Max

Fried

Fried allowed four hits, walked two and struck out five while improving to 4-1 with a 2.09 ERA on the season. He’s 23-6 in his first year and a month as a Yankee. Boston’s Garrett Crochet, at 21-8, is the only other pitcher with at least 19 wins since the beginning of 2025. Fried will face the Orioles this weekend.

Brent Headrick spoiled what would have been the Yankees’ second straight shutout in the series by giving up an RBI single to Jarren Duran in the ninth. Fried, who has yet to get the chance to complete a game for the Yankees, allowed just three hits and walked two in the 100-pitch outing. He topped his previous season high in strikeouts by three. Fried is 3-1 with a 2.40 ERA through six starts. He’ll take on the Rangers on Monday.

Fried gave up a walk and a two-run homer in the first. The other runs all came in the sixth, when the Angels strung together a walk, a single and a double with one out. That made it 3-3, and after Fried was replaced, Fernando Cruz allowed both inherited runners to score. Fried had good velocity today, topping out at 98 mph. His sinker was up 1.3 mph from his season average, putting him back to where he was in 2025. It’s just the third time in 37 starts as a Yankee that he’s been charged with five earned runs. He’ll take a 2-1 record and a 2.96 ERA into his next start against the Red Sox.

Fried limited Tampa Bay’s lineup to just six hits with runs crossing the plate in the first, sixth and eighth innings. He did a phenomenal job eliminating hard contact as the Rays registered just nine hard-hit balls in this one with only one going for extra bases. The 32-year-old southpaw has been exceptional so far this season with a 1.93 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and 20/5 K/BB ratio over 28 innings of work. He’ll face the Angels in a favorable home matchup on Thursday.

Fried, who won his first two starts, left with a 4-3 lead, but the Marlins scored four runs in the eighth to spoil things. He’ll bring a 1.35 ERA into his fourth start against the Rays.

Fried was dominant yet again in his second consecutive road outing, holding the Mariners off the board over seven frames to extend his scoreless streak to 13 1/3 innings across his first two starts. He scattered three hits and one walk while collecting six strikeouts. The 32-year-old left-hander has a chance to continue his excellent start when he takes on the Marlins in New York on Sunday.

It was just poor luck for the Giants that they never had the guys on base to employ their huge advantage over the rest of the league in situational hitting. Fried’s velocity crept back up some tonight; he averaged 95.4 mph with his fastball in the first two innings and 94.6 mph overall, up from 94.0 mph last time out. This is actually the first time ever that Fried has earned a win in his first outing of the season. Last year, the Yankees won 20-9 in his debut, but Fried gave up six runs — two earned — and was pulled one out shy of qualifying for the win. In 2024 with Atlanta, he didn’t even make it out of the first inning while facing the Phillies. Fried will pitch in Seattle next time out.

That means Luis Gil is the odd man out, at least for now. It’s unclear if he’ll remain back at the team’s spring training facility to keep working and stay stretched out as a starter or if he’ll head north with the team and operate in a long relief role out of the bullpen for the time being. Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers will start the club’s first four games.

Fried’s velocity today was still down 1.5-2 mph from last year, and he gave up 11 hard-hit balls. However, it’s probably still safe to assume that he’ll back a lot closer to his usual self on Opening Day, when he’s set to face the Giants. Last year, he topped out at 95.1 mph in his Mar. 18 spring start. Today, he topped out at 95.5 mph.

It’s merely a formality as Fried will get the ball to kick off the regular season next Wednesday at Oracle Park in San Francisco with both Gerrit Cole (elbow) and Carlos Rodón (elbow) opening on the injured list. The 32-year-old southpaw was outstanding in his Yankees debut last year, posting an American League-leading 19 wins along with a 2.86 ERA across 195 1/3 innings over 32 starts. He’s a top 10-12 range fantasy starter in drafts this spring.