After a sharp Carlos Rodón impressed using six different pitches in Thursday’s Opening Day win, Aaron Boone was asked if he expects the former two-pitch pitcher to evolve into the type of arm who can pull from a deep arsenal.
“I’m not ready to say he’s going to be Max Fried,” the manager said.
There are not many around the league whose bags of tricks are as deep as the Yankees’ Saturday starting pitcher.
Fried will make his club debut after signing a $218 million pact this winter with a résumé of eight strong seasons with the Braves in which he continued to evolve.
After adding a sweeper last year, there are seven unique offerings he can turn to — a four-seamer, sinker, changeup, devastating curveball, cutter and a more traditional slider to go with the more horizontal weapon — to keep hitters guessing.
“I think just having an understanding of how hard it is to hit in general when you’re able to throw a bunch of different looks and also change speeds,” Fried said in camp. “It just adds a different element that they can’t sit there and … look for a fastball or just try to jump the fastball.
“Being able to mix speeds, pitches, breaks, different things like that will just allow me to have a little bit more options.”
His diversity in attack and ability to grow are part of why the Yankees gave a now-31-year-old an eight-year deal, which will begin against the Brewers in The Bronx.
Fried has talked up the technology around the Yankees and hinted (though not explicitly) about tweaks he can make with his new team.
His curveball has been his best pitch through his career, last year rated as the sixth-best curve in terms of Statcast’s Run Value and a pitch opposing hitters batted .154 against.
During a spring training that went askew for the Yankees, Fried — who missed some time the past two seasons with forearm issues — had no clear issues and built up to 78 pitches during the Grapefruit League.
In the Yankees’ first game, Rodón stepped up.
In a season- and (they hope) postseason-long quest to compensate for the loss of Gerrit Cole, it’s Fried’s turn.
“Obviously we’re going to miss Gerrit,” Fried said Thursday, “but at the same time, whether he was pitching in the rotation or whether he’s not, it doesn’t really change what I have to do at the end of the day.
“When it’s my time to take the ball, I have to be myself and go out there and win the ballgame.”
Especially encouraging Thursday was Mark Leiter Jr., who bounced back from a minor back issue in camp and struck out two in a clean inning.
In 212 major league games, Leiter has thrown 5,147 pitches.
None has been harder than the 95.2 mph fastball he threw to Brice Turang.
His previous high was 93.5 mph, reached once in 2023 and once in ’22.
“I’ve loved what I’ve seen this spring from him,” Boone said. “I feel like his velocity’s ticked up. His stuff is really good right now.”
Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre announced its roster and its rotation, which could prove important for a Yankees team shallow in starting pitchers.
SWB will use Sean Boyle, Erick Leal, Brandon Leibrandt, Zach Messinger and Allan Winans as starters.
With Everson Pereira, Duke Ellis, Ismael Munguia, Grant Richardson and Jose Rojas opening the season as SWB outfielders, top prospect Spencer Jones, who had strikeout issues last year with Double-A Somerset, again will begin play with Somerset.
