An offense that was thumping home runs left and right at first, the Yankees had hit a cold spell after touching down in the frozen tundra that was Comerica Park this week. It didn’t affect the Tigers much, who found ways to keep themselves on the board and ahead of the Bronx Bombers all series. Dropping two straight to the Tigers after a heart-breaker in Pittsburgh where their comeback fell just short, they badly wanted a win to avoid a sweep.
Calling on new ace Max Fried to be the stopper, he delivered one of the best outings we’ve seen from a Yankee starter in recent memory, allowing just five baserunners with 11 strikeouts and a ton of soft contact. Shutting down the Tigers for seven innings, he didn’t blink and willed the team to victory after the offense finally broke through.
Making some key adjustments in just his first three starts with the Yankees, Max Fried was the stopper when this team needed him most, and he’s looking like the frontline starter the team paid for.
Max Fried Shoves To End Yankees’ Skid, Arsenal Looks Better Than Before
The Yankees were getting carved up by Jack Flaherty, whose stuff was down but found ways to execute with stellar command. It would take a flawless outing from Max Fried to counter his former high school teammate, who finished his day with 5.1 innings of shutout baseball with nine strikeouts. When you’re an ace, you have to find a way to be better than the other team’s starter on that given day, and that’s exactly what Max Fried did.
Seven innings, no runs, no walks, five hits, and 11 strikeouts to help guide the Yankees to victory is exactly what the doctor ordered for an ailing club. New York entered today as the only team in the league without a quality start, and he got this rotation on the board with a gem when their backs were against the wall. The first pitch that stands out to me is his sinker, which has more depth to it and has seen a massive improvement in Stuff+ compared to 2024.
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The Stuff+ on his sinker has rocketed up as a result of adding more vertical drop on the pitch without altering his arm angle much and actually seeing an increase in release height. Vertical movement is relative to release height, how far you release a pitch off the ground affects whether we consider the drop or “rise” of the pitch to be a positive trait or not.
At a 6.05 vertical release height, the average IVB of a sinker is 9.6, making Max Fried’s sinker a true outlier pitch. His sinker had been more of an average offering throughout his career, but right now its one of the best from the left-handed side when measuring its pitch characteristics (not results). Fried has yet to truly nail the sinker, but the shape has improved, and one would imagine that with time this excellent heater will become consistent.
It does fit the rest of his arsenal better; hitters see a four-seamer and sinker thrown at similar velocities with more vertical separation between them. The arm slot at which Fried throws his four-seamer is identical to the one he throws his sinker from, and as a result, it creates some issues for hitters trying to identify which pitch they’re getting out of his hand.
The four-seam fastball can either generate a lot of ride or look more like a firm cutter, and it plays into what makes Max Fried so good; his deception. No one in the sport can make a hitter think as much as the veteran left-hander, who can throw one of seven different pitches in any count and manipulate the shape of those pitches to get the intended movement he’s looking for.
There’s a reason why no one in the sport has a lower ERA since 2020 than Max Fried, and it’s outings like this that remind you he’s an ace. The Yankees needed a stopper; a good outing wouldn’t be enough to win them this ballgame especially knowing that Devin Williams would struggle to close out that final inning. They needed dominance, and few pitchers are capable of doing it to the level Max Fried is, and he might still be evolving even in year one with the Yankees.