Led by All-Stars, Braves Battle Through Injuries

Unlike last summer’s Atlanta-centric All-Star Game when the Atlanta Braves sent an eight-man contingent to Seattle, this year’s Midsummer Classic had a more muted Braves presence. The quartet of Atlanta All-Stars sent to scorching hot Arlington, Texas, none of whom were part of last July’s festivities, included Chris Sale, Reynaldo López, Marcell Ozuna, and Max Fried, who was a last-minute injury replacement to the NL squad once the Philadelphia Phillies’ Ranger Suárez bowed out with back spasms. While the NL All-Star roster was loaded with eight Phillies and highlighted by the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, Atlanta was well represented with its four-player contingent – whittled down to three with Sale not pitching – primarily because of Fried’s solid second inning outing.

After not pitching during his first All-Star Game, held in his Los Angeles hometown amidst his Cy Young runner-up 2022 season, Fried saw his first All-Star game action when he was called in to relieve NL starter Paul Skenes in the bottom of the second at Arlington’s enclosed and climate-controlled Globe Life Field. It didn’t start particularly promising. After walking Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez – an opponent from the 2021 World Series — to lead off the frame, Atlanta’s southpaw settled down to retire the next three batters (Jose Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Adley Rutschman) in order. Per Fried’s track record this season, he wasn’t overpowering, but was ever efficient in retiring the side on 10 pitches by inducing a flyout from Ramirez and a pair of harmless ground balls from Guerrero Jr. and Rutschman.

“It was definitely a lot of emotions,” said Fried about his All-Star debut in front of 39,343 perspiring hardcore baseball enthusiasts who ended up seeing the American League secure a 5-3 win. “A ton of energy in the building. To be able to go out there and face some of the best hitters in the game, it was a lot of fun. . . . At the end of the day, it’s an exhibition. It was a fun experience. It’s a bucket list item for sure being able to go and pitch in an All-Star Game and I’ll definitely remember it forever.”

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When asked if there was any chance of coming out for another inning of work given the low pitch count, Fried responded, “No chance. I knew it was one inning. I was done. I was happy that they were swinging, I was getting early contact, and I got some outs. That was it.”

Upon returning from the All-Star break a couple days later, Fried was back at Truist Park working out when he felt “a little bit of a slight burning” in his forearm; the next day, an MRI indicated that while everything was sound structurally, he had irritated a sensory nerve and developed forearm neuritis. It was, according to Fried, “a freak accident,” but one that would still require a 15-day stint on the injured list. Fortunately, it appears that the Braves averted a disaster as their veteran lefty was throwing long toss at Citi Field on Sunday morning before the Braves took on the Mets and may very well return in early August.

Apparently, the injury may have surfaced on the weekend prior to the break when he was getting loose doing arm circles as part of his pregame routine. At the time, it seemed like merely general soreness – no pitcher at this point in the season feels 100 percent – and Fried didn’t think much of it. And it was certainly an afterthought when his boss, Alex Anthopolous, Braves’ president of baseball operations, broke the news that he was an All-Star injury replacement three days before the actual game.

“Basically, I woke up and I had a couple missed calls because we were on the West Coast and he [Anthopolous] was on the East. I was kind of uncertain and gave him a call and he said, ‘hey, we just got a call that you’re selected to the All-Star team, do you want to go?’” recalled Fried, who 15 years ago was pitching for the 2009 Maccabiah Games Team USA Juniors baseball team that won a gold medal in Israel, the day before the All-Star Game.

“I was like, ‘yeah, definitely not against it.’ It was a really cool moment. It was really nice to get that pleasant surprise. I was unfortunately unable to pitch the last time just because of the way things lined up with my start. To be able to run in from the bullpen and throw an inning in this kind of environment, it will be really cool.

“It’s an honor to be able to be around this caliber of players and just to be here and be a part of this game. You never take it for granted. Definitely wasn’t expecting it, especially with how late it was.”

Fried may have been a bit surprised by his late addition to the NL roster, but other All-Stars, including former teammate Freddie Freeman were not.
“It makes sense,” said Freeman. “He [Fried] has been one of the best pitchers in the game for a long time. He’s having a great season again.”

Added Sale, “His [Fried] preparation, as a whole, with not only what he does in the training room and the weight room but how his scouting reports are, how in depth he is for what he’s going to throw to who, when he’s going to throw it – that is wildly impressive.”

After Fried’s clean inning, López was called in to face Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez with two outs in the sixth. The Braves’ unexpected ace this year, now dealing with his own injury bug, blew away Perez on four pitches, while his rotation mate Sale captured the veteran’s first All-Star performance on the handy iPhone. In the top of the seventh, Ozuna, who participated in the prior evening’s home run derby, pinch hit for Ohtani with two outs and runners on first and second but grounded out deep into the hole at shortstop to end the NL’s threat of cutting into the two-run deficit.

Because he had recently started in San Diego leading up to the All-Star Game, Sale was a spectator at his eighth All-Star Game. Still, this year’s game held special significance as his last All-Star Game hadn’t been since 2018, meaning this was the first one in which his three sons (age 4, 7, and 14) were all around and able to appreciate, alongside his wife and father, who attended Sale’s seven consecutive All-Star Games from 2012-2018.

Meanwhile the Braves, headlined by the All-Star trio of Sale, Fried, and López — representing the first time Atlanta sent three pitchers to the Midsummer Classic since 1997 – continue to be snakebit by a seeming non-stop barrage of injuries. They remain a long shot to catch the Phillies for the NL East flag but are nevertheless squarely in the mix for a Wild Card berth in the anything-can-happen MLB postseason. And of course, looking ahead to next summer when Atlanta hosts the 95th Midsummer Classic, the hope is that the Braves will be spared the onslaught of injuries that have plagued them this star-crossed season so that their organizational depth, the bedrock of a franchise built to contend throughout the balance of the decade, is on full display.

“You look at that Atlanta roster,” noted Colorado Rockies All-Star infielder Ryan McMahon, “they’ve got 26 guys who could be an All-Star basically any year.”