Max Fried is likely one of the greatest pitchers in baseball. Now in his ninth large league season, and his first with the New York Yankees after eight with the Atlanta Braves, the 31-year-old southpaw is 9-2 with a 1.89 ERA over 95 innings. His profession marks are spectacular as properly. Since debuting in August 2017, Fried has a 2.96 ERA and three.25 FIP to go along with a glowing 82-38 document. His .683 profitable share ranks behind solely Clayton Kershaw (.695) amongst energetic pitchers with a minimum of 100 choices.
When our 2015 Atlanta Braves Prime Prospect record was revealed in January of that yr, Fried was coming off a 2014 season that noticed him miss the primary three months with forearm soreness and throw simply 10 2/3 innings within the low minors earlier than present process Tommy John surgical procedure in July. Acquired by Atlanta from the San Diego Padres shortly earlier than our record went up, the seventh total decide within the 2012 draft was ranked third within the Braves system by Kiley McDaniel, then our lead prospect analyst.
What did Fried’s 2015 FanGraphs scouting report appear to be? Furthermore, what does he give it some thought all these years later? Wanting to seek out out, I shared a few of what McDaniel wrote and requested Fried to answer it.
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“The 6-foot-4, 185 pound lefty was half of what might have been one of the best one-two punch in highschool baseball historical past, with Nationals prime prospect RHP Lucas Giolito at Harvard Westlake Excessive College in 2012.”
“It was undoubtedly an excellent little factor,” replied Fried. “It didn’t point out that Jack Flaherty was in there, too. He was in all probability a greater performer in highschool than each of us. His stats blew mine and Lucas’ out of the water.”
“Scouts have been involved going into the 2012 draft spring concerning the unusually excessive quantity of pitches with restricted down time on the highschool’s pitching program.”
“That’s information to me,” stated Fried. “My senior yr, in complete, I feel I threw near 100 innings, however throwing and workload was by no means an issue for me. I performed soccer, basketball, and baseball type of yearly; I by no means actually performed baseball yr spherical. The primary time I actually gave it a full go along with no different sports activities was my senior yr. That was my first time including workload.
“I might say that the throwing I did was very average,” Fried added. “Guys are throwing yr spherical proper now. They’re throwing on a regular basis. They’re doing velo applications. I just about simply… I imply, we did throwing applications, and we performed a pair video games within the winter, however I used to be additionally nonetheless taking part in outfield my complete senior yr. I wasn’t on a strict pitching program.”
“The Braves acquired him from San Diego this winter because the headliner within the Justin Upton deal.”
“I used to be shocked,” Fried stated of the December 2014 swap. “That was the primary yr A.J. Preller was the GM, and I feel the primary time that I spoke to him was when he informed me I used to be getting traded. I’d simply had Tommy John, after which I obtained traded to the Braves. However every thing occurs for a cause, and I used to be capable of have plenty of actually good years there. I grew rather a lot.”
“Fried was shut down early in 2014 as a precaution; his subsequent MRI was clear and he went on a protracted rehab program, and when he went again to the mound, his elbow popped just a few begins into his return.”
“On the time, I used to be informed it was clear,” the southpaw recalled. “I in all probability had another stuff in there that wasn’t healed, and typically it occurs the place you simply get surgical procedure.”
“Even in these few begins earlier than his elbow popped in 2014, Fried’s stuff was nonetheless fairly near his peak stuff: 90-93, hitting 96 mph with a plus curveball and an bettering, above-average changeup.”
“My velocity was truly very down,” stated Fried. “I feel my first outing within the AZL that yr I used to be like 84-86, touching 87. At that time, I had been rehabbing so lengthy, and it was identical to, ‘Ship me on the market.’ I feel I ultimately obtained as much as like 88-91, touching a 93; the day I blew out, I feel I touched 93. However that yr my velocity was down, for certain.”
“His stuff will fluctuate begin to begin and his changeup flashes 60 for some scouts, however not usually and by no means concurrently his curveball.”
“Yeah, it was a foul changeup,” acknowledged Fried. “I modified my changeup after the 2019 season. I used to be extra of like a Vulcan break up between my center and ring finger, and it wasn’t an excellent pitch. It could be good when it was down, however once I left it up, I might hand over plenty of harm. I gave up too many homers in 2019, so I modified the grip going into 2020.”
“The upside is big, with shades of Cole Hamels at his greatest.”
“That’s a very nice praise,” replied Fried. “I’ve gotten to know Cole rather well, and to have the ability to have his profession can be an unimaginable accomplishment. If I’m capable of reside as much as that, I really feel that might be fairly good.”
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Earlier “Previous Scouting Reviews Revisited” interviews might be discovered by way of these hyperlinks: Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Stop, Matt Chapman, Erick Fedde, Kyle Freeland, Lucas Giolito, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Tanner Houck, Matthew Liberatore, Sean Newcomb, Bailey Ober, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Joe Ryan, Max Scherzer, Marcus Semien.