Fried surprised he wound up with Yankees after near-record deal

NEW YORK (AP) — Max Fried had not expected to wind up in pinstripes.

“When the Yankees say they're interested in you, you perk up and you listen.” the left-hander said at his introductory news conference Wednesday, a day after finalizing a $218 million, eight-year contract.

His deal was agreed to last week after the Yankees lost outfielder Juan Soto to the rival Mets.

“A lot of people have worn these pinstripes,” Fried said. “There's a certain feel.”

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.

“He’s one of the game’s really, really good pitchers and has a really good track record now of success,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said last week.

Fried gets a $20 million signing bonus, half payable on Jan. 31, 2025, and the rest on Jan. 31, 2026. He gets salaries of $12 million in each of the first two seasons and $29 million in each of the remaining six.

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.

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 Atlanta Braves, Fried joins a list of rotation possibilities that also includes Cole, Carlos Rodón, Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman.

Fried was 54-25 with a 2.81 ERA with five complete games and four shutouts in 112 starts over the past five seasons. He was among only three pitchers to throw two complete games this year, when there were just 16 in the major leagues.

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.

He had prior IL stints for a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand and strained left groin (2018), blister on left index finger (2019), muscle spasm on left side of back (2020), strained right hamstring (2021), concussion (2022) and strained left hamstring, strained left forearm and blister on left index finger (2023).

“There’s inherent risks,” Boone said, “but we feel like he’s a really good pitcher and the way he goes about it, prepares, trains, we feel like he’s doing everything he can to be a guy that’s able to consistently go to the post.”

He went 14-7 with a 3.04 ERA in 2021, when he pitched six scoreless innings to beat Houston in the World Series Game 6 clincher and was 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA in 2022, when he made his first All-Star team. Fried was 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA over 14 starts in 2023.

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