Get to know the Yankees’ newest star pitcher Max Fried and how he fits into their post-Juan Soto plans

NEW YORK — It wasn’t too long ago that Max Fried pitched the game of his life.

The lanky left-hander hurled six shutout innings in Game 6 of the 2021 World Series on the night the Atlanta Braves clinched the championship over the Houston Astros.

The Yankees hope there are more primetime performances like that one in his future.

Fried agreed to an eight-year, $218 million contract with the Yankees in the team’s first big swing after losing superstar slugger Juan Soto to the Mets. It’s the largest guarantee ever given to a left-handed pitcher.

So what are the Yankees getting for all of that money?

Fried, who turns 31 next month, has consistently been among MLB’s best pitchers since he became a full-time member of the Braves’ rotation in 2019.

His 3.08 ERA over the last six seasons ranks third among starters who threw at least 800 innings, trailing only 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 ground ball percentage (54.0%); seventh in walks per nine innings (2.32); and ninth in WAR (18.3).

He is a two-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove Award winner.

“His competitiveness comes through,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Fried on Wednesday at the Winter Meetings 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.”

Indeed, Fried is a frontline starter who slots in nicely behind Cole in the Yankees’ rotation, giving them a top-tier one-two punch that few teams can rival.

But Fried finds success differently than many of the other aces of his era. He is not a major swing-and-miss pitcher, even though he has averaged 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings in his career. And while Fried wields a four-seam fastball that he can dial up to 97 mph, the lefty relies more on inducing soft contact with a seven-pitch mix that keeps hitters off balance.

His fastball cuts in on right-handed batters. His putaway curveball features -17 inches of induced vertical break to rank among the league leaders, according to FanGraphs. His sinker, changeup and sweeper are also leaned-upon weapons.

Fried has ranked no worse than the 81st percentile of MLB starters in terms of hard-hit rate in any of the last five seasons.

Fried brings a different look to a Yankees rotation that features power arms in righties Cole and Luis Gil and left-hander Carlos Rodón.

His arrival allows Rodón, who just went 16-9 with a 3.96 ERA, to become the No. 3 starter in the rotation, though the Yankees could deploy a right-hander between the two lefties.

Regardless of how the rotation lines up, Fried strengthens an already deep staff that also includes Clarke Schmidt, who posted a 2.85 ERA in a breakout 2024 season, along with Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman. Fried’s addition also frees up the Yankees to explore trades involving one of their starters as they look to fill Soto’s void in the outfield and lineup.

Brian Cashman declined Wednesday to expound much on Fried since the contract had not been made official, but the Yankees general manager 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 said at the Winter Meetings. “So, there’s always needs there, and you can never have enough.”

The 6-4 Fried hails from the Los Angeles area, where his high-school teammates at Harvard-Westlake included fellow MLB pitchers Jack Flaherty and Lucas Giolito.

The San Diego Padres drafted Fried out of high school in 2012 with the No. 7 overall pick, and he quickly soared up the prospect ranks before undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2014. Later that year, 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 selection in 2020, when he went 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA over 11 starts in the COVID-shortened season.

He played a starring role in the Braves’ playoff run in 2021, going 2-2 with 4.23 ERA — including that Game 6 gem in Houston — though he is 2-5 with a 5.10 ERA in his postseason career overall.

Fried was an All-Star again in 2022, a season he finished with a 2.48 ERA in a career-high 185 1/3 innings. He was the runner-up in National League Cy Young Award voting that year.

Fried is coming off a relatively down season by his lofty standards. He went 11-10 in 2024, while his 3.25 ERA was his highest since 2019. Left forearm neuritis interrupted the middle of Fried’s season, however, and he endured a tough August upon returning, which inflated his overall numbers.

He again excelled at missing the barrel of bats and getting ground-balls, while his four-seam fastball averaged 93.9 mph, which is in line with his career rate.

Fried went 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA in 18.0 innings over three starts in his career against the Yankees, including a six-inning, one-run outing in the Bronx this year.

And while the eight years the Yankees committed to Fried were more than many expected him to receive, his average annual salary of $27.25 million has a chance to be a bargain. In the same free-agent market, the Los Angeles Dodgers just gave a five-year, $182 million contract to left-hander Blake Snell for an average salary of $36.4 million.

That should give the Yankees a little bit of extra financial flexibility as they fill out the rest of their 2025 roster, with left field, first base and either second or third base being priorities.

Those positions remain uncertain, but what is certain is that the Yankees’ rotation appears much stronger with Fried toward the top of it.

“He’s one of the game’s really, really good pitchers and has a really good track record now of success,” Boone said. “He’s a special talent.”

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