Max Fried is about to pitch in a game that actually counts for the first time in over two months. And for the Yankees, that timing could not be better.
Aaron Boone told reporters Sunday morning that Fried’s live batting practice session on Saturday went well. The next step? A rehab start. Boone said that could come as early as this Friday, according to Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News.
Fried has been shelved since mid-May with an elbow injury. That’s the kind of thing that makes any team hold its breath, especially when it’s a lefty they signed to a big contract last winter. But the Yankees have been careful here. Fried has been throwing live bullpen sessions for a couple weeks now, gradually building back up. Elbow injuries are tricky for pitchers, and the Yankees have let him progress at his own pace rather than rushing him back.
Before he went down, Fried was having a solid season for New York. He gave the rotation a stabilizing presence even when the lineup was struggling to score runs. And while the Yankees have managed to stay in the AL East race without him, they’re clearly a different team when he’s on the mound.
Speaking of that race: the Yankees are sitting at 53-42 going into Sunday’s series finale in Washington. That puts them four games behind the first-place Rays with the All-Star break approaching. The break actually works in Fried’s favor here. Even if he makes a rehab start Friday, the layoff buys him extra recovery time without forcing him to miss any big league games.
It’s worth remembering that the Yankees have been holding things together without multiple key guys. Aaron Judge is still out. Fried has been out. And yet they’ve been climbing. Getting Fried back would mean adding a frontline starter to a pitching staff that’s already been one of the best in baseball despite his absence. That’s a dangerous combination for the rest of the division.
The Yankees and Nationals are set to wrap things up Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET. But the real story in the Bronx right now is about what happens next week, and the week after that, when Fried might finally be back on a big league mound.
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