mike Soroka is out for the season with a torn Achilles. Mike Foltynewicz and Sean Newcomb under-performed to the extent that they were jettisoned to the alternate training site. Veterans Felix Hernandez (decided against playing) and Cole Hamels (injury) haven’t pitched this season, though the latter is expected to debut later this month.
Kyle Wright and Touki Toussaint had opportunities to assert themselves, but neither established himself in the rotation. The group now includes converted long relievers Josh Tomlin and Robbie Erlin, newcomer Tommy Milone and a rookie in Anderson.
Wright was recalled to take Fried’s spot and started Tuesday night, beginning another rotation bid. The team also reinstated righthanded reliever Jacob Webb from the 45-day IL.