Injury update: Max Fried faces live hitters for the first time; Chavez just playing catch

In a big step for his recovery from a forearm strain that's sidelined him for over a month, Braves lefty Max Fried faced hitters yesterday in live batting practice prior to Atlanta's series-opening win over Miami.

“It was good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker told the media before the game. “I think it was good for him to get out. He’d done all the (bullpens), played catch and all that kind of stuff, and just to see hitters for the first time, I think it’s a good first step for anybody going through that. See how he is (on Saturday) and go from there.”

The Braves have gone to great lengths to not put any sort of timetable on Fried's return, but it makes sense for him to throw against live hitters at least one more time before beginning his minor league rehab starts. A good rule of thumb is a week of throwing for each week you were shut down, so Fried would probably need three or four starts in the minors before you could consider re-inserting him into the major league rotation.

Despite Atlanta being cautious with last year's Cy Young runner-up, he's hit all of the milestones you expect to see in the rehab around the times we thought he would: playing catch, then progressing to long-toss before short-box bullpens (where the catcher is closer than the usual 60 feet) and then standard bullpens.

Atlanta's standard protocol here would be for Fried to make one or multiple low-minors rehab starts, probably with either Single-A Augusta or High-A Rome, depending on schedules, before moving up to AAA Gwinnett. The time frame still seems to be pointing to a return to the rotation by late July or early August, depending on how he's feeling today after the live batter work on Friday.

Reliever Jesse Chavez, however, isn't progressing as quickly as expected from his shin contusion, suffered when drilled by a 99 mph comebacker off the bat of Miguel Cabrera. “It might be a while,” Snitker said. “I don’t know how long. He’s still gotta be careful, it seems like.”

Chavez was able to play catch in the outfield prior to last night's game, but he's also still walking with a cane as the shin is still not fully healed.

“You can only do what you can: You wake up every day and see where you’re at,” Snitker said. “There’s nothing you can do. He’s gonna get the best treatment and care and everything that he can. It just, you know, it takes time.”

Chavez was having one of the best seasons of his career prior to the injury, with a 1.55 ERA in thirty-one appearances for Atlanta and a near career-high 11.2 K/9 on the season. There was discussion of him possibly being a manager's selection to the All-Star Team for the National League, although was only an outside possibility as non-closers so rarely make the All-Star Team.

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