With their ace pitcher Max Fried undefeated after eight starts with a 6–0 record, the New York Yankees couldn’t be happier.
Fried’s early-season success is a welcome boost to the 2025 season, after the team’s disappointing finish last year.
With the Yankees coming up short last October in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, adding Fried to the starting rotation was seen by some as the push the Yankees needed to land in 2025 postseason play. So far, Fried hasn’t disappointed. In fact, to many, the Santa Monica, California, native is exceeding expectations.
Heading into Sunday’s game with the Athletics in West Sacramento, California, New York remains in first place in the American League East. Along with an incredible start offensively from Aaron Judge, Fried is the force propelling the Yankees in a winning direction.
Aside from being undefeated through 51.2 innings of work, Fried has registered five quality starts. A quality start is where a pitcher tosses at least six innings and allows three or fewer earned runs. Fried, 31, is pitching some of his best baseball charted through his nine MLB seasons.
With last season’s Yankees’ starter and American League Rookie-of-the-Year, Luis Gil, going down with a high-grade lat strain in February, Fried became even more valuable than the club’s front office originally anticipated. Gil isn’t expected back on the active roster until late June, provided that his rehabilitation program continues to show progress.
Along with Gil on the Yankees pitching shelf is Gerrit Cole.
Cole, the American League’s 2023 Cy Young Award winner, isn’t counted on to return to the rotation for 12–18 months. On March 10 in California, Cole underwent Tommy John surgery on his elbow. Losing a six-time all-star, two-time American League ERA leader, and two-time MLB strikeout leader is difficult, at best, to patch or replace.
With Fried stepping up his game so early in the season, all isn’t lost for the Yankees and their postseason ambitions.
Fried is giving Yankees’ relievers a break by going seven innings-plus with each outing.
The lifetime career win-loss record of 79–36, and an overall ERA of 2.96 have to bring a sense of relief to Yankees’ skipper Aaron Boone. At MLB’s Winter Meetings in Dallas, Texas, when the Yankees inked Fried to a record-setting contract—eight years-$218 million—the club did their due diligence on how Fried could make the Yankees a stronger club in 2025.
Adding Fried’s contract, the largest ever for a left-handed pitcher, to the Yankees’ payroll demonstrated just how committed the organization is to making a return to the Fall Classic. With the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers leading the way of MLB owners in 2025 payroll, Yankees’ chairman and managing partner Hal Steinbrenner brings his club into third place. The Yankees’ payroll is $293,488,972.
With the Yankees losing free agent star slugger Juan Soto to their crosstown rival New York Mets, bringing Fried into the Yankees fold was also important from a public relations perspective. For decades, baseball in the Bronx grabbed newspapers’ back pages. With the signing of Soto making media splashes on multiple platforms, the Yankees’ signing of Fried kept their brand equal or higher in the headlines.
The stingy 1.05 ERA that Fried has compiled thus far is the one statistic that stands out from all the others. With a career average ERA of 2.96, through Fried’s eight full seasons in Atlanta, the lowest he registered—2.25—was in 2020.
Also helping New York remain in first place among American League East clubs is Judge’s hot bat. As of Sunday (through 40 games), the two-time American League MVP has clubbed 14 home runs, collected 39 RBIs, and a .409 batting average (tops in the National League and American League). This kind of offensive firepower keeps clubs competitive, even on days when either pitching or hitting may not be firing on all cylinders.
Along with Fried’s prowess on the pitching mound, he adds greatly to his club’s defense. During his Atlanta seasons, he won the Rawlings Gold Glove Award three times—in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Coming off an All-Star 2024 season, the Yankees are expecting a lot of innings from Fried, as his past performances dictate. Averaging 110 innings over the past eight seasons with the Braves, the southpaw’s durability will increase in value as the season progresses. In Gil’s absence, the other three starters—Carlos Rodon, Tim Hill, and Will Warren—have put together a combined nine wins.
Prior to signing with New York, Fried was originally selected by the San Diego Padres in the first round of the 2012 MLB Draft (seventh overall) and agreed to a one-year, $15 million contract with the Braves. His final season before free agency was 2024.
Fried recorded his first victory as a Yankee on April 4 in a road game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Barring serious injury, Fried has many more winning performances left in him, from now and through October.
