No, Max Fried isn't "injury prone"

Yes, Max Fried's 2023 was full of injuries. After leaving his Opening Day start against Washington with a mild hamstring strain, one that kept him out for the minimum fifteen days, Fried hit the injured list twice more in the 2023 season. 

A forearm strain, initially suffered in May, resulted in more than two months out of action, with Fried returning in early August. The end of his season was then cut short thanks to a recurring blister issue on his pitching hand, one that necessitated an injured list stint and undoubtedly cut into his postseason preparation. 

But outside of that, Fried's been remarkably available. 

Using Baseball Reference's Stathead span finder, since Fried became a full-time starter for the 2019 season and tracking all the way through the 2022 season, he was 19th in total innings pitched with 572.2. And they're not just empty innings -they're good innings. Fried's 3.06 ERA over that span is 10th best in the sample, with only two pitchers having both a better ERA and higher innings total than Fried from 2019 to 2022. 

1: Gerrit Cole, NYY - 3.03 ERA in 667.1 innings pitched
2: Shane Bieber, CLE - 2.91 ERA in 588.1 innings pitched

Of players in the sample with at least 500 innings, Fried's winning percentage of .722 is 4th on the list, while his ERA+ of 142 is 7th. 

When adding in 2023, Fried goes from 19th to 30th in total innings, but he's still one of the 30th heaviest-used starters in the sample even after his injury-marred 2023 season. 

(Another "frontline starter" that has been moved this offseason, with the Tampa Bay Rays trading Tyler Glasnow to the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been arguably the most injury prone starter in MLB during that same span, pitching only 212.2 innings from 2019-2022, although he did add a career-high 120 innings last season.) 

Most of what Fried's dealt with in his major league career haven't been recurring issues, with one significant exception. 

Fried's injured list stints include time for lower back tightness in September of 2020, an issue that hasn't cropped up since, and a concussion in August of 2022. There have been two April injured list stints for hamstring strains, but they were incurred different ways. The 2023 injury was while Fried was attempting to cover 1st base on a groundout to Matt Olson, while the 2021 hamstring strain was while Fried was running the bases, going from 2nd to 3rd on a wild pitch to Ronald Acuña Jr after getting on via a double off of then-Marlins starter Pablo Lopez. 

As we mentioned, Fried's second injured list stint last season was for a forearm strain, another issue that didn't crop back up after rest and rehab. 

(Additionally, Fried's infamous illness prior to the 2022 NLDS - a viral infection that turned into a bacterial infection, causing the 190-pound Fried to lose fifteen pounds prior to his disastrous start against the Phillies, can't legitimately be held up as evidence in this argument. Everyone gets sick, and illnesses don't care when in the season it is. It's bad luck, and that's all.)

Fried's had several recurring issues with blisters in his career, and it's undoubtedly beyond the point of frustrating for everyone involved.  

Fried's first major league missed time for blisters was in July of 2018, when he hit the injured list in July of that season for a left middle finger blister that was impacting his ability to grip the ball. 

That same issue cropped up again in 2019, with Fried going on the IL in July of that season as well with blisters, as well as again in June of 2021. Anecdotally, the blister issue seems to recur after three to four months of action, with the September 2023 blister issue seemingly being tied back to Fried's early July return to rehab action after his IL stint for the forearm strain. 

Most of the injured list time for the blisters has been minor, but it's reasonable to ask what sort of impact last season's blister issue impacted Fried's ability to prep for the postseason.