Max Fried sheds light on his mindset entering final year of contract with Braves

Max Fried will enter next offseason as one of the most sought after pitchers on the free agent market. Until then, he’s got quite a few starts ahead of him.

Fried enters his age-30 season having already established himself as one of the most reliable arms in the game. He’d be the ace on most pitching staffs, but instead is perhaps the best No. 2 in MLB with Spencer Strider situated atop Atlanta’s rotation.

Fried is coming off an injury-shortened 2023 season in which hamstring, forearm and blister issues limited him to just 14 starts. Still, he pitched to an 8-1 record with a 2.55 ERA last year, and historically has been durable.

Contract years come with inherent pressure, but Fried told MLB.com and Rob Bradford on Audacy’s Baseball Isn’t Boring that he’s trying not to get ahead of himself.

“I think at this point, it’s something that’s so far in the future," Fried said. "Now I’ve got hopefully 33-plus starts, with playoffs and stuff like that, you kind of have to have a very cliche one start at a time, one day at a time mentality. Whatever happens, and whenever that comes, I’ll deal with it.”