Aaron Boone’s choice to hand the ball to Max Fried on Wednesday night in the Bronx came as a surprise, especially with Carlos Rodon widely expected to get the nod once Gerrit Cole was set for Game One. Instead, the Yankees’ season now hangs on Fried after Cam Schlittler was chased in the fifth inning when a wave of errors wrecked his outing.
The logic behind Boone’s decision is easy enough to see. Fried gives the Yankees their best shot against the Rays because he throws left-handed, and that matters here. Tampa Bay has been much less productive against southpaws, posting a .678 team OPS against them compared with .751 against right-handers.
There’s also the way Fried gets outs. The Rays don’t strike out much at all - their 1,145 strikeouts and 18.8% strikeout rate are the lowest in baseball - so a pitcher who can force contact and keep the ball on the ground fits the matchup. Fried’s profile backs that up: an 83rd-percentile groundball rate, plus opponents hitting just 29.8% hard-hit, 2.4% barrels, and averaging 85.9 MPH in exit velocity against him.
Austin Wells summed up Fried’s value by pointing to how many different ways he can attack hitters.
"He can do anything that he wants, honestly, on the mound," Wells said, according to MLB.com's Bryan Hoch. "He's got so many pitches, so much ability to get outs for us. He's going to go out there and do what he does and give us a great chance to win the ballgame."
That kind of arsenal should play well if the Yankees can back it up cleanly in the field. Fried’s ideal path is obvious: mix pitches, keep the ball on the ground, and let the defense handle the rest at third, short, and second. The problem is what New York just showed in the previous game, when five errors helped sink Schlittler in the fifth.
And that’s the tension here. Fried may be the best matchup on paper, but if the Yankees turn sloppy again, it could unravel just the same.
At this point, the bigger concern isn’t the pitcher. It’s whether the defense can finally hold up long enough to let him work.
If not, the season is over, and Rodon’s chance at redemption disappears with it.
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