The New York Yankees have landed one of the top starting pitchers in baseball. Left-hander Max Fried and the ballclub have agreed to a eight-year contract worth $218 million, the team announced Tuesday. The deal reportedly includes a full no-trade clause and does not have opt-outs or deferrals.
The Yankees missed out on free-agent right fielder Juan Soto two days ago when he accepted a 15-year, $765 million deal from the Mets. As part of the pivot here to Plan B, Fried ends up in the Bronx. The deal makes him the best-paid left-handed pitcher in MLB history.
Fried is the third core member of the Atlanta Braves’ 2021 World Series championship team to leave as a free agent, joining Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson. Fried started and won the Game 6 title clincher against the Houston Astros, striking out six in six shutout innings in the decisive Game 6 at Minute Maid Park.
Our R.J. Anderson ranked Fried the fifth-best free agent available this offseason, and the third best pitcher behind Corbin Burnes and Blake Snell. Here’s his write-up:
We wanted to print a complete list of left-handed starting pitchers with a better ERA+ than Fried since the beginning of the 2020 season, but we ran into a problem when we went to compile the names. You see, no sinister hurler who had a decent amount of innings (min. 200 combined) actually placed ahead of him in that metric. Oh well. Blame Fried’s sustained excellence on his ability to manage contact. He ranked in the 95th percentile in average exit velocity last season, and he did it while generating nearly 60% ground balls for a second consecutive year. The biggest knock on Fried is his innings count, as he’s cleared the 180-threshold just once in his career. Given the league’s direction over the past decade, we’re not inclined to think that’ll hurt him.
Fried, 31 in January, pitched to a 3.25 ERA in 29 starts and 174 ⅓ innings in 2024, and it was his worst season since 2019, his first full year as a big-leaguer. From 2020-23, Fried had a 2.66 ERA in close to 500 innings with the excellent underlying numbers to match. Simply put, he has been one of the game’s best pitchers over the last half-decade.
The Braves originally acquired Fried as a prospect in the Justin Upton trade with the San Diego Padres in December 2014. Because he declined the qualifying offer, Atlanta will receive a compensation draft pick after the fourth round for losing Fried.
There remains plenty of offseason, but with Fried on board, the Yankees’ rotation right now looks something like:
Righty Marcus Stroman and lefty Nestor Cortes are also still on the roster and could provide depth here or serve as trade bait.
The Yankees won the AL East and won the AL pennant last season despite Cole starting the year on the injured list. They got 32 starts from Rodón, 30 from Cortes, 29 from Stroman, 29 from Gil, 17 from Cole and 16 from Schmidt. If they can get full seasons from Cole, Fried and Schmidt, that rotation looks a lot better and it was already a good one in 2024.
