Max Fried, Yanks need to figure things out to stay in race

TAMPA, Fla. — The Yankees came into Monday’s off day collectively feeling as good about themselves as they have in some time.

After completing a three-game sweep of the inept Cardinals — and at times not looking especially sharp themselves in doing so — the Yankees, nonetheless, had reason to feel good.

Taking advantage of a schedule that before the Cardinals offered up the Twins, who for nearly a quarter century have done the baseball equivalent of crawling into a fetal position at the sight of Yankees uniforms home or away, the Yankees come into a two-game series against the skidding Rays having won five of their last six games and six of their last eight.

With Toronto, Boston and Seattle losing Monday, the Yankees gained a half game on all of them, and are five games behind the Blue Jays and a fraction of a percentage point ahead of the Red Sox and Mariners for the first wild-card spot.

Yet, Max Fried remains the elephant in the room.

Because the lefthander’s struggles, which started shortly before the All-Star break and have continued unabated, took a bit of shine off the Yankees’ recent run of good play.

“I definitely have to change something and change it up quick,” Fried said after allowing a season-high seven runs in Saturday night’s 12-8 victory in St. Louis and matching a season high with eight hits allowed.

Fried, signed to an eight-year, $218 million free-agent contract in what was general manager Brian Cashman’s first pivot move after Juan Soto jumped to Queens early in the winter, entered July 10-2 with a 1.92 ERA. He was an early front-runner, along with the Tigers’ Tarik Skubal, for the AL Cy Young, and very much in the thick of the conversation, along with Skubal, to start the All-Star Game.

But Fried, still a more than respectable 13-5, 3.26, is 3-3 with a 6.80 ERA and a 1.585 WHIP in eight starts since July 1, raising the legitimate question of the Yankees needing to consider someone other than this current version of Fried for Game 1 of a playoff series.

The calendar reality, of course, is Fried and the Yankees have time to figure things out before the organization starts talking about Game 1.

It is also a fact that it has to be at least mildly concerning for both parties that they don’t appear to have reached even a starting point for the figuring-it-out process.

“For me, it’s the next-level strike-throwing,” Aaron Boone said after Saturday’s game regarding any commonality he’s seen in this stretch, one in which Fried has walked 16 batters in 41 innings (in the 17 starts before that, he had 21 walks in 108 innings).

Presented with that theory a few minutes later, the always amiable and even-keeled Fried responded with something that brought to mind Bob Gibson once telling his catcher, Tim McCarver, “The only thing you know about pitching is that it is hard to hit,” during an unwanted mound visit.

“Had one walk tonight,” the soft-spoken Fried said. “Felt like I got behind some guys and was] able to make some pitches. But that’s kind of been my career, even if I’m behind in the count, still find a way to get a ground ball, get some weak contact, be able to get some outs.”

Fried, who left his July 12 home start against the Cubs after three innings with a blister on his left index finger, has repeatedly said, as have the Yankees, there is no lingering effect. Fried doesn’t believe the issues are mechanical.

Multiple opposing team talent evaluators contacted Monday said nothing they saw raised red flags in respect to Fried trying to pitch through any kind of discomfort. Nor did they see anything major off-line mechanically.

Two of them, however, suggested it could simply be fatigue-related.

“When I saw those innings 108] going into July, I was like ‘Whoa,’ ” one AL scout, a former big-leaguer, said. “That’s a lot for him. He’s been really good but not an innings horse.”

Fried, 73-36 with a 3.07 ERA in his career entering 2025, threw 149 innings last season and 174 1⁄3 innings the year before that. His career high are 185 1⁄3 innings in 2022.

“Fatigue and elevated mistakes go hand in hand,” said the second evaluator, this one an NL scout. “Those first few months, his misses were more down in the zone resulting in less damage. [Now] it’s elevated mistakes left over the plate.”

For his part, Fried said, given the hefty innings load, he feels good. Boone said, “Physically, he’s in a good spot.”

Pitching, not so much.

And for the Yankees to get anywhere close to where they think they should this season, Fried and the club need to start figuring that out.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.