Braves’ Max Fried to Miss Time After Tweaking Hamstring on Opening Day
Despite earning a 7-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Opening Day, the Atlanta Braves came away with an unpleasant feeling as they witnessed their ace Max Fried leave the game due to injury.
Fried, making his third consecutive Opening Day start for Atlanta on Thursday, started strong as he held the Nationals to just one run on four hits through the first three innings. But upon returning for the fourth, with his team leading 4-1, things took an unfortunate turn for the 29-year-old hurler.
After Dominic Smith hit an 86.5-mph grounder to fellow first baseman Matt Olson, Fried ran over to cover first base and converted the out after receiving a toss from Olson. Afterwards, however, the left-handed starter was seen grimacing while walking back toward the mound.
Braves manager Brian Snitker and head athletic trainer George Poulis came out of the dugout to examine the southpaw, but he ultimately left the game with a strained left hamstring after throwing one warm-up pitch.
While Atlanta hasn’t made an official announcement yet, Fried is likely headed for an IL stint in the coming days, which would sideline him for a minimum of 15 days. At the very least, he is probably looking at missing two or three starts.
“[He] strained his hamstring,” Snitker said following Thursday’s opener. “It’s more than likely going to be an [injured-list stint].
“We haven’t officially [put him on the IL], but he’ll definitely miss a start.”
Losing Fried for any amount of time would be a major blow for the Braves early on, as they’ve already dealt with injuries to Kyle Wright (shoulder) and Michael Soroka (hamstring). Wright isn’t eligible to come off the IL until Apr. 11, one day after Fried’s next supposed scheduled start.
The 2022 NL Cy Young finalist said post-game that he experienced soreness immediately after covering first base on Smith’s groundout. But while he was hesitant to leave the game, he hopes the early exit will allow him to return sooner than expected.
“[Poulis] said we didn’t want to take any chances, with the weather being a little chillier today,” Fried said. “Right now, it’s just about how I feel in the coming days.”
The timing of the injury is terrible for Fried, who is coming off a stellar 2022 performance, where he posted a 2.48 ERA, 2.70 FIP and an 18.8 percent strikeout-to-walk rate over a career-high 185.1 innings, worth 5.0 fWAR.
However, that campaign didn’t end on a positive note, as the Braves ace caught a virus that caused him to lose 15 pounds during the regular season’s final week. He also missed significant time in 2021 after straining his right hamstring – so he knows what will be required to return from his latest injury-related absence.
“It’s a long season,” Fried said. “You can get back into a rhythm, and I definitely turned it around that ‘21 season coming back from that. I’m going to make sure that I’m doing everything that I can, so that when I do take that mound again, I’m ready to go.”
Without Fried, the Braves could turn to Ian Anderson, optioned to triple-A Gwinnett after faltering to a 6.14 ERA across 7.1 innings this spring. Or the team could promote Bryce Elder, who posted a 3.17 ERA and a 3.78 FIP over 54.0 innings in the majors last season.
Atlanta hopes second-year pro Spencer Strider – the runner-up to teammate Michael Harris II in last year’s NL Rookie of the Year race – can steady the ship during Saturday’s contest versus Washington, ahead of top prospect Jared Shuster’s MLB debut in Sunday’s finale.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @ThomasHall85
Photo: TheRealOne523. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.