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.
NEW YORK -- It was December 2024, and Max Fried had found a seat in the Legends Club beneath Yankee Stadium, a pressed white shirt and sharp blue tie beneath his new pinstriped jersey.
His face was clean-shaven to comply with a Yankees grooming policy that would unexpectedly disappear a few months later, and the All-Star left-hander was speaking excitedly about joining Gerrit Cole at the top of the rotation.
“He’s one of the best pitchers of his generation,” Fried said. “He’s an established superstar in this game. For me to be able to pick his brain a little bit, I feel like there’s benefits. I’m excited to be able to sit and watch every single one of his starts.”
Neither pitcher could have imagined it would take almost two years for that vision to become reality.
Cole and Fried started opposite ends of Wednesday’s split doubleheader against the Pirates, realizing a partnership that was set into motion two winters ago, when Fried signed an eight-year, $218 million contract -- the richest ever issued to a left-handed pitcher.
Fried held up his end in his first year as a Yankee, pitching to a 19-5 record and 2.86 ERA in 32 starts, but Cole never got the chance.
That March, Cole felt something awful in his right elbow and immediately suspected what it might be. A cross-country flight to Los Angeles confirmed the worst-case scenario: Tommy John surgery that would cost him a year.
“A bit too long for both of our tastes,” as Cole put it on Wednesday.
Cole and Fried were popping gloves alongside each other this past spring, with Cole progressing more quickly than anyone expected.
But just as Cole closed in on a mid-May return to active duty, moving through a series of Minor League rehab starts, Fried was in a trainers’ room in Baltimore, complaining of a nagging feeling in the back of his elbow. The sensation, he said, felt like repeatedly banging his elbow on a table.
He could have made it through a few more starts, but pitching the entire season that way wasn’t an option. So Fried checked out of the rotation, landing on the injured list, and Cole checked in. The pair flipped roles -- Cole taking the ball every fifth day, Fried shifting to an interested observer.
Fried had initially been scheduled to make a Minor League rehab start on Wednesday, but Tuesday’s rainout shifted those plans. As a torrential downpour pounded the Stadium, Fried said he quipped to the coaching staff: “Are you guys figuring out who’s pitching the doubleheader tomorrow?”
He assumed the answer would be Cole and Will Warren.
“They kind of looked at me and gave me a look like, ‘Would you?’” Fried said. “I was like, ‘Oh, you’re serious? Yeah, I’m going to be pitching anyway.’ If you want me to pitch, I’m ready.”
More out of necessity than ceremony, Wednesday’s games against the Pirates gave the Yankees the pairing they’d been banking on.
Cole struck out 11 over seven innings in the opener, and Fried followed with five one-hit innings in the nightcap, navigating what he described as “a lot of adrenaline” in his unexpected assignment.
It was a long time coming.
“It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to for a while now,” Fried said. “It kind of sucks that I got hurt when I did to delay that, but better late than never.”