This arm all Yanks hoped for 'and then some'

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 -- Paul Goldschmidt has faced more than 1,000 pitchers across a lengthy Major League career that will someday merit Hall of Fame consideration, which makes the veteran slugger an excellent source to detail exactly what makes Max Fried such a challenging at-bat.

“For me, I always just felt like all of his pitches were so good,” Goldschmidt said. “You never knew how he was going to pitch you. He’s got two different fastballs, he’s got two different sliders, a curveball and a changeup. So, it’s hard to know how he was going to attack you.

“I remember thinking: ‘Man, he had six probably above-average pitches.’ A lot of times, even pitchers that have six pitches, there’s two of them that are probably dominant, and then they mix the other ones in. But I remember walking away like, ‘Man, he attacked me three or four different ways.’”

Goldschmidt is glad to be on this side of the equation after tussling with Fried on a dozen previous occasions, most recently in 2023. Goldschmidt has managed three hits, including a double, while striking out four times.

With how Fried has been carving through lineups, most opponents would be thrilled to mirror Goldschmidt’s lifetime .250 batting average against him.

Signed to an eight-year, $218 million contract on Dec. 18, Fried has been everything the Yankees could have hoped so far -- “And then some,” as manager Aaron Boone said -- posting a 6-0 record and 1.01 ERA through his first seven starts. Each time Fried has taken the ball, the Yankees have won.

“I enjoy the competition; I enjoy the ‘mano y mano,’” Fried said. “To me, it’s just the same game -- 60 feet, 6 inches; me versus you. And I’ve got the guys behind me defending me, so the more simple I can keep it and be aggressive … it just makes it a lot easier for me.”

In Fried’s most recent outing on Friday, he stifled the Rays for the second time in a week-plus, holding Tampa Bay hitless into the fifth inning while combining with two relievers on a one-hit shutout -- a worthy follow-up after taking a perfect game bid deep on April 20 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

“It was just more of what always impresses me, which is the different ways he can beat you,” Boone said. “There were a couple of innings where he was reining in his command a little bit. Some of the innings, he’s ripping off some good breaking balls. The others, he’s adding and subtracting on his heater. He’s just so versatile out there.”

These are the early stages of Fried’s Yankees tenure, of course, but he has been precisely what the club needed after losing ace Gerrit Cole to a season-ending right elbow injury during Spring Training.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only two other pitchers have recorded at least six wins with an ERA of 1.01 or lower through their first seven starts with a franchise -- Fernando Valenzuela’s “Fernandomania” season of 1981 with the Dodgers (7-0, 0.29 ERA) and Boo Ferriss’ 1945 debut with the Red Sox (7-0, 0.57 ERA).

Fried said he has found near-instant comfort in the Yankees clubhouse, noting, “We’ve got great teammates that have welcomed me since Day 1 in the spring. Just being able to go out there and develop those relationships, and then being able to know that those guys have my back out there, it just makes my job easier.”

But while the Yankees and their fans have been thrilled by their introduction to Fried, a ground ball machine who artfully adds and subtracts to exploit hitters, this kind of performance comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched him over the past several seasons in the National League -- Goldschmidt included.

Since the beginning of 2021, Fried has pitched to a 53-25 record and 2.74 ERA in 108 starts. That’s the lowest ERA of any pitcher with at least 400 innings over that span (Shohei Ohtani and Michael King are second, with 2.84), while Fried’s 153 ERA+ is also the Majors’ lowest (Ohtani is second, with 151 ERA+).

“He’s really tough. It’s just always tough at-bats,” Goldschmidt said.