It wasn’t too way back that Max Fried pitched the sport of his life.
The lanky left-hander hurled six shutout innings in Recreation 6 of the 2021 World Sequence on the night time the Atlanta Braves clinched the championship over the Houston Astros.
The Yankees hope there are extra primetime performances like that one in his future.
Fried agreed to an eight-year, $218 million contract with the Yankees within the staff’s first huge swing after shedding famous person slugger Juan Soto to the Mets. It’s the biggest assure ever given to a left-handed pitcher.
So what are the Yankees getting for all of that cash?
Fried, who turns 31 subsequent month, has persistently been amongst MLB’s greatest pitchers since he grew to become a full-time member of the Braves’ rotation in 2019.
His 3.08 ERA over the past six seasons ranks third amongst starters who threw no less than 800 innings, trailing solely new teammate Gerrit Cole’s 2.98 and Corbin Burnes’ 3.03.
His 71 wins rank second behind Cole’s 79.
He ranks third in floor ball share (54.0%); seventh in walks per 9 innings (2.32); and ninth in WAR (18.3).
He’s a two-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove Award winner.
“His competitiveness comes through,” Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone mentioned of Fried on Wednesday on the Winter Conferences in Dallas. “Obviously, watching him from afar over the last several years, this is a guy you can tell really competes well on the mound, and that came across in our meeting with him. I really like him. I think he’s very serious about his craft and how he trains.”
Certainly, Fried is a frontline starter who slots in properly behind Cole within the Yankees’ rotation, giving them a top-tier one-two punch that few groups can rival.
However Fried finds success otherwise than lots of the different aces of his period. He’s not a significant swing-and-miss pitcher, regardless that he has averaged 8.8 strikeouts per 9 innings in his profession. And whereas Fried wields a four-seam fastball that he can dial as much as 97 mph, the lefty depends extra on inducing smooth contact with a seven-pitch combine that retains hitters off steadiness.
His fastball cuts in on right-handed batters. His putaway curveball options -17 inches of induced vertical break to rank among the many league leaders, in accordance with FanGraphs. His sinker, changeup and sweeper are additionally leaned-upon weapons.
Fried has ranked no worse than the 81st percentile of MLB starters by way of hard-hit price in any of the final 5 seasons.
Fried brings a special look to a Yankees rotation that options energy arms in righties Cole and Luis Gil and left-hander Carlos Rodón.
His arrival permits Rodón, who simply went 16-9 with a 3.96 ERA, to turn into the No. 3 starter within the rotation, although the Yankees might deploy a right-hander between the 2 lefties.
No matter how the rotation strains up, Fried strengthens an already deep workers that additionally consists of Clarke Schmidt, who posted a 2.85 ERA in a breakout 2024 season, together with Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman. Fried’s addition additionally frees up the Yankees to discover trades involving one in all their starters as they appear to fill Soto’s void within the outfield and lineup.
Brian Cashman declined Wednesday to expound a lot on Fried for the reason that contract had not been made official, however the Yankees common supervisor did describe the left-hander as “one of many high-end starting pitchers in this marketplace.”
“Our goal is always to try to collect as many of the best, talented baseball players that we can, and obviously pitching is practically half your roster,” Cashman mentioned on the Winter Conferences. “So, there’s always needs there, and you can never have enough.”
The 6-4 Fried hails from the Los Angeles space, the place his high-school teammates at Harvard-Westlake included fellow MLB pitchers Jack Flaherty and Lucas Giolito.
The San Diego Padres drafted Fried out of highschool in 2012 with the No. 7 general decide, and he shortly soared up the prospect ranks earlier than present process Tommy John surgical procedure in 2014. Later that yr, the Padres traded Fried to Atlanta in a deal for Justin Upton.
Fried made his MLB debut in 2017. He earned his first All-Star choice in 2020, when he went 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA over 11 begins within the COVID-shortened season.
He performed a starring function within the Braves’ playoff run in 2021, going 2-2 with 4.23 ERA — together with that Recreation 6 gem in Houston — although he’s 2-5 with a 5.10 ERA in his postseason profession general.
Fried was an All-Star once more in 2022, a season he completed with a 2.48 ERA in a career-high 185.1 innings. He was the runner-up in Nationwide League Cy Younger Award voting that yr.
Fried is coming off a comparatively down season by his lofty requirements. He went 11-10 in 2024, whereas his 3.25 ERA was his highest since 2019. Left forearm neuritis interrupted the center of Fried’s season, nonetheless, and he endured a troublesome August upon returning, which inflated his general numbers.
He once more excelled at lacking the barrel of bats and getting floor balls, whereas his four-seam fastball averaged 93.9 mph, which is in step with his profession price.
Fried went 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA in 18.0 innings over three begins in his profession in opposition to the Yankees, together with a six-inning, one-run outing within the Bronx this yr.
And whereas the eight years the Yankees dedicated to Fried had been greater than many anticipated him to obtain, his common annual wage of $27.25 million has an opportunity to be a cut price. In the identical free-agent market, the Los Angeles Dodgers simply gave a five-year, $182 million contract to left-hander Blake Snell for a mean wage of $36.4 million.
That ought to give the Yankees just a little bit of additional monetary flexibility as they fill out the remainder of their 2025 roster, with left area, first base and both second or third base being priorities.
These positions stay unsure, however what is for certain is that the Yankees’ rotation seems a lot stronger with Fried towards the highest of it.
“He’s one of the games really, really good pitchers and has a really good track record now of success,” Boone mentioned. “He’s a special talent.”
With Gary Phillips
Initially Printed: December 11, 2024 at 12:39 PM EST
