Having simply misplaced Juan Soto to the crosstown rival Mets, the Yankees pivoted in a giant method Tuesday, agreeing to an eight-year, $218 million contract with former Braves ace Max Fried.
It is the biggest ever assured contract for a left-handed pitcher, and on the floor anyway, it is a good match. Left-handed pitchers are inclined to fare properly at Yankee Stadium, which is not as pleasant to right-handed batters. And it might not even matter in Fried’s case since he is a dependable ground-ball pitcher, having delivered the second-best price amongst qualifying pitchers final season. These ground-ball expertise are the primary purpose he is put collectively a 2.81 ERA over the previous 5 years, together with his 3.25 ERA in 2024 really representing the excessive mark throughout that point.
However here is the place I level out that this free agent deal, like each different free agent deal, is pending a bodily, and whereas usually that is a matter of crossing t’s and dotting i’s, I can not shake the sensation that there may be a hiccup in Fried’s case.
It is a ghoulish factor, predicting damage, and lots of shrink from it for exactly that purpose. However would it not be clever to disregard that Fried has missed time with a forearm pressure every of the previous two seasons, significantly given the connection between forearm accidents and (gulp) Tommy John surgical procedure? I dare say no, it could not. What adopted from Fried’s newest IL stint had been uncharacteristic management lapses. He issued 4.4 walks per 9 innings throughout six August begins and likewise completed 2024 with the bottom swinging-strike price (10.2 %) of his profession.
These are obscure warning indicators, however the accumulation of them prompted me to predict back in September that Fried would have hassle discovering a free agent deal to his liking due to one thing that turns up on his bodily. And now he’ll have that bodily.
And that is excellent news for Fantasy Baseball. Actually, his free company comes at the absolute best time for restoring religion in his well being. This bodily will go a great distance towards figuring out if I’ve him correctly ranked as my twenty third beginning pitcher. If there’s one thing occurring with the elbow/forearm space (or wherever else, for that matter), the Yankees will certainly renege. They will not proceed with a record-setting deal if there’s any foreseeable threat. But when we hear nothing and the deal goes by way of as reported, then nice. We will belief that Fried is wholesome and draft him with confidence, maybe as extra just like the No. 15 beginning pitcher.
In any case, he is about as dependable as pitchers get for ERA, and the Yankees ought to guarantee he continues to win video games on the price he did with the Braves. He falls a little bit wanting being an ace since he is solely as soon as reached 180 innings and averages just below a strikeout per inning, however he is the form of pitcher that you simply’d by no means dream of sitting when he is wholesome … which hopefully he might be.
As a consequence of this deal, the Yankees now have seven pitchers for 5 spots, with Luis Gil, Marcus Stroman and Clarke Schmidt being those on the bubble. They might select to commerce from that extra (and lots of speculate that they’ll), however for now, the obvious odd man out is Schmidt, which is a disgrace as a result of the 28-year-old made main inroads final 12 months with a 2.85 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 9.8 Okay/9 throughout 16 begins. Granted, no staff makes it by way of a whole season with simply 5 starters, and you’ll belief that Schmidt might be on the prepared ought to a gap come up.
In the meantime, the Braves beginning rotation seems to be fairly skinny proper now, significantly with the reviews earlier this offseason that Spencer Strider (elbow bracing process) seemingly will not be prepared for the beginning of 2025. My hope is that they are merely seeking to front-load Strider’s innings administration, form of just like the Pirates did with Paul Skenes this previous season, however in any case, there are two openings in the intervening time behind Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Schwellenbach. Grant Holmes, Ian Anderson and AJ Smith-Shawver are probably the most fascinating in-house candidates, however there’s additionally an opportunity the Braves carry again Charlie Morton.
