The Atlanta Braves are in a good place right now, but things could change by 2025.
Atlanta has one of baseball’s deepest rosters, which has resulted in recent postseason runs and one World Series title. The Braves have one of baseball’s strongest cores, but they won’t be able to keep everyone as their salaries rise.
Ace Max Fried will become a free agent at the end of the season. He has emerged as a true standout for the Braves, earning two All-standout selections and three Gold Gloves since making his major league debut in 2017.
He is sure to be a popular commodity on the open market, and Bleacher Report’s Zachary Rymer named the San Francisco Giants as a potential landing location in his “way-too-early” free agency rankings.
“If Carlos Rodón’s six-year, $162 million contract with the New York Yankees serves as a standard for brilliant but not always healthy lefties, then so be it. That should be Fried’s objective,” Rymer stated. “Freddie Freeman’s departure serves as a warning to Atlanta fans not to get their hopes up for a reunion on the open market.” Any number of usual suspect big spenders might get in on Fried, including the Yankees, Dodgers, Giants, and Red Sox.
The Braves would want to keep Fried, and they may. However, other teams would be interested, and it would be difficult for him to stay in the National League with the Giants if he left Atlanta.