The Yankees were outbid in their efforts to bring back Juan Soto.

They would not be outbid for Max Fried.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Yankees signed Fried to an eight-year, $218 million contract. This deal is the largest amount of money ever awarded to a left-handed pitcher in the history of the sport.What kind of pitcher are the Yankees getting in Fried?

It’s probably a given, but a good one. In eight seasons with Atlanta after being drafted by San Diego as a junior, Fried compiled a career 3.07 ERA in 168 appearances, with all but 17 of them coming as a starter. He finished in the top five in Cy Young voting twice in his career, with a runner-up finish in 2022 behind Sandy Alcantara.

In 2024, Fried was solid again with a 3.24 ERA, a 166/57 K/BB over 174 2/3 innings and made the National League All-Star team for the second time in his career.

What do the advanced statistics say about Fried?

Since 2020, there haven’t been many pitchers better at avoiding hard contact than Fried. In each of those five seasons, he is in the 90th percentile of average allowed exit velocity, and last year that number was in the 95th percentile at 86.3 mph. One of the reasons he’s so good at avoiding hard contact is because hitters have a hard time lifting the baseball against the former first-round pick. He’s never had a ground ball percentage lower than 50 percent, and last year batters hit the baseball just five percent of the time, with a ground ball percentage of 59.2 percent. This put him in the 96th percentile of all qualified hurlers.

Fried also has solid command, and while his walk rate in 2024 was the worst of his career at eight percent, his previous success throwing strikes makes it very likely that it won’t carry over into 2025.

What does Fried struggle with?

Struggle may be a bit too strong a word, but there are a few things that keep Fried from being an elite hurler; at least so far. The biggest problem – the most relevant to his fantasy status, anyway – is that Fried has never been the guy to generate a ton of swings and misses. Over the course of his career, his best percentage rate as a full-time starter is 27.2 percent, and while that’s not a hideous number, it pales in comparison to some other starters who could receive similar contracts. His career K/9 of 8.6 is fantastic in 1994. It’s not as impressive in 2024. The other problem with Fried was durability, at least in terms of innings pitched; However, he was only able to make 14 starts in 2023 due to a forearm strain. He has never thrown more than 190 innings in his career and has consistently finished between 165 and 175 innings. Again, this isn’t a terrible number – especially in this day and age, but it’s something to keep in mind before choosing Fried.

How about park and defensive fitness?

Seems pretty good here. Yankees Stadium can be home run-happy, of course, but for all the reasons we discussed earlier, that shouldn’t be a problem for Fried; a pitcher who has not given up more than 21 home runs in a season and has allowed just 32 over the past three seasons combined. The Yankees’ outfield defense leaves a bit to be desired right now, but again, grounders are his calling card, and in that regard, the Yankees’ outfield defense should be a solid infield.

Should fantasy managers be happy that Fried signed with the Yankees?

Yes. Maybe not a clear yes, but yes.

Fried reportedly fell short to the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Yankees before finally landing with the Empire, and at least in this writer’s humble assessment, that was the best combination. Sure, the Yankees lost Soto, but there still appears to be a pretty solid offense behind him, so there should be plenty of chances for wins.

While Fried isn’t expected to be the star of the Yankees’ roster – there’s Gerrit Cole taking over that mantle – he’s likely to slip into second place behind Cole and just ahead of Carlos Rodon. That should give him a lot of starts, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Fried set a career-high in innings pitched in 2025. The strikeouts don’t make Fried a fantasy ace, but he’s certainly good enough to be one of the better SP2 options to start the year.