Alexander Wilson
The New York Yankees got a small but real Max Fried breadcrumb Friday, and at this stage of his rehab, small but real counts.
Fried threw another bullpen session, with pitching coach Matt Blake saying the left-hander got to about 28 pitches. Blake also said Fried should face live hitters “pretty soon,” with the rough expectation landing somewhere in the next few weeks.
Nobody should turn that into a return date. That would be getting ahead of the whole thing. But after a left elbow bone bruise knocked one of the Yankees’ best arms out of the rotation, a bullpen followed by a live-hitter runway is exactly the kind of step they needed to see.
The Yankees can wait on Fried, within reason
Fried was 4-3 with a 3.21 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP over 61.2 innings before the injury. The raw line was good, but the bigger value was steadiness. He gave the Yankees a left-handed starter they could trust near the front of the rotation, and that kind of arm changes how a postseason staff feels.
The Yankees have survived because the rotation did not collapse without him. Gerrit Cole is back, Cam Schlittler has pitched like a monster, and the depth behind them has kept the floor from cracking. That buys Fried time, which matters because elbow injuries are not the place to play hero ball in June.
Still, patience is not the same as indifference. The Yankees need Fried back because their best October version probably includes him taking the ball in a real game, not simply existing as a hopeful name on an injury report.
Schmidt is still on a slower track
Clarke Schmidt is moving, but he is not close enough yet to change the immediate rotation picture. Blake said Schmidt is still “a couple weeks” from throwing to live hitters, which puts him behind Fried in the practical timeline.
That matters because Schmidt gives the Yankees another potential starter or multi-inning option later in the season. He does not need to be rushed into a role today, but his progress could help protect the team from needing to overpay for innings in July.
There is a useful version of this where Fried returns first, Schmidt follows later, and Brian Cashman can aim his deadline attention at catcher and the bullpen instead of chasing another starter just to feel safer.
Wells keeps the catcher picture cloudy
Austin Wells remains the awkward one here. Boone said “we’ll see” when asked if Wells would continue his rehab assignment through the weekend, which is not exactly a ringing declaration that the catcher is about to walk back into the lineup.
The Yankees need him healthy, but they also need him productive. Wells was hitting .166/.278/.255 with four homers before the injured list, and the catcher spot has already been too light offensively for a team trying to keep pressure on opposing pitchers every night.
Fried’s bullpen is the best news in this batch. Schmidt’s timeline is useful background. Wells is still the one that feels most unsettled, because a return only helps so much if the bat comes back quiet.
The Yankees do not need all three answers by the end of the weekend. They do need the next round of updates to keep moving in the right direction, because the roster is deep, but it is not deep enough to keep treating every injury as someone else’s problem.
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