The Baltimore Orioles saw their 2024 season come to an end much sooner than they hoped.
After finishing the year with a 91-71 record, 10 wins less than 2023, the Orioles went 0-2 in the American League Wild Card round against the Kansas City Royals.
While the offense was a strength for Baltimore in 2024, finishing the year with a .750 team OPS good enough for fourth in MLB, their lack of depth for their starting rotation let them down, and with ace Corbin Burnes potentially leaving in free agency, it does not look to be getting any better.
The Orioles have options, though, in-house and available in the upcoming free agent class.
While Burnes is all but guaranteed to be on the way out in free agency, there is an option available through free agency that could fill that hole well, Atlanta Braves veteran Max Fried.
Fried will be entering free agency for the first time in his career, and will be 31 in 2025.
The veteran made $15 million in 2024, in a deal he signed with the Braves in January to avoid arbitration.
He is definitely in line for a raise, but Atlanta may not be the team to give it to him with the plethora of pitching that they will still have.
Baltimore can be the team that gives him that raise.
He is not on the same level of production as Burnes, but he’s not too far off, and Burnes is in line to make much more in the coming off-season.
Burnes will be 30 in 2025, and has a market value of $30.1 million a year per Spotrac, while they have Fried listed with a market value of $22.7 million a year.
Let’s compare their stats over the last three seasons:
Corbin Burnes: 97 GS, 590 IP, 0 CG, 0 SHO, 3.08 ERA, 3.49 FIP, 624 Ks, 1.042 WHIP, 131 ERA+
Max Fried: 73 GS, 437.1 IP, 3 CG, 2 SHO, 2.80 ERA, 3.03 FIP, 416 Ks, 1.095 WHIP, 149 ERA+
Injuries plagued Fried’s 2023 campaign, but he made 30 starts in 2022 and 29 in 2024 and has been more durable than most throughout his career.
While the Orioles will almost certainly lose Burnes, Fried can be brought in as a better replacement on a much cheaper deal, leaving the club more money to spend on other free agents, be it another starting pitcher or a bat to replace Anthony Santander, who is also a free agent.
When looking at Fried’s Baseball Savant profile, it makes even more sense.
Fried has generated ground balls at a 55.3 percent clip throughout his career, never falling below 50 percent for a season, and doing so at a 59.2 percent clip this year, ranking in the 96th percentile.
Fried consistently generates weak ground balls, and that would play up at Orioles Park at Camden Yards, especially against right-handed hitters with the wall in left field extended.
Fried has been a consistent name at the top of the starting pitching ranks for the majority of his career, and now reaching free agency for the first time, he is certain to be paid, and Baltimore should be the team to do it.
