Max Fried put on Yankee pinstripes for the first time.
For Braves fans, that will take some getting used to.
Last week, Fried agreed to an eight-year, $218 million contract with the Yankees as a free agent. The left-hander finalized the deal and was formally introduced Wednesday. The one-time ace of the Braves staff is gone. He joins faces of the franchise such as Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson, who left via free agency after a contract extension could not be reached in recent years.
On why he chose the Yankees, Fried said it was about winning.
“Winning is a big priority for me,” Fried said. “Every single year, when you get to spring training, the number one goal is to win the World Series. It’s not to get to the playoffs. It’s not anything but to hold up the trophy at the end of the year. Knowing that I was going to make a potentially long commitment, I knew I wanted to be where I was going to have a chance to win year in and year out.
“I love playoff baseball, and I love to play meaningful baseball at the end of the year and the Yankees are an organization that are going to do that year in and year out.”
Fried, who turns 31 next month, will make $27.25 million per year. He’ll be 39 years old when his contract ends. The deal doesn’t contain any deferred money and has a full no-trade clause.
It had been clear well before Fried hit free agency this winter that his time with the Braves was waning. The last meaningful contract negotiations were before the 2023 season.
Fried spent eight seasons with the Braves. In 168 career games (151 starts) he went 73-36 with six complete games (four shutouts) and a 3.07 ERA.
Fried will always have a place in Braves history for throwing six scoreless innings in Game 6 of the 2021 World Series as the Braves closed out the Astros. In that performance, Fried had his right ankle stepped on while he covered first base in the first inning and then finished six scoreless innings after that.
He has finished in the top-five of Cy Young Award voting twice in his career (second in 2022 and fifth in 2020). Fried was the runner-up for the Cy Young in 2022 after going 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA in 30 starts.
Fried said Wednesday that three words stood out to him when he visited the Yankees. Those words were on the wall outside the clubhouse. Prepare. Compete. Win.
“I thought a lot about that,” Fried said. “And to me, as a competitor, and to me as a player that really resonated with me. At the end of the day, before I take the ball I’m going to prepare as best as I can, when I get out there, I’m going to leave everything out there and play to the best of my abilities and at the end of the day the one thing we are out here to do is win. For me, I couldn’t be more excited to be here.”
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