The New York Yankees have come to terms with left-handed starter Max Fried on an 8-year $218 million deal in their first move since losing out on Juan Soto.  As usual, the deal is pending a physical.  Let’s dive into what this means for the Yankees. 

By signing Fried, the Yankees acquired one of the top two pitchers available in free agency.  I had stated that I would have rather have had Burnes because he is a year younger and has already had success in the AL East but Fried is no slouch at all.  Fried has been one of the best starters in baseball over the past five years by pretty much any metric.  He is a craft lefty and doesn’t over power hitter which should mean he will be able to be effective even as he ages.  Which is good when you sign a guy for 8 years.  Fried has actual had better road numbers than home numbers pitching for the Braves and seeing as most, if not all of his starts will be “away” from Truist Park, that bodes well for the Yanks.  The one thing Fried has over Burnes is that he is left-handed and that is usual a good thing in Yankee Stadium.  His career lefty/righty splits are about equal but last season lefties hit him a lot better than righties did.  I don’t follow the Braves so I don’t know if there was a reason for him having reverse splits last season.  Fried is also a multi-time gold glove winner and defense seems to be a big priority for the Yankees this off season.  He was also the last ever pitcher Silver Slugger award winner.  Just a fun fact.    

The down side to this signing is that Fried will be 31 when the season starts and 39 when the contract ends.  Word is he has a full no trade clause so the Yankees will be stuck with him, to an extent, if things go bad at the end.  The thing with free agency is that the players, especially the really good ones, have all the power.  If you really want a guy you have to over pay for them.  My guess is that the 8^th year is what put the Yanks over the top in persuading him to sign with them over the Sox and Blue Jays.  However, as I mentioned, Fried being a crafty lefty who relies on control and mixing up pitches should mean that while most likely not being worth the money he will be getting, he should still be an some what productive pitcher at the end of the contract. 

There are two things that stick out with the Fried signing.  For one, he is not a hitter and the Yankees still have three holes to fill in their lineup.  Now, you can never have enough pitching and when the opportunity arises for you to acquire a top pitcher you should usually take it.  The second thing is that the Yankees now have 7 starting pitchers.  Obviously, this will change between now and spring training but the question is how. 

This is what could link the two points together.  Do the Yankees now use their extra starters to trade for a hitter or two to fill in those gaps.  For example, they have been linked to Cody Bellinger for some time now.  The Cubs are basically just trying to dump him to save money (they have 4 outfielders right now).  Bellinger has a big contract and a trade would most likely include the Cubs eating some of his money.  Well, instead of that, what if they took back Strowman, who pitched for them prior to the Yankees, as part of the deal.  They would save $10 mil in the trade and could look to reroute Strowman to another team if they wanted. 

Another scenario could see them use one of the two young guys, Schmidt and Gil, to acquire a very good hitter to fill one of the other holes.  There is talk that Houston may want to move Kyle Tucker, who is in his walk year.  He won’t come cheap and maybe one of the two younger starters, which ever one the Yankees have the least faith in, can be included to entice Houston to move the 27-year-old outfielder.

Those are just two possibilities.  They could just find someone to take Strowman and move Nester to the bullpen, not that he would like that, and solve their problems that way.  Maybe it’s Nester who gets moved.  Don’t forget, the Yankees still have Poteet waiting in the wings if they need another starter.  Maybe they move three guys and go with Poteet as the 5^th starter.  The options are endless.  The Fried signing not only makes them a better team next year and in the future, it also made the off season that much more interesting.

One last thing, It is going to be interesting to see how the Yankees line up their rotation next season in that both Fried and Rodon are left handed. Assuming Rodon isn’t one of the guys who gets moved, it would make the most sense to have he and Fried book end Cole thus going lefty-righty-lefty. Cole is going to be their opening day starter. Do they then slot Rodon as the 5th starter so that Cole follows him the rest of the season? As far as the rotation goes, he’s only the 5th starter the first time through, after that it’s a circle, there is no 1st or 5th starter. If not, do they put either Gil or Schmidt as the third starter and separate the lefties that way? Or are they fine with having the two lefties pitch back to back? It’s yet another thing that the Yankees need to figure out between now and opening day.