Yankees' $218 million addition could use new pitch to fill big shoes

03/12/2025 10:25 AM

Max Fried was signed to be the co-ace of the New York Yankees, but everyone expected Gerrit Cole to be their top dog in the rotation with the cache he’s built as a top-flight pitcher over the years. Reliable in the regular season and the playoffs, Cole’s Tommy John Surgery is a huge blow to the Yankees’ hopes of winning the 2025 World Series. Still, they don’t lack the kind of pitcher capable of being a number one for a contender.

In fact, Max Fried had the best ERA in his rotation when the 2021 Atlanta Braves went to the World Series and captured their first title in three decades. That team also dealt with an injury that seemed to crush any hopes they had of winning a title, and the Yankees will have to hope they can be resilient enough to withstand the loss of not only a great player but a calming presence on the mound who gave you a chance to win on any given day.

The Yankees Paid Max Fried For This Exact Scenario

One thing that stood out to me about Max Fried’s free agency process was how Matt Blake discussed the difference in technology usage with the Yankees and Braves. Atlanta is very good at pitching development, but perhaps Fried was unable to identify certain flaws in his game due to a lack of information made available to him. The Yankees are a very data-driven organization with a strong track record of developing pitchers at a rapid rate, and Max Fried could make some important tweaks this upcoming season.

One of those tweaks could be an increase in his sweeper usage, a pitch that he threw just 5.9% of the time last season but revamped in September, leaning on it heavily as he dominated to end the season. The usage rate of his sweeper spiked to 19.2% over that month because the changes he made to the pitch were so successful, with batters hitting .125 with a 34.3% Whiff%, making it a real swing-and-miss pitch for the veteran left-hander.

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The improvements to this pitch don’t seem like something worth noting because the gap in wOBA is so small, but Max Fried used his sweeper just 3% of the time over his first 25 starts. Over his final four, the pitch usage spiked to 23.3%, making it one of his most-relied-upon weapons. It should be noted that Fried is notorious for having a diverse pitch mix, so a 23% usage rate for any singular pitch is pretty high for the left-hander.

He only used one pitch over 23% of the time last season, his four-seam fastball, a pitch he still only used 33% of the time. The results were immediate, as hitters found themselves generating weak contact or whiffing entirely against this big sweeping breaking ball. The already brilliant left-hander could reach new heights with that pitch in his back pocket, and he could be the ace that the team desperately needs with Gerrit Cole out for the year.

Over the last five seasons, no pitcher with at least 500 IP has a lower ERA than Max Fried (2.81), and his consistent dominance made him the richest left-handed pitcher in the history of baseball. The Yankees know they paid a premium for an ace, but now they expect to get the production of one. If Fried stabilizes the top of the team’s rotation, we could see the Yankees right in the middle of a heated AL East race, one they won’t be as heavily favored to win without Gerrit Cole.