After losing Juan Soto the pressure was on the New York Yankees to make a big splash this offseason. Maybe several of them.
They did their best to make that happen on Tuesday evening by agreeing to terms with left-handed starting pitcher Max Fried on an eight-year, $218M contract.
It will be the largest guaranteed deal ever signed for a left-handed starting pitcher.
Fried is one of the best left-handed starters in baseball and has never posted an ERA+ lower than 114 in his career. Just for context, a 100 ERA+ is considered league average.
In 29 starts with the Atlanta Braves in 2024, Fried was 11-10 with a 128 ERA+ while striking out 166 batters in 174 innings.
He will join a Yankees starting rotation that already has Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Carlos Rodon at the top of it.
Fried is a definite big splash, but that Yankees can not stop there and they have to keep adding this offseason.
They still have massive holes in their lineup given the departure of Soto and the likely departure of Gleyber Torres. Even with Soto their lineup was incredibly top-heavy, and now everything is again falling on Aaron Judge to carry them.
That will not get them back to the World Series.
Fried is a good start. But it has to be exactly that, a start.
