Braves LHP Max Fried Mourns the Passing of His Close Friend Tyler Skaggs

The baseball world has publicly mourned the tragic and unexpected death of Angels starter Tyler Skaggs, who was found dead Monday afternoon at the club's hotel in Arlington, Texas.

We've seen touching tributes on social media from a plethora of the game's players and reporters, including Giancarlo Stanton and Mike Trout. To many members of the baseball community, Skaggs was a great teammate and as kind-hearted as they come. Everyone is devastated.

But, to Braves starter Max Fried, Skaggs was not only a close friend, but a once-in-a-lifetime mentor. The two Southern California natives shared an agent and even worked out together every winter.

“I’m very confident saying I wouldn’t be the player or person I am today without what Tyler taught me,” said Fried. "He was a really good friend that since the start of my professional career, I could always go to. So, it’s definitely been tough the last couple of days.”

Fried and Skaggs would even communicate via text after each one of their starts, discussing box scores and encouraging one another to pitch even better next time out.

"We would mainly text each other saying how proud we are of the hard work we’ve done and how happy we were to see each other throwing well,” the Braves left-hander continued. “We’d just try to keep each other going and say we were looking forward to seeing each other."

The upcoming All-Star break would've provided the perfect opportunity for the two friends to rendezvous. Instead, however, Fried is now planning to visit and consult Skaggs' family in Los Angeles.