Fresh off Soto failure, Yankees make splash with Fried signing

Fresh off the disappointment of failing to land Juan Soto, the New York Yankees made a big splash in the free agent market at MLB’s Winter Meetings on Tuesday evening. 

The club signed Max Fried to a mega deal that stands as the largest ever handed to a left-handed pitcher.  

Fried was among the top starters available and now joins a Yankees rotation that is suddenly deep and imposing. 

Here’s a closer look at the transaction. 

The deal: 

Max Fried signs an eight-year, $218-million contract with the New York Yankees. 

The runners up: 

The Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox were among the teams involved with Fried right before he signed, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Toronto Blue Jays had also been linked to the left-hander and now all three clubs will have to seek starting pitching help elsewhere and could perhaps pivot to frontline starter Corbin Burnes. 

The player: 

Fried broke into the majors in 2017 with the Atlanta Braves and established himself as an elite starter a few years later. Since the 2020 campaign, the left-hander has posted an impressive 2.81 ERA. For context, that mark is better than Zack Wheeler (2.94), his new Yankees teammate Gerrit Cole (3.12) and Kevin Gausman (3.30) over that span. 

The southpaw averages 93.9 m.p.h. on his four-seam fastball and won’t strike out a ton of hitters but does have four-plus pitches and is a master at keeping the ball out of the air, which will help him at Yankee Stadium. Fried’s 59.2 per cent ground ball rate ranked in the 96th percentile last season and since 2020, only three starters have compiled a better number than Fried. 

As good as he is now, Fried doesn’t come without a flag that bears watching. He’s spent time on the injured list in both 2023 and ’24 due to left forearm issues and turns 31 in January. It stands to reason that the middle-to-late years of this contract could be risky for the Yankees. 

The fit: 

Fried figures to slot into the No. 2 spot in the Yankees rotation behind ace Cole. The two form an excellent duo and are followed by Carlos Rodon, American League Rookie of the Year Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt. Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman are also in the mix and the collection of arms should help ensure that the Yankees have formidable depth that could help withstand the inevitable attrition that occurs over a major-league season. 

In some ways, that’s similar to the blueprint the Los Angeles Dodgers, who defeated the Yankees in the World Series, appear to be setting this off-season with the notable addition of left-hander Blake Snell.  

Fried’s tenure as a Yankee will ultimately be shaped by how he performs in the post-season. His playoff resume is not especially impressive (5.10 ERA over 67 innings) and that will obviously need to change. Pitching in the Bronx is unlike anything in baseball and the most recent example of that was Rodon, who the Yankees inked to a six-year, $162-million deal in 2022. The left-hander was supposed to be an ideal No. 2 to Cole, but instead he’s been a mixed bag. Fried was essentially signed to do that same job and we’ll see if that works out better for the club than it has so far with Rodon.    

The market: 

MLB Trade Rumors forecasted a six-year, $156-million deal for Fried. He blew well past that in both terms and total dollars. 

The next domino: 

As mentioned, now that Fried has signed, the market for starting pitching figures to revolve around Burnes. Here at Sportsnet we had the right-hander pegged as the top starting pitcher in this off-season’s free agent class. If Fried was able to secure $218 million, it’ll be interesting to see what Burnes, who’s represented by agent Scott Boras, will command.