Hometown Star Max Fried Could Be ‘High-End Starter’ Dodgers Seek: Report

The Los Angeles Dodgers could certainly be tempted to run it back in 2025 with the same core group of players after winning the World Series in 2024. In the Dodgers’ case, that’s a trickier proposition than usual.

Start with the fact that the team deployed a different five-man starting rotation practically every month. Injuries to Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Gavin Stone interrupted all of their best-laid plans, as did the late-season struggles of Bobby Miller and Landon Knack.

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Combined with the pending free agency of Walker Buehler and Jack Flaherty, as well as the injury returns of Shohei Ohtani, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, the Dodgers’ rotation is guaranteed to change no matter what they do this winter.

The Dodgers have been heavily linked to Roki Sasaki ever since the 23-year-old revealed he would be leaving Japan for Major League Baseball in 2025. If Sasaki signs elsewhere, it would be no surprise if the Dodgers look to bolster their rotation against the myriad question marks in the trainer’s room.

One name that’s sure to gain traction on the free agent market this winter is Max Fried. A native of Santa Monica and a product of Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, Fried is among the top left-handers available in free agency along with Blake Snell and Sean Manaea.

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Fried, 31, started 29 games last year for the Braves and pitched to a 3.25 ERA (3.33 FIP) over 174.1 innings. His 2.81 ERA over the last five seasons is the best of any major league starter.

Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito, a teammate of Fried’s at Harvard-Westlake, revealed recently he’s “said everything that can be said” to Fried about Boston. A new report from ESPN’s Jeff Passan Tuesday did nothing to douse cold water on the Fried-to-Boston rumor.

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“He’s exactly the sort of pitcher the Red Sox would like to anchor their rotation as their ascent back to contention begins,” Passan wrote. “Toronto is in. San Francisco and Baltimore will be part of the mix, too.”

Without going into much depth, Passan also linked Fried to the Dodgers, “who are targeting at least one high-end starter.”

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Sasaki is 23 years old. Because he is limited to signing a minor league contract for a bonus amount within each team’s international amateur spending pool, Sasaki almost certain to deliver more pound-for-pound value to the team that signs him compared to every other pitcher on this winter’s free agent market.

That makes Sasaki the top target for Los Angeles — and every other team in the market for pitching this winter. The Dodgers have the advantage of using the two best Japanese-born players in baseball, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, atop any recruiting pitch to Sasaki.

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Passan reports that Fried, who turns 31 on Opening Day, “looks likely to get the second-largest guarantee for a pitcher this winter after posting a major-league-best 2.81 ERA over the past five seasons.”

If the Dodgers aren’t able to sang Sasaki, Fried certainly makes for an intriguing fallback option.

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