3 Max Fried Doomsday Landing Spots That Will Haunt the Braves

Atlanta BravesThe season ended in bitter disappointment when the team lost in the first round. San Diego Padres. It’s been a hell of a season for Atlanta, marked by countless injuries and the abysmal underperformance of countless stars. Marcel Ozuna and an incredible pitching staff did their best, but in the end, Atlanta simply couldn’t compete with the National League heavyweights with half their roster on the ice.

Next season should be different. Spencer Strider, Ronald Acuna, Austin Riley and others will return to the lineup, presumably at full strength. Chances are Matt Olson won’t fall that hard again. Not with Michael Harris. It’s only from here.

However, the Braves could also potentially lose several key pieces, with the most important one being soon-to-be free agent Max Fried. The hard-hitting left-hander has been in fruitless negotiations with the Braves’ front office for years. Perhaps something will work out by the final bell, but all signs point to Fried landing a lucrative contract with a new team.

Atlanta should have enough pitching depth to survive Fried’s departure, but Charlie Morton is also expected to depart upon retirement. Suddenly it gets risky. Chris Sale is another year older, Strider is returning from Tommy John surgery, and Reynaldo Lopez will likely never pitch that well again. If Fried leaves, the world will fall apart for Atlanta’s rotation.

To make matters worse, some of Fried’s most popular hypothetical landing spots are miserable nightmares for Braves fandom. Here are some likely landing spots that will send Atlanta fans into a tailspin.

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This, of course, is far-fetched, but we have heard enough smoke about Philadelphia Phillies targets the fifth starter to be worth mentioning. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on the Phils’ radar last winter. Garrett Crochet was announced as a target at the trade deadline. What’s to stop Philadelphia from reaching out to a former rival?

The real answer? Money. The Phillies have already paid Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Christopher Sanchez and (gulp) Taijuan Walker. Next up is Ranger Suarez. The Phillies need a top fifth starter, but in-house options like Spencer Turnbull or Andrew Painter could be more cost-effective than shelling out more than $150 million for Fried.

However, Dave Dombrowski has an aggressive streak as general manager. He talked about prioritizing depth over more star powerbut the Phillies’ track record of targeting high-powered stars is hard to ignore. Fried has greatly strengthened Philadelphia’s rotation, creating what is far and away the best five-man lineup in the National League.

Philly’s rotation will lean a little lefty with Fried, Wheeler, Sanchez and Suarez, but when you have that much talent on a team, you can handle it. This would likely be the worst possible outcome for Atlanta’s goals, especially in terms of postseason implications, but it would also be the least likely.

New York Mets could lose Sean Manea, Luis Severino and Jose Quintana to free agency this winter, raising serious questions about the future of New York’s rotation. Steve Cohen has the deepest pockets in baseball, but his number one priority this offseason will be getting Juan Soto out of the Bronx. If the Mets’ pitching options dry up and the focus remains on Soto, New York’s next season could be questionable.

However, Cohen’s pockets are deep enough to break the bank on Soto. And go for a starter with high leverage. Fried will presumably lead the Mets rotation in tandem with Kodai Senga, giving New York a chance to compete with the National League’s best.

The Mets will have to successfully navigate a difficult offseason, but at this point there is no reason to doubt New York’s competitive aspirations. Francisco Lindor is a bona fide MVP candidate, the depth and versatility of their roster showed in October, and Carlos Mendoza looks like a top manager.

Fried gives New York a much-needed boost—and the move keeps it in the Braves’ own division. These are the results the Braves would most like to avoid. It’s one thing to lose Fried over Boston Red Sox or something like that, against a team they’ll likely never face in October. However, seeing Fried every other week in the regular season and potentially facing him in the NLDS is a more worrisome possibility.

I won’t be dramatic, but Los Angeles Dodgers pose a threat to the integrity of our beloved game.

Okay, that’s a little harsh, but the Dodgers’ $1 billion offseason appears to have propelled them to a World Series victory. This could be the first of many. The Dodgers offense was always going to be superior, but watching Los Angeles plow through opposing offenses with Tyler Glasnow hurt and Shohei Ohtani as the full-time DH is a little scary.

Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler all earned their moments in the sun during the Dodgers’ run. Glasnow and Ohtani will join the team next season, with Bobby Miller facing another jump and several potential free agents on L.A.’s radar. No one fits more obviously than Max Fried, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended the same high school as Flaherty. It would be a homecoming with the added benefit of joining the best team in the National League.

If the Dodgers go into next season with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and an elite rotation, we might as well cancel it. Of course, this is not true since baseball is inherently unpredictable, but it will be extremely difficult to face the Dodgers at any time. Fried’s postseason struggles have been well documented, but the Dodgers can protect him better than any other team.

The idea of ​​seeing Fried in competing colors on the East Coast is upsetting, but Braves fans would almost certainly prefer that to Fried joining the Dodgers. This team is good enough as is. What kind of help does Otani need?