It's easy to forget now that Max Fried seemed like an afterthought in the Atlanta Braves organization just two years ago. He was a former first-round pick who had been acquired by a previous administration and promoted and demoted repeatedly before being relegated to four relief appearances in September 2018. Kyle Wright was given many opportunities to pin down a spot in the rotation throughout 2019 and in the first part of the truncated 2020 season and had failed to seize control, his career trajectory beginning to look like that of a first-round bust.
But Alex Anthopoulos, the Braves' general manager, handled the two pitchers and others deliberately, having made his own share of mistakes in his past, experience that he has drawn on repeatedly since taking over Atlanta in November 2017. Because of the Dodgers' preeminence in the National League in recent seasons and stars such as Clayton Kershaw, Cody Bellinger and Mookie Betts, L.A. is regarded as the favorite over the Braves in the NL Championship Series -- and yet rival evaluators view the Braves as extremely dangerous, because of an incredibly deep bullpen and everyday lineup, and because of a rotation stabilized by the improvement of Fried and Wright.
Anthopoulos was first hired as a GM in 2010, with the Blue Jays. Since then, he has come to believe that you have to value and actively foster good clubhouse culture. He has learned you have to build quality roster depth -- not only among those on your big league roster, but all the way through your 40-man roster, and beyond. And you have to do everything you possibly can to help players find and apply the necessary tools to get better -- players like Fried and Wright -- and provide them an appropriate amount of time to affect those changes.
Atlanta had trade offers for Fried and for Wright, and the others in its deep stable of starting pitching. Every time the Braves talked to other teams about veteran assets, like catcher J.T. Realmuto, opponents would ask for the stable of pitchers, including Ian Anderson, the third pick overall from the 2016 draft.
But Anthopoulos waited, patiently, something he might not have done in his first stint as a general manager with the Blue Jays. "I think it comes from making mistakes in Toronto," he said in a phone conversation the other day, "and learning from those mistakes."
When Anthopoulos took over the Blue Jays, his view of clubhouse culture was that you could address it with the addition of one or two high-character players -- like specialists added to round out a roster. But through some rough experiences, Anthopoulos says, and conversations with the likes of Mark DeRosa and Mark Buehrle, he learned that clubhouse culture had to be a priority, something ingrained throughout a lot of the roster. This was part of the reason why he targeted respected veteran Russell Martin when the catcher became a free agent in the fall of 2014.
The Blue Jays made the playoffs in 2015, for the first time in more than 20 years. But with Mark Shapiro newly installed as team president, Anthopoulos left the organization and joined the Dodgers, working alongside and learning from Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, two evaluators whose formative years had been with small-market teams -- Friedman with the Tampa Bay Rays, Zaidi with the Oakland Athletics.
For Anthopoulos, they provided consistent examples in the way they thought about and pursued player improvement, a reflexive trait for them because "when they were the Rays and A's," Anthopoulos said, "they had no choice." The Dodgers acquired Chris Taylor from the Mariners, helped him make changes, and Taylor became an above-average player. The same was true with Max Muncy and many others.
Similarly, the Braves have become adept at developing their own players. In spring training of 2019, Braves pitching coach Rick Kranitz spoke to Fried about excising a pause that had been part of the left-hander's delivery -- something Fried had used to keep himself from flying open -- and instead smoothing out his mechanics. Fried also began to implement a slider, a weapon he hadn't used before. In the past two regular seasons, Fried has become one of the National League's best lefties, posting a 3.57 ERA in 44 appearances, with just 66 walks in 221⅔ innings; his Adjusted ERA+ is 130.
Wright looked spectacular during spring training in '19, to the degree that some scouts thought he had the best pure stuff in the Grapefruit League, but once the regular season began, he flopped in his attempts at winning a spot in the rotation. This past summer, Braves assistant GM Ben Sestanovich hired performance coach Zach Sorensen, and Wright -- who had been helped by a performance coach at Vanderbilt -- began to work with Sorensen. This is not without precedent in the Braves' storied history: John Smoltz's early career turned during the 1991 season after he started working a sports psychologist, Jack Llewellyn.
In Wright's last three starts in the regular season, he allowed just five earned runs over 19 innings, and despite almost two weeks off, the right-hander dominated the Miami Marlins in the clinching game of the division series, allowing three hits and no runs over six innings, striking out seven. He, Fried and Anderson have combined to allow four earned runs in 28⅔ innings in this postseason, with five walks and 33 strikeouts.
But the strength of the team might actually be its bullpen. In 2018, the Braves improved by 18 wins and faced the Dodgers in the division series, and were overwhelmed by L.A.'s depth. Midway through the 2019 season, the Braves' bullpen was a serious problem, and Anthopoulos traded for Chris Martin and Mark Melancon -- and in each of the first four games of the series, Atlanta held leads that it retained only half the time.
During the last offseason, the Braves re-signed Martin, righty Darren O'Day and quickly moved to lock up free-agent lefty Will Smith to a three-year, $40 million deal -- not only to give manager Brian Snitker an excellent left-handed option, but also because of Smith's reputation as an excellent teammate; the Braves thought Smith would help the team's younger relievers. A recommendation by Dana Brown, the team's vice president for scouting, led to the signing of Tyler Matzek in the summer of 2019, despite Matzek's history of yips, and the left-hander forced his way to the big leagues this year, striking out 43 in 29 innings. In the 2020 playoffs, these are the numbers for the Atlanta bullpen: 20⅓ IP, 10 hits, one run, no homers and a 33-4 ratio of strikeouts to walks.
The Braves retained Nick Markakis, also renowned for his team-first ethic, and signed Travis d'Arnaud, a catcher with an even-keeled personality and a shared history in the Blue Jays organization with both Anthopoulos and Braves coach Sal Fasano. D'Arnaud's production has been exceptional, and he has fit in perfectly with what is probably one of the best clubhouse cultures in baseball. "I did not properly value makeup and character," Anthopoulos said, looking back. "I have learned the most from failure."
News from around the major leagues
Remember the criticism first baseman Jon Singleton took when he signed a deal that guaranteed him $10 million before he signed his first contract? "Sorry but this Singleton deal is terrible," pitcher Bud Norris tweeted. "Wish the Jon listened to the union and not the agent." Singleton wound up playing 119 games in the big leagues, and in that time, the Astros got minus-0.9 WAR -- and Singleton walked away with $10 million. Turned out to be a pretty good deal for him.
Scott Kingery of the Phillies signed a six-year, $24 million deal in March 2018 before his first game in the majors, and so far, the contract probably hasn't worked out to the team's expectation. Beset by injuries and, in 2020, the coronavirus, Kingery has a .233/.284/.393 career slash line in 309 games. He'll turn 27 in April, with three years remaining on a contract (plus option years at the back end). If Kingery did not have a guaranteed deal, he probably would be eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter and possibly subject to a non-tender -- something a lot of players will deal with in the offseason ahead -- because of how baseball's financial landscape is about to change. But no matter what happens, Kingery is going to get his money. So will Ozzie Albies, the Braves' second baseman, who was criticized within the industry for taking a $35 million contract in the spring of 2019.
On the other hand, the Cubs' overture to Kris Bryant -- whether you want to call it an offer or a concept -- for something in the range of $200 million never went anywhere. Bryant's camp aimed for free agency. How good would that deal look now, with baseball's budget rollbacks looming after the impact of the pandemic, and after Bryant's recent struggles?
Some players wait for free agency and cash in big, like Gerrit Cole, who got a record-setting deal of $324 million. Some players take money early in their careers, assuring themselves of dollars that can completely alter a standard of living for family. (Albies, who became the primary source of support for his family after his father died when he was a teenager, is a great example of this.) Some players pass on early-career overtures -- and you know what? Sometimes it turns out that it would have been better to take the guaranteed money.
There is an expectation among agents that over the next year, teams that are dealing with financial uncertainty -- in other words, just about all of them -- might be offering Kingery-like contracts to their best young players. And in the face of a lot of doubt about the sport's financial landscape, about where revenues and budgets will go in 2021 and beyond, some of the players might look to grab some guaranteed dollars.
• Cole will front the Yankees' rotation next season, of course, with Jordan Montgomery and Deivi Garcia slotting somewhere behind him, Garcia perhaps dealing with some innings restrictions. Domingo German, who hasn't pitched in more than a year, has completed a suspension under baseball's domestic violence policy for his actions; presumably, he'll be part of the Yankees' rotation.
But that means that Yankees will have to find at least a couple of starting pitchers this offseason. Masahiro Tanaka could return at age 32 next season, but he would probably have to be comfortable with a one-year deal (or two-year deal, at most), and the Yankees would have to be comfortable in the knowledge that given his extensive mileage, it's possible his performance will plummet at any point. Tanaka's average fastball velocity was actually a little higher in 2020, 92.2 mph, than over recent full seasons.
The Yankees might have other priorities, as well. They have to make a decision about whether to move ahead with the catcher Gary Sanchez, who played so badly this year that he effectively lost his spot during the playoffs; Sanchez turns 28 this winter. The Yankees could promote Kyle Higashioka to the No. 1 catcher, or perhaps pursue somebody else. They want to retain infielder DJ LeMahieu, who is regarded by teammates as representing the soul of the clubhouse.
At some point, it would behoove the Yankees to start considering the addition of more left-handed hitting. Among their regulars, switch-hitter Aaron Hicks and veteran Brett Gardner were the only lefties, and the fact is that the right-handed nature of the lineup has made it easier for opposing lineups to attack the Yankees in the postseason. In Game 5 of the AL Division Series, for example, Rays manager Kevin Cash deployed nothing but right-handers -- Tyler Glasnow, Nick Anderson, Peter Fairbanks and Diego Castillo.
• I didn't know Whitey Ford, but he got really, really mad at me once. During the years I covered the Yankees for The New York Times, from 1998 to 2001, I remember writing a piece suggesting that Mariano Rivera was the greatest Yankees pitcher ever. In others, I lauded the postseason work of Orlando Hernandez. There were pieces in which I touched on the career accomplishments of Roger Clemens.
I'm not sure which of those got the attention of The Chairman of the Board, as he was known, but one day, I phoned him for some story. "Mr. Ford, this is Buster Olney of The New York Times ..." I began.
"I know who you are!" he snapped.
Taken aback, I asked questions quickly, clumsily, I'm sure, and his answers were short and dismissive, and I realized that something I had written must've really angered him. He hung up.
My experience was an outlier, I know. Yogi Berra, Jerry Coleman and other of Ford's teammates I got to know through the years raved about him -- not only about how accountable he was, how good he was, but also what a great teammate he was, someone they could always count on. I know they appreciated him for his pitching, but I think he was more beloved for how he treated others.