Max Fried injured with forearm, Braves hope for quick return

ATLANTA — Max Fried is on injured reserve with a forearm injury for the second straight summer, but the Atlanta Braves and the All-Star left-hander have reason to believe the problem isn’t as serious as the one that sidelined him for three months last season.

Fried was diagnosed with neuritis in his left forearm and placed on the disabled list Sunday, two days after an MRI revealed nerve irritation but no structural damage to his throwing arm. He pitched a scoreless inning with a walk on 10 pitches in Tuesday’s All-Star Game, where Fried felt something during his warm-up but didn’t say anything at the time.

“I didn’t think about it too much. In this game, you feel things all the time,” Fried said. “They usually go away. I didn’t feel like I was in any danger of really getting hurt. I was able to get through the inning, I felt good. I took the day off after the game to go home and stuff, came in (Thursday) for our practice, played ball, I was still feeling it.”

Fried said at that point he knew he had to say something so the Braves would have time to reshuffle their rotation and get someone else to start when they were scheduled to start on Sunday. He was sent for an MRI that revealed neuritis, a condition caused by inflammation of one or more nerves.

Max Fried felt something in his forearm while warming up for the All-Star Game, Brian Snitker said, but Fried didn’t think it was enough to keep him from pitching. When the pain persisted Friday, he told the team, he immediately had an MRI. It showed no soft tissue damage, just nerve irritation.

– David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) July 21, 2024

A Braves official confirmed that Fried does not have ulnar neuritis, a condition that occurs when the ulnar nerve is irritated or compressed. It can be more serious.

“Structurally, everything seems fine, just a little irritated sensory nerve,” Fried said, “not one of the major muscle nerves. … I’m just going to let things calm down, and hopefully be back soon.”

Fried’s injury could make adding a starting pitcher before the trade deadline a priority again, after that need appeared to diminish in recent weeks with the strong performance of rookie Spencer Schwellenbach.

Still, I felt some relief after the MRI results.

“Because it scares you or worries you,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That’s why he wanted to take care of it and make sure it wasn’t something serious. But it’s enough that they want to shut him down for a while, and once he’s asymptomatic, he’ll start pitching again. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.”

Fried said from what he’s been told his stay on the injured list shouldn’t be long, though he wouldn’t speculate on how long he’ll be out.

“Everybody’s body reacts differently. I’m not going to give you a specific time frame,” he said. “(Because) all I’ve been told is it’s definitely short term.

“It’s definitely a relief to know that everything is structurally fine and that it was just a freak accident. I’m just going to let things settle down a little bit and everything should be fine without any problems.”

Neither Fried nor the Braves mentioned anything about the situation until the team announced Sunday morning that he had been placed on the 15-day injured list, along with left-hander Dylan Dodd recalled from Triple-A. Braves teammates didn’t know the severity of Fried’s injury, only that he had been placed on the injured list.

“Yeah, you hate it,” third baseman Austin Riley said before Sunday’s game. “Obviously, for what he’s brought to this locker room and this team, you hate it. I don’t know to what extent, but you hope it’s minor.”

Fried said he first felt discomfort while doing “arm circles” in the bullpen while warming up before his All-Star appearance. He briefly considered not pitching in the game, which would be his second All-Star appearance in three years.

“At that point, when I was pitching under those circumstances, I thought it was one of those situations: ‘I just have to finish the outing. I have one inning to play, it’s nice and easy,’ (and then) be able to take a couple days off, recover and feel good and be able to make my start without any problems.

“And it lasted a little longer than expected.”

Fried, 30, was limited to 14 starts in 2023, when he was sidelined for three months with a forearm strain and also missed time with a blistered finger and a pulled hamstring. He still went 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 77 2/3 innings, and many expected the Braves to sign him to a contract extension before this season, his last before free agency.

It’s unclear how far the contract negotiations have progressed, but there has been no extension, and it appears Fried, a 2022 National League Cy Young Award finalist, has seen his price tag rise significantly with his performance this season.

He is 7-5 with a 3.08 ERA and two complete games in 18 starts, including a 2.36 ERA in his last 16 starts with a .212 opponents’ average and a .567 opponents’ OPS over that span.

How much this injury affects contract talks with the Braves or his potential free-agent price tag will likely depend on how long he spends on the injured list and how he performs after his return.

But for now, the Braves are hoping for a quick return. They had a 3.40 ERA heading into the All-Star break, which is largely due to the performance of their trio of All-Star starting pitchers, including Fried, MLB wins leader Chris Sale (13-3, 2.70) and ERA leader Reynaldo López (7-3, 1.88).

Sale, 35, was terrific in his first season with the Braves, but the injury-plagued left-hander has already pitched more innings (110) than he has in any season since 2019. López has been a reliever the last few seasons and has already pitched more innings (95 2/3) than he has in any season since 2019, the last year he was a full-season starter.

The Braves have followed a strategy all season of giving their starters extra rest, using their three All-Star starters on regular rest (four days) only twice each, though they plan to have them pitch on regular rest more frequently for the remainder of the season.

“All this extra rest and all that is really good,” Snitker said, “but if something (an injury) is going to happen, it’s going to happen, I think, regardless. But we’re going to do everything we can to check that box, to try to give these guys some extra rest so they can get through the season.”

Snitker doesn’t think Fried’s pitching in the All-Star Game had any influence on his injury.

“He was at peak performance and everything,” he said of Fried, who was on rest before the one-inning appearance. “It could have been worse if he had come out today (to start for the Braves), done that and felt it getting hot in the bullpen, and then all of a sudden we had to (leave him out).”

“If it’s going to happen, it’s probably the best possible scenario, given how it could play out, as far as we’re concerned as a team.”

Although the MRI results could have been worse, Fried said it was frustrating to be injured again, especially before such an important time of the season.

“I love being able to go out there every five days and pitch and compete,” he said. “Not being able to go out there and play with my teammates, it’s tough. So I’m really glad it’s nothing serious, but at the same time, I’m really disappointed because I want to be out there.”

(Photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)