Max

Fried

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.

He struck out four and walked none. Fried’s velocity was down about 1.5 mph from last season, but that was pretty much the norm for him last spring, too. It’ll probably be there when he needs it.

Fried allowed just two hits on the night and didn’t walk a batter. The 32-year-old southpaw actually navigated the first four innings unscathed, then returned to start the fifth and served up a solo homer to Endy Rodriguez. Fried got six whiffs on 67 pitches on the evening, posting a CSW of 28 percent. Expect him to make at least one additional start in Grapefruit League play before the regular season kicks off.

Fried had no issue handling the Panama lineup in the exhibition bout. He wasn’t dominant as he allowed three walks, but he worked around those free passes to keep the WBC club off the board. Fried will likely be stretched out to four innings next week as he works his way to pitching at the top of the New York rotation to open 2026.

Those two are joined by Steven Kwan in the outfield. Other AL winners include pitcher Max Fried, catcher Dillon Dingler, first baseman Ty France, second baseman Marcus Semien, third baseman Maikel Garcia, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and utilityman Mauricio Dubón. Semien getting the nod over Andrés Giménez seems like the biggest upset, though Giménez, who won the previous three years, did miss a bunch of time. Dingler over Alejandro Kirk also rates as a modest surprise.