The New York Yankees hope Max Fried pitches like he did in 2021 — when he won the World Series clincher for the Atlanta Braves.
DALLAS — The New York Yankees hope Max Fried pitches like he did in 2021 — when he won the World Series clincher for the Atlanta Braves.
Two days after the Yankees lost Juan Soto to the rival Mets, Fried agreed Tuesday to join the pinstripes with a $218 million, eight-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
Fried’s deal is the largest for a left-handed pitcher in baseball history, $1 million more than David Price’s seven-year contract with the Boston Red Sox ahead of the 2016 season. Fried’s agreement, first reported by ESPN, was subject to a successful physical, the person said on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been finalized.
Yankees fans were angry after Soto accepted the Mets’ $765 million, 15-year offer over the Yankees’ $760 million, 16-year proposal. The Yankees then redirected money to starting pitching, though Fried represents some risk: The two-time All-Star has been on the injured list 10 times since 2018, including at least once each season.
A high school teammate of Jack Flaherty and Lucas Giolito at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles, Fried gets the fourth-highest contract among pitchers behind the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million for 12 years through 2035), the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole ($324 million for nine years through 2028) and Washington’s Stephen Strasburg ($245 million for seven years through 2026). Strasburg hasn’t pitched since 2022 and has retired.
After spending his first eight seasons with the Braves, Fried joins a list of rotation possibilities that also includes Cole, Carlos RodĂłn, Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt, Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman, making additional moves likely. He reached the agreement on the day Cortes turned 30 and RodĂłn turned 32.
A three-time Gold Glove winner who turns 31 on Jan. 18, Fried has one of the broadest repertoires in the major leagues, throwing seven different pitches. He averaged 93.9 mph this year with his fastball, which he threw 33.6% of the time. Fried mixed in 21% curveballs, 15.6% sinkers, 13.6% changeups, 5.9% sweepers, 5.6% sliders and 4.7% cutters.
He was 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA over 29 starts this year, striking out 166 and walking a career-high 57 in 174 1/3 innings. Fried missed time for left forearm neuritis, his seventh straight season on the IL.
