Max Fried discusses Braves exit. ‘Atlanta will always be extremely special to me’

But whatever happens in New York, Fried forever holds a cherished place in Atlanta’s heart. His eight seasons were synonymous with Braves success, culminating with the 2021 World Series championship. In his decade with the organization, Fried transformed from a 20-year-old injured prospect to a 31-year-old who commanded an unprecedented contract.

The Yankees rewarded Fried with a seven-year, $218 million contract, the largest for any southpaw in baseball history. It officially concluded his Braves tenure with the anticipated outcome. The past year-plus of dialogue centered on his expected free-agent departure.

“As far as expecting (to leave), if you’d have asked me, I probably would’ve originally thought I was going to spend a lot more years with the Braves,” Fried told the AJC. “But this is the direction it’s gone, and I’m really excited for this next chapter.”

How involved were the Braves in trying to retain Fried?

“As far as the nitty-gritty details of negotiations, I don’t necessarily know the full, full specifics,” he said. “My agent would have a full grasp on that. But the conversations were always that they’d love to have me back, and they wanted to try to figure it out. I just think when it came down to it, in the end — there was always a want, I just don’t know necessarily how involved (they were) toward the end, if that makes sense.”

Just like that, “Yankees left-hander Max Fried” joins the company of “Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman” and “Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson” as we’re reminded that time is fleeting. The 2021 title doesn’t feel too distant, but in a sports timeline, it was ages ago. Doesn’t it feel like yesterday that players like Fried comprised the up-and-coming core of the Braves?

The young player who Braves fans watched develop from a key trade acquisition to a blister-ridden youngster to a multi-time All-Star now belongs to the country’s largest market. Fried followed the Glavine Plan — lefty who starred in title-clinching Game 6 only to one day don an “NY” insignia on his cap — almost to a T.

Now, Fried shoulders immense expectations. He’s always held himself to excellent standards, but this is the New York Yankees. This is baseball’s pressure cooker, a global brand. Each year is a World Series or a failure — which means every season since 2009, including last year’s that produced an American League pennant, ultimately was a failure.

Fried carries the blessing and curse of being an expensive Yankees signee.

“I think that New York stage is going to be good for Max,” Charlie Morton, Fried’s former teammate who signed with the Orioles this winter, told the AJC. “I think it’s a great opportunity for him. (With Morton) sharing a division with the Yankees, Max is going to be one of their dudes now. But as a friend, I’m really excited and happy for him.”

Braves third baseman Austin Riley: “I think he’ll adjust fine (to New York). He’s super competitive, and he’s always looking to get better. It is different from a fan standpoint. It’ll be different than here in Atlanta. But hey, he made the choice, and I think he’ll do just fine.”

Four months ago, Fried made his last start at Truist Park and appeared visibly emotional leaving the mound, acknowledging a crowd that sang its heartfelt good-bye in unison. His next outing was a two-inning disappointment as the Braves’ season fizzled out in San Diego. Fried sat tearfully at his locker, struggling to muster the words to speak with teammates and reporters.

“I wouldn’t say there was any definitive (feeling I’d be gone),” he said in reflection. “I’d say there were a lot of emotions toward the end of the year where you just understand that it could be reality. I’ve spent a lot of time, put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into being here, this is where I’m comfortable, things like that. The uncertainty of the future, there was a lot of that. And also realizing that I didn’t perform in the way I wanted to in a playoff game and the season ended.

“There were just a lot of different emotions that were coming on. It was a little bit of the moment hitting. I would say that I knew there was a chance (I’d be gone). I didn’t know how sure because I was hopeful that I could stay.”

The Braves reached extensions with multiple pillar figures in recent years, but never one with Fried. It became clear, particularly over the past 24 months, where this was headed. It was going to be more Swanson than Freeman, if one wants to compare departures, but that doesn’t downplay the gravity of Fried’s exit.

Fanatics might recall his arrival via the Justin Upton trade with San Diego after he’d undergone Tommy John surgery. Some will remember his sudden call-up from Double-A Mississippi in 2017. Many saw how he was deployed as a bullpen weapon on the 2018 and 2019 Braves postseason teams, the beginning of the franchise’s renaissance.

But the difference between watching Fried then versus now is grape juice to wine.

Fried is twice an All-Star, once a Cy Young runner-up. He’s had ERAs below 3.25 in five consecutive seasons. Game 6 is immortalized in Braves history. Fried was a franchise ambassador. A Santa Monica, California native who embraced Atlanta as home. He even was the Braves’ last sweet-swinging pitcher before the National League adopted the designated hitter (“Luckily I won’t have to face him as a hitter,” Morton noted). And who could forget his iconic picture during the team’s parade day in which he’s wearing shades and smoking a cigar while carrying the sport’s grandest prize?

“You’re always hopeful (he’d be re-signed),” said Riley, who’s played alongside Fried since 2016 in the minors. “He’s obviously a really good player. He’s done well for us. But at the same time, my gut was always — because he is from the West Coast — (it was saying) that he would go out there. But he got what he wanted and I’m happy for him.”

Fried said he didn’t really have a coastal preference despite the longtime speculation.

“I was very open-minded,” he said. “I didn’t necessarily say I want to be on the West Coast (or) I want to be on the East Coast. I had been in Atlanta for so long that Atlanta had started to feel like home for me. Being on the East Coast wasn’t all that different. It was about going to a place that was really excited to bring me in and had a good chance to win every year.

“The Yankees, there’s a high standard for winning, and they seem to be in it every year. (Talking with them) was really nice, and we seemed to really mesh. After that, we had more conversations, and it ended up this was the best place for me. ... “There’s a lot of similarities (with the Braves). We have a lot of all-world talents who care about winning. Everybody has their individual thing, but there’s very much a team atmosphere and understanding that the collective group creates more opportunities for winning.”

Fried’s Braves tenure wasn’t all rosy, though, and there were reasons the Braves weren’t hell-bent on retaining him. Among them, he’s had underwhelming postseason results, posting a 5.10 ERA in 67 innings. His numbers were attributed to multiple factors from injuries to poor luck to simply less-than-usual performances.

The injury bouts are a more significant reason. He missed three months with a strained forearm in 2023. Last season, he missed more time with forearm neuritis. He’s exceeded 180 innings pitched in only one season and never reached the 200-inning plateau.

Obviously, the Yankees weren’t concerned (and saw no issues in Fried’s extensive physical). Nor were, apparently, the other teams that pursued Fried and helped his winning bid surge beyond projections. The Braves weren’t coming close to that number. They stray from bidding wars and have never committed a $100 million deal to a pitcher.

“He earned every bit of it if not more,” former teammate A.J. Minter, now a New York Met, told The AJC. “Knowing him, this is just the beginning for him. He works so hard that people don’t realize, just off the field, studying, preparing for hitters, always adapting; he’s never complacent.

“I went up through the minor leagues with him, to just see where he’s gone from being a young kid who was a little bit wild and couldn’t command the ball well, and was kind of shy and to himself, to see where he is now — he’s the best of the best. It goes to the Atlanta Braves organization building him up and developing him. I couldn’t speak higher of Max and what he’s done. He deserves every bit of it.”

Fried doesn’t join the Yankees with the same fan support that steadfastly remained behind him during his Braves tenure. These fans didn’t watch him grow up, and they’ll be unrelenting during inevitable down spots. Fried was unfamiliar with his teammates, too, and arrived early in Tampa to start acclimating.

The potential payoff here is astronomical. Fried can establish himself as one of the underappreciated great pitchers of the 21st century if his Yankees tenure goes as planned. And since it’s in New York, perhaps that “underappreciated” label will fade (the contract suggests that process is well underway). Maybe there will be a time when he’s continuously honored alongside that lengthy list of legendary Yankees.

But regardless of what awaits, he always will rank among the Braves greats. And he’ll always be the West Coast native who grew up in the South.

“(Atlanta will always be an) extremely special place for me,” Fried said. “I grew up as a baseball player and man there. Forever thankful for the people in the organization, my teammates and everyone around me who played a huge part in my life. But I also know that it’s a business. It’s part of the game. But the relationships will always be there. So there’s that little silver lining.”