In the thick of one of the most impactful free-agent frenzies in years, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, along with several other members of the team¡¯s brain trust, began a Zoom meeting with one of the game¡¯s most dominant pitchers in early December.
Cashman and the Yankees contingent were wading through the annual whirlwind better known as baseball¡¯s Winter Meetings, which were being held in Dallas. Moving quickly to construct a roster that could defend the team¡¯s American League pennant, Cashman had the benefit of knowing just about everything anybody could about how good Max Fried had been in recent years. Since the start of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the left-hander had pitched to a 2.81 ERA, the best among all pitchers in baseball with at least 500 innings.
But this getting-to-know-you session was about figuring out if Fried would be a good fit with a Yankees team that reached the World Series last season and remains determined to win it all while so many of its star players are still in their prime.
This virtual meeting, which also included Yankees manager Aaron Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake, could be described as a job interview, even though the candidate had several other suitors all willing to offer him generational wealth. As is the case anytime the Yankees are debating whether or not to make a massive commitment to a prized free agent, it all had to make sense. It all had to feel good.
¡°We assessed Max as one of the premier starting pitchers in the game for a long time,¡± Cashman said. ¡°We heard about his competitive side from our pro scouts and from teammates he has had. You¡¯re just trying to find out everything you can about the person, but before you actually get a chance to know him, you¡¯re still flying blind on the actual person.¡±
According to Cashman, he and the other members of Yankees brass threw as many ¡°deep dive¡± questions as they could at Fried. They asked him about his routine in between starts. They inquired about his strength and conditioning regimen, and they even went so far as to ask about his mentors.
¡°We had at it,¡± Cashman said. ¡°We really wanted to know about his character.¡±
All in all, the meeting lasted 90 minutes, but it didn¡¯t take Cashman even that long to form a strong opinion about the now 31-year-old, who had been part of a stellar pitching staff in Atlanta over the past few seasons.
¡°He seemed like a quality person,¡± Cashman said. ¡°It was a very easy conversation. He was authentic and genuine. He let his guard down, and he was comfortable, not nervous at all. I felt like he was a good, genuine, authentic, honest individual who can really pitch. I thought that the way he handled himself, he would tuck really well into this clubhouse on the days he¡¯s not pitching, and then be that warrior you need on the days he does pitch. It felt really good.¡±
Those good feelings about Fried only guaranteed that the Yankees would be in on the bidding for a pitcher that could dramatically improve any team lucky enough to sign him. But at the elite levels, free agency is always a two-way street. At the same time the team is interviewing a player, he¡¯s also contemplating the fit on his end.
Similar to Cashman, it didn¡¯t take Fried long to get excited about the prospect of pitching for the Yankees.
¡°It was really easy to have a conversation with them,¡± Fried said. ¡°To be able to go back and forth, talking about baseball and pitching, but also being able to share my off-the-field interests, was very comfortable.¡±
The clincher for Fried revolved around the team¡¯s all-in approach to winning.
¡°It felt like there was a lot that overlapped with the way I do things,¡± Fried said. ¡°They talked about being able to facilitate and do whatever they can to make you the best player that you can be. Hearing that, it just felt like a good fit.¡±
With several other teams in pursuit, including the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees offered Fried an eight-year contract. A day after the meetings concluded, the pitcher decided to sign with the Yankees.
¡°Winning is the priority for me,¡± Fried said on the day he signed the contract at Yankee Stadium. ¡°Every year when the Yankees come to spring training, their goal is to win the World Series. It¡¯s not to get to the playoffs; it¡¯s to hold up the World Series trophy at the end of the year. If I was going to make a long-term commitment, I wanted it to be in a place where I would have a chance to win year-in and year-out.¡±
***
Long before he grew into one of the game¡¯s stalwarts, Fried was a high school star in Los Angeles. He pitched well enough at Harvard-Westlake High School to be selected by the San Diego Padres with the seventh overall pick in the 2012 Draft.
About three years into his climb up the Minor League ladder, Fried was traded to Atlanta. But the excitement of joining an organization with an elite pitching lineage was tempered; Fried was sidelined for the 2015 season following Tommy John surgery. When he returned to competition in 2016, he was a 22-year-old still navigating Single-A.
He had imagined being further along at that point in his career, but Fried was suddenly throwing better than he had in the past, and positive results soon followed. He started 20 games for the Rome Braves that year, posting a 3.93 ERA with 112 strikeouts.
The numbers weren¡¯t overwhelming, but he had done enough to be assigned to Double-A to start the 2017 season. The promotion went about as rough as any in his baseball life. In his first two months with the Mississippi Braves, Fried made 10 starts, giving up four or more earned runs five times. Just as he seemed to be rebounding at the beginning of June with two good starts, Fried struggled again, surrendering five or more earned runs in his next three outings and then giving up three runs in 2 1/3 innings of work against the Chattanooga Lookouts at the end of June.
¡°I think it was at a point where it was either going to happen or it wasn¡¯t,¡± Fried said. ¡°I either had to make it happen or give everything I had and not have regrets. Being able to say it either worked because I did everything I could, or it didn¡¯t work out, but I still did everything I could -- that¡¯s where I needed to be.¡±
After skipping a few starts, Fried came back to the mound in July with a one-day-at-a-time approach. Although he was pitching fewer innings, Fried was effective, giving up zero earned runs in a combined 10 innings over three consecutive starts.
¡°I was able to have some success, and with that comes confidence,¡± Fried said. ¡°I just focused on the next start and didn¡¯t worry about what had happened in the past or what was going to happen tomorrow.¡±
Fried got hot at the right time. Just as he was putting up zeros, the big club needed bullpen help, and the Braves were impressed with the way he was throwing the baseball. Without much notice, Fried leapfrogged Triple-A and made his Major League debut with Atlanta on Aug. 8, 2017.
He pitched well in his first big league stint, making four appearances in relief. He was sent down to Triple-A that August and continued to thrive before being brought back up in September.
In 2018, Fried was shuttled back and forth between the Minors and the big leagues, leading to him becoming the ¡°special talent¡± that would so excite Yankees brass.
***
Fried had weathered his fair share of adversity, but his perseverance began to pay off in 2019, when he had a breakout season, winning 17 games.
¡°I was trying to establish myself in the big leagues and trying to find ways to stick,¡± Fried said. ¡°If my team won the games that I pitched, then I was going to probably stick around and not go up and down on the option train. So, making every outing that I had extremely important and putting an emphasis on going deep into games was a big part of my approach. I treated each game as its own individual entity rather than a broad overall picture. Having that competitive edge [and] just wanting to win every game that I started was another big reason I was able to do as well as I did.¡±
Building upon that campaign with a 7-0 record during the 60-game 2020 season, Fried was well on his way to establishing himself as one of the game¡¯s most successful starting pitchers over the next five seasons. In addition to posting the lowest ERA in the sport during that span, Fried also amassed a 73-36 record from the time of his 2017 debut.
Fried¡¯s regular-season success with a perennial contender gave him the opportunity to take the hill in the postseason each of the last seven years. Although his 12 October starts have been uneven, he gave the Braves a clutch performance when it mattered most. After allowing six earned runs to the Houston Astros in Game 2 of the 2021 World Series, Fried got the ball again for Game 6. And in what he described as the ¡°biggest start of my life,¡± he came through in a huge way.
With his team on the cusp of championship glory, Fried tossed six scoreless innings, helping the Braves win the World Series (and avoid having to play a Game 7 in Houston).
¡°I knew that it was going to be my last game of the season, no matter what,¡± Fried said. ¡°Whether it was good or bad, it was going to be the last time I was going to take the ball. I wanted to make sure that I was leaving absolutely everything I had, physically, emotionally and mentally, out on the field for that one last outing. However that shook out, I was going to be able to be OK with it.
¡°Knowing that it was the last one and there was no saving anything, that was empowering.¡±
Fried remained consistent in the three seasons after hoisting the World Series trophy, earning All-Star selections in 2022 and 2024. Last season, he went 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA and 166 strikeouts. While his numbers impressed the Yankees in his final season with the Braves, so, too, did the way he produced them.
¡°What I like about him is that he has been able to add to his arsenal and evolve over the years,¡± Boone said. That evolution is evident in his pitch mix. According to Baseball Savant, Fried¡¯s fastball accounted for 32.7 percent of his pitches. He also mixed in a curveball, sinker, changeup, sweeper, slider and cutter. ¡°I think that is something that is going to really serve him well in the long term,¡± Boone continued. ¡°He also has a lot of positive intangibles, like fielding his position really well.
¡°We¡¯ve faced him a few times over the years, and talking to our hitters, it¡¯s clear that he¡¯s got a lot of ways he can beat you. He reminds me a lot of Gerrit [Cole] in that respect; they both can beat you with any one of their pitches.¡±
Fried believes that there¡¯s room for improvement in the upcoming years. In particular, he¡¯d like to throw more innings. As a result of multiple soft-tissue injuries, Fried has not yet reached 200 innings in a season, topping out at 185 1/3 in 2022, one of two seasons in which he made 30 starts.
¡°I don¡¯t have any limit to the expectations we have for him,¡± Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said. ¡°We obviously have to be smart about how much we put him out there, but as long as he takes care of himself in between starts, I think things will work out well for Max. He¡¯s a contact-management pitcher who can get deep into games and is usually very efficient.¡±
For Cashman, the growth that Fried has already made was as compelling as any other part of his big league resume.
¡°If you follow his journey as an artist out there on the mound, since his amateur days, he has continued to evolve and emerge,¡± Cashman said. ¡°He has adapted and adjusted, growing his repertoire with certain pitches. He has become a master of those pitches as he continues to find ways to navigate prominent lineups and do it extremely well on a high-end, consistent basis.¡±
***
It¡¯s no secret that Cashman is hoping to turn the Yankees¡¯ future into a carbon copy of the past, or -- to be more specific -- of his first three years as the team¡¯s general manager. During that stretch, which began in 1998, the Yankees won three consecutive World Series titles. While there¡¯s no downplaying how valuable that team¡¯s position players were back then, baseball¡¯s last dynasty may never have emerged if not for a rotation that featured at least three pitchers who would have been staff aces on most other teams.
With Andy Pettitte, David Cone and Orlando ¡°El Duque¡± Hern¨¢ndez on board for the entire championship run, and David Wells and Roger Clemens in pinstripes for parts of the three-peat, the Yankees had one of the most consistent regular-season rotations in the sport. With the exception of 2000 (when three of the team¡¯s starters won at least 12 games), at least five starting pitchers surpassed double-digit win totals in every one of those seasons. When October arrived, the Yankees¡¯ pitching staff was even better, winning more than 80 percent of its games and paving the way for the team¡¯s 33-8 combined postseason record with two Fall Classic sweeps.
Although there is a long way to go for the present-day Yankees to draw any comparisons to the legendary squads from the late ¡¯90s and 2000, there is one foundational similarity: Cashman has once again put together a rotation that features a group of starters who have the ability to consistently outduel their counterparts.
In addition to Fried, the Yankees¡¯ 2025 pitching staff includes a number of elite arms. ¡°These guys are extremely talented,¡± Fried said. ¡°With this rotation, every single time someone¡¯s able to take the ball, you feel good about winning that game. That injects a different energy. And you don¡¯t want to be the guy that the team doesn¡¯t have that confidence in.¡±
Boone recognized the importance of bringing in a player with such vast big-game experience, along with the accumulated statistics.
¡°We¡¯re trying to chase down that championship, and we feel like we have added a championship piece to what is already an outstanding rotation,¡± the manager said. ¡°Max Fried no doubt adds to that mix, and we are looking forward to a long line of success with him.¡±
***
Although he has already won a championship, Fried views the idea of winning it all with the Yankees as an experience unlike any other. He covets returning to the summit, much as he hopes to improve his postseason resume, a 2-5 record with a 5.10 ERA in 20 games.
¡°I¡¯m hungry for another one,¡± he said. ¡°Experiencing that and celebrating it actually makes you want to feel that euphoria even more than before you did it for the first time. It was absolutely incredible, but now I¡¯m in a new chapter with a new team. To do it in New York with the Yankees would be a dream come true. I want to pitch really well in the postseason; I want to look back and know that I was a big factor in us winning a World Series.¡±
A few days after agreeing to terms with the Yankees, Fried came to Yankee Stadium for a press conference and to formally sign his contract. As he made his way through various areas of his new baseball home, he came upon a sign that provided an even stronger feeling that this was where he was meant to be, validating all of the good feelings he had during the initial Zoom meeting with Yankees brass.
¡°There were three words on the wall: prepare, compete, win,¡± Fried said. ¡°I thought a lot about that. As a competitor and as a player, that really resonated with me. Before I take the ball, I¡¯m going to prepare as well as I can. When I¡¯m out there, I¡¯m going to compete to the best of my ability. In the end, the one thing we¡¯re out here to do is win. I kind of stopped in my tracks when I saw that sign, and I felt like I couldn¡¯t be more excited to be here with this organization.¡±
Fried¡¯s belief in the team the Yankees already had in place was a factor in his decision to come to New York. After pitching in the postseason for seven consecutive years, Fried wants the ball in more big games, and he has gained a strong understanding of what makes playing baseball in autumn so special. But what makes him even more excited as the new year dawns is that he knows he is in a place that holds the exact same values.
¡°Baseball in October is the purest form,¡± Fried said. ¡°All that matters is winning. Individual statistics are not important at that point in the year. Whatever you can do to impact winning is all that matters. Understanding that every pitch in the playoffs is important and you can¡¯t take a pitch off, that¡¯s what I¡¯m bringing to New York. Having players who are focused on every pitch within a game is a lot of times what makes the difference between winning and losing. One pitch can make the difference between a win and a loss in the postseason. Having been through that so many times, that helps a lot.¡±
Alfred Santasiere III is the editor-in-chief of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the April 2025 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.