What do the Braves do to replace Max Fried in the rotation?
Atlanta was victorious on Opening Day, defeating their division rival Washington Nationals 7-2, but potentially at the cost of Max Fried's availability for the month of April.
READ: Takeaways for Atlanta's Opening Day victory over the Washington Nationals
Fried strained his hamstring racing to 1st to cover on a groundball to Matt Olson, and left the game after one warmup pitch, unable to continue.
After the game, Fried was optimistic that it wasn't a serious injury and that it was similar to a previous hamstring strain he's faced before.
Fried suffered a hamstring strain in April 2021, ending a month that was not particularly effective for the lefty. Hitting the IL after an April 13th start against the Marlins, Fried was looking at a 6.35 ERA with fourteen runs and twenty-three hits in his first three games. He spent about three weeks on the injured list, and once he returned, started a streak of dominance that carried Atlanta to the division crown.
After returning, Fried started 25 games in the rest of the 2021 season and went 14-6 with a 2.44 ERA, wth the Braves winning 17 of those 25 games. Fried went on to start five games in the postseason, three of them being wins, as Atlanta won the World Series in six games over the Houston Astros.
How will Atlanta replace Fried?
The first game Atlanta will need a replacement starter for comes next Wednesday in St. Louis, which was Fried's next scheduled start. Prospects Dylan Dodd and Jared Shuster are already in the rotation, with Shuster starting this Saturday and Dodd on Tuesday.
Kyle Wright, last year's MLB wins leader with 21, is still on the IL as he builds back from a sore shoulder and cortisone injection that delayed the start to his spring. He's scheduled to make multiple starts in the minors before being activated, with a target of being activated on Tuesday, April 11th for the 2nd game of Atlanta's home series versus the Cincinnati Reds.
When Wright returns, Dodd and Shuster can both remain in the rotation until Fried returns.
So what to do for this expected two to three start gap? The obvious choices to replace Fried come down to Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder, both sent down to AAA Gwinnett in mid-March as the Braves narrowed down the 5th starter's competition to Dodd and Shuster.
As we discussed in the AAA Gwinnett season preview, Anderson and Elder are both expected to pitch this weekend for Gwinnett, with Elder the Opening Day starter on Friday and Anderson anticipated to start on Sunday. Elder lines up for the logical fill-in, as a Friday start would put him on a normal five days of rest for a Wednesday MLB start.
Atlanta has other options they can take other than plucking someone from Gwinnett - a bullpen game is always a possibility, although Wednesday being the fifth game in a stretch of twelve straight feels like it's not conducive to throwing multiple relievers in an outing. Other prospects - Darius Vines is in AAA and on the 40-man roster - could always be called up in lieu of Elder.
The big takeaway is that the hamstring issue for Fried is thought to be mild, and he (and Atlanta) have battled through this exact scenario before with good results. Let's see if 2023 repeats 2021, which last we checked, was a pretty good year for Atlanta Braves baseball.
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