Braves Rumors: When is Max Fried coming back?

Yes, Atlanta fans were promised Max Fried's triumphant return sometime after the All-Star Break. I can assure you it is coming, as Fried is rehabbing well in the Braves minor-league system the last week or so.

House That Hank Built offered up a quick recap of Fried's rehab starts, the most recent of which took place in Rome.

"Anyways, back to our regularly scheduled content. The Max Fried rehab assignment. His first rehab start saw him go 1.1 innings in Gwinnett and throw 35 pitches. For Rome, Fried would only throw 30 pitches, but he would get through 3 innings.

Fried's final line: 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K. Both singles were softly bounced through the infield. Arguably both are fielded with a major-league defense behind him. All of the batted balls against Fried were on the ground. As we know Max Fried, gets plenty of weak ground balls when he is on his game. Add a good strikeout rate and a patented pick-off, and Fried looked sharp."

Fried is making his way up the minor-league ranks, and it's fair to expect him to make his MLB return before the MLB trade deadline. That will be useful for the Braves and Alex Anthopoulos, as the front office could prioritize rotation depth at the deadline. The urgency would go up a notch if, say, Fried were to struggle in his return or need more time than expected to return to form.

Braves rumors: Atlanta gets some outfield help

After Eddie Rosario suffered an injury against the Chicago White Sox, it became clear that Atlanta could use some more outfield depth. Initially, I assumed that would be on the trade market. In an article published earlier this morning, I suggested the Braves should trade for Cardinals outfielder Tyler O'Neill, who just returned from injury and is a two-time Gold Glove winner.

Tyler O'Neill is recovering from an injury of his own, but when healthy he's a two-time gold glover and capable right-handed bat. If Rosario has a clear weakness, it's his defense, so odds are this could even serve as an upgrade for an Atlanta squad without many clear issues. Left field, which O'Neill has plenty of experience playing, should serve well for him in the ATL if given the opportunity.

Rather than panic and make a trade, Anthopoulos opted to call up 27-year-old Forrest Wall. MLB Trade Rumors summed up his game quite well, while also noting he hasn't played in the bigs for quite some time:

"He's now played in 290 Triple-A games across four different seasons, hitting a combined .259/.344/.373 in those. He doesn't have much power, having never hit more than 11 home runs in a season, but he's walking at a 13.5% clip this year. He's also a proficient base stealer, getting over 35 in each of the past three seasons, including 52 last year and another 45 already this year. He's capable of playing all three outfield slots."

Wall will get his chance with the Braves, and for his sake I hope he gets a few at-bats. Forrest is the hero Atlanta needs right now, evidently.

Braves Rumors: Why Atlanta won't trade for Shohei Ohtani

Leave it to Jim Bowden of The Athletic to mention the Braves offhandedly as a Shohei Ohtani destination. It should be noted that it would be very un-Anthopoulos of this front office to chase after the top rental on the market, especially when it involves parting with the best players in the system and some MLB-level talent. Add in that it's no guarantee Ohtani even re-signs with Atlanta, and it's a virtual lock that the Braves won't be in on the Ohtani sweepstakes.

Here's what Bowden had to say about things:

"The Braves are the best team in baseball and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos is always looking to add a top-of-the-rotation starter. However, they don't have enough left in their farm system to trade for Ohtani, and they're not going to break up their major-league team, which is among the favorites to win the World Series. Expect them to do their due diligence but not be in the mix if Ohtani is traded."

What due diligence could Atlanta possible do here? The price tag will be far beyond what they are willing to pay. Yet, here we are.

IF the Braves were to acquire Ohtani, it would happen in free agency for many reasons. Atlanta has done well in keeping its homegrown stars from reaching the market on affordable, team-friendly contracts. That could, in theory, allow them to chase a star like Ohtani in free agency without feeling the financial heat, so to speak.

Trading resources for Ohtani defeats that purpose entirely.