This story was excerpted from Bryan Hoch’s Yankees Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ARLINGTON -- Andy Pettitte took immense pride in his pickoff move, a weapon that erased runners and shut down big innings before they could begin. A generation of Yankees fans grew up believing it was the best they’d ever see.
Then Max Fried came along. The new standard has been set -- and even Pettitte agrees.
“I literally was talking about it with our guys today, how good it is and how much it bailed me out over my career,” Pettitte said this week. “When I came in today, they were like, ‘Oh, his doesn’t look very similar to yours.’ And I said, ‘I really feel like it does.’
“He’s got the same hip mobility, to be able to put your foot down when your body’s going toward home plate and to not have it be a balk. He’s even picking guys off when they’re not running. I preyed on those guys, the ones that weren’t very fast, thinking, ‘Man, if I can get an out here, it’s huge.’”
Pettitte spent time in the clubhouse and coaches’ room during the Texas portions of the Yankees’ nine-game road trip, witnessing Fried spin six scoreless innings in a victory over the Rangers at Globe Life Field on Monday.
That outing included a fourth-inning sequence where Fried lifted his right leg and hung in midair, whipping a throw to first base to nab Josh Jung.
Pickoffs have been plentiful for the team of late; Fried joined Will Warren, Ryan Weathers and Luis Gil to give the Yankees their fourth consecutive game with one, matching a club record set from Aug. 2-5, 1995. But it’s nothing new for Fried.
“It’s something I’ve worked on since I’ve been 8, 9, 10 years old,” Fried said. “The running game and holding runners is something I take a lot of pride in. It just helps when there’s a guy on base, to be able to eliminate that. To take someone off the bases is huge. We worked really hard on that in Spring Training and we’ve been executing well so far.”
Fried said the move developed naturally. He began using his "read" move at Harvard-Westlake High School in California and carried it into pro ball with the Braves, noting, “It’s just something that with practice, it’s gotten better and better.” Since 2019, Fried’s first full year as a starter, he ranks second in the Majors with 29 net bases prevented -- a metric displaying pitchers’ skill at preventing runners from advancing.
He leads the Majors with 38 pickoffs through his first 10 seasons (2017-present). Pettitte also paced the Majors in that category during his first decade, registering 68 pickoffs from 1995-2004.
So when Pettitte watches Fried, what does he see?
“He hangs a lot. I did not really do that,” Pettitte said. “I did ‘read’ early in my career, and then I gave up a few home runs that I wasn’t very happy about. I was like, ‘I need to pay a little bit more attention to the hitter.’ But Max is so athletic. It’s unbelievable, some of the plays that I’ve seen. I feel like he’s so much more athletic than me.”
David Cone was one of the Yankees who registered pickoffs during that previous franchise-record 1995 stretch of four straight games, a group that included Jack McDowell, Scott Kamieniecki and Sterling Hitchcock. Having shared a rotation with Pettitte and now observing Fried’s starts on the YES Network, Cone gives the edge to Fried.
“They’re both great. I think Max just has more looks,” Cone said. “Andy had one great one when he needed it. He was a clone; he made everything look the same. His delivery to home and his move to first base was all the same. Max has got a package of moves.
“He has a way to hang his leg and read the runner before he goes. That takes a little athleticism, to balance on your back leg. He’s a fantastic athlete. He has different moves and different sequences in terms of timing, one quicker and one slower. Max saves his really good move for when he needs it.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who played with Pettitte in 2003, also gives the nod to Fried.
“I think Max’s is better,” Boone said. “Andy’s move was great in the Steve Carlton realm; a really great, deceptive move. What makes Max so unique is his ability to be a reader for a long time, control his body and still not affect his execution of a pitch. That part of it is as good as I’ve ever seen.”
Pettitte doesn’t mind the comparison; they’re flattering. The more Pettitte sees of Fried, the more he likes.
“Talking through stuff with him, he’s amazing, because he can try different things even throughout the course of the game,” Pettitte said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, man, did you do this?’ And he’s like, ‘I’m going to go try that.’ A lot of guys can’t do that. His ability to do all kinds of different stuff -- it’s very impressive. Just grinding with him, you remember what it feels like.”