Yankees Magazine: Learning Curve

It is the night before Max Fried is scheduled to take the ball at Yankee Stadium, and he describes the scene this way: He is on the couch in his Manhattan apartment, laptop open, video of himself pitching paused mid-delivery. Two dogs sprint across the hardwood floor, chasing a tennis ball while his girlfriend, Reni Meyer-Whalley, has a reality TV show on in the background.

There’s noise everywhere, but Fried is locked in -- studying hitter tendencies, measuring timing, evaluating pitch shapes. The setting could just as easily be a hotel room on the road or a window seat on the Yankees’ charter jet 35,000 feet in the air. Wherever he is, this is how the homework gets done.

“Whether it’s Spring Training, the regular season or the postseason, I try to prepare for every start with the mentality of, ‘I get once a week to do this, so I want to make the most of it,’” Fried says. “I’m a competitive guy. I treat every start the same, where it’s a must-win mentality. I’m expecting to go out there and have us win.”

A behind-the-scenes tour of Yankee Stadium offers many unique attractions, but as he walked through the players’ area for the first time this past winter, Fried’s attention was drawn to -- of all things -- a mahogany wall. Next to a gleaming interlocking “NY,” three words stood in bold black type: Prepare. Compete. Win.

Fried embraced the slogan on the spot.

Early in his Braves career, he was known for his fanatical routine -- training table, weight room, endless scouting dives. Every step was regimented, bordering on obsessive. Now, at 31 years old and in his ninth big league season, he has eased those rules.

“You can become a slave to a routine, where you’re doing it almost as a superstition rather than using it as a way to prepare,” Fried says. “It was stepping away from that and realizing, ‘OK, I don’t need to just do things to check a box.’ I’d rather do what I need to be ready to take the ball.”

Sometimes that means reviewing his last few starts, identifying which pitches have been sharp and which need attention in the bullpen. Sometimes it’s digging deep into a new opponent, dissecting video at-bats and formulating sequencing ideas. And sometimes, it’s knowing when to close the laptop.

“That was the biggest change -- avoiding paralysis by analysis,” Fried says. “The outline of what I do is similar, but now I adjust the specifics. The older I’ve gotten, it’s just understanding what I need in that moment to have the most confidence.”

That approach matters now as the Yankees chase October, with Fried’s left arm central to their hopes.

***

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says Fried was “at the very top” of his list once Juan Soto departed in free agency after last season. Manager Aaron Boone recalls eyeing a board in a suite at the Winter Meetings in Dallas that said exactly that.

A 90-minute introductory Zoom call with Cashman, Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake sealed it, leaving Boone remarking: “He’s exactly what we want him to be.” Soon after, Fried signed an eight-year, $218 million deal, the richest ever for a left-handed free-agent pitcher.

“We had a lot of dreams along the way of, Wouldn’t it be nice to have that lefty here?” Cashman says. “He wanted this opportunity. He wanted New York.”

Fried already owned a big-game pedigree to go along with a 2.81 ERA over the previous five-year span (2020 to ’24) that was the lowest in the Majors. Although his October results had been uneven, he delivered six scoreless innings in Houston to clinch the 2021 World Series. That performance, and his steady evolution into one of baseball’s most reliable starters, convinced the Yankees that he was the missing piece to their championship dreams.

The feeling that the pinstripes would be a perfect fit was mutual.

“Every single year, the Yankees come to Spring Training, and the No. 1 goal is to win a World Series,” Fried says. “I love playoff baseball. I love meaningful baseball at the end of the year. That’s what this organization does.”

His superstitions calmed, Fried welcomed the chance to embrace new technological tools in New York. He also focused on building relationships with everyone in his circle, from coaches all the way through the support staff.

“In any job, the vast majority of your day is interacting with the people you’re around all the time -- just understanding how people work, how they react, how to approach them, stuff of that nature,” Fried says. “It’s me learning them and them learning me. I still think it’s an ongoing process, but I’ve definitely gotten a lot more comfortable.”

Part of what made Fried so appealing to the Yankees was that, even with his existing credentials, both sides saw room for refinement. Blake describes Fried as a contact manager who fills up the zone and keeps the ball in the ballpark with neutral splits, but adds that the pitcher still looks to grow. “There’s some room to evolve with us,” the sixth-year pitching coach says. “As accomplished as he is, he’s open-minded.”

Fried’s seven-pitch arsenal hinges upon a curveball that he modeled after Sandy Koufax’s 12-to-6 marvel. That pitch has been the Southern California native’s bread and butter since age 12, when former Dodgers outfielder Reggie Smith showed him how to spin the ball. Fried hasn’t stopped tinkering.

“‘Crafty’ is probably not the right word, because he’s got some horsepower,” Blake says. “But he can move the ball around with different shapes, mix and match to both left-handed and right-handed hitters. He minimizes quality contact, which is important, especially in this ballpark.”

Asked which data points he values the most in his preparation, Fried pauses, then offers a smirk that almost says: Wouldn’t you like to know?

“Ideally, I’d like to try to keep that a little bit close to the chest,” he finally replies. “I don’t want to have that get out. Everybody’s trying to find an edge these days.”

***

A ground-ball machine who plays Gold Glove defense, Fried is known as one of the game’s most intense competitors. His soft-spoken demeanor off the field belies a snarling on-field presence on the mound. While Fried says there are “a lot of really amazing people” with the Yankees, the most important partners are his teammates.

“The players have been incredible, always having your back,” he says. “Those are the guys I’m going out to the field with. It’s important to have a really great group of guys that make you feel comfortable so you can step into the clubhouse and be yourself every day.”

That begins with captain Aaron Judge, who chose the word “determined” to describe the All-Star left-hander. Judge frequently sits by Fried on the team charter, observing his fellow Californian as he digs deep into his laptop for scouting reports and tidbits to add to his notes.

“I knew Max was always this good just from seeing him on TV, watching him with the Braves,” Judge says. “You know what he’s able to do. But now getting a chance to see him up close and kind of see the total package, the work he puts in, the homework he’s doing. … He’s one of a kind. We’re lucky to have him.”

It would be difficult to script a better beginning to Fried’s first season in New York. After getting tagged for six runs in his debut -- albeit in a 20-9 Yankees victory over Milwaukee -- Fried notched victories in each of his next six starts, pitching to a razor-thin 0.68 ERA over that span.

“I told him: ‘Just watching you more and more, I would not have wanted to hit off you,’” Boone says. “He’s got so many weapons out there, and there’s just so much movement to all his pitches.”

That season-opening window set a model for how things should feel when all is going well. He points to his seven scoreless innings against the Tigers on April 9 at Detroit -- “quick outs, quick innings; get in, get out” -- and a deep no-hit bid on April 20 against the Rays in Tampa.

“You’re not thinking about anything. It’s just going,” Fried says. “It almost feels too easy, where it’s just happening naturally. You’re not doing too much. You’re just playing the game. You look up, and you’re done, and you’re like, ‘Oh, wow.’ You realize that you didn’t have to try too hard or do too much, and you’re like, ‘I should be able to do that every time.’”

Those are checkpoints he leaned upon when the results turned in the second half. A blister issue kept Fried from pitching in Atlanta in the first series after his old home park hosted the All-Star Game, and his performances were inconsistent coming out of the break.

“When you get out of that, then you think about, ‘What are the things I need to do to get back on track and find that flow?’”

***

The Yankees’ vision for how the starting staff would stack up this season changed early on -- out of necessity. When Fried signed, Gerrit Cole was still slotted at the top of the rotation, and the Yanks dreamed about a Cole-Fried pairing that might be the best one-two punch in the bigs.

That evaporated in March, when Cole’s damaged right ulnar collateral ligament required Tommy John surgery. The Yankees’ single-season strikeout leader has remained a helpful sounding board, similar to the role Chris Sale once played for Fried in Atlanta. Fried says he often has text messages from Cole waiting for him on his phone after road starts, and sometimes Fried will strike first: What did you see? What do you have for me?

“He’s as smart as they come,” Fried says of the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner. “He’s prepared. It’s no accident, the success that he’s had. It just helps, having someone that likes to get a lot of information and sift through it. I like to hear a lot of stuff, and then I pick and choose what works for me. Knowing that it’s all good-hearted with him being able to share that knowledge, it’s been really, really easy.”

The Yankees anticipate Cole will make a healthy return early in the 2026 season. In the meantime, Cole has enjoyed an extended opportunity to watch Fried in action.

“He’s just a real master of what he does, throwing a lot of different shapes at you, locating several different pitches really well at any given time in the count,” Cole says. “He has a lot of different weapons to manipulate what his repertoire is going to be for whoever he’s facing.”

Fried has also absorbed wisdom from other Yankees greats, beginning this spring. CC Sabathia spoke to him about big-game pressure. Andy Pettitte compared pickoff moves, delighting in how similar their mechanics are. And, ahead of the Old-Timers’ Day game on Aug. 9, Roger Clemens gave him a few tips, including the importance of producing shut-down innings after his team scores. “If you focus on these things, you’re going to look up and be in the seventh inning,” Rocket told him. “You’re not going to be looking over your shoulder for help.”

Fried’s cerebral, adaptable and meticulous demeanor impressed another pitcher who fit all of those characteristics, too. David Cone has enjoyed calling Fried’s starts this season from his perch in the YES Network booth. When Cone was an active player, his pregame preparation was a VHS version of Fried’s analytical deep-dives, and he recognizes a kindred spirit.

“The thing that jumps out at me is just how smart he is, and how much of a craftsman he is. He’s never satisfied,” Cone says. “He’s relentless, always looking for a new grip, a new pitch, a new pitch shape. He doesn’t chase velocity. He chases pitch shapes. He chases the art of pitching, learning new things about his craft. That’s what makes him special.”

Cone believes there is valuable data to be found even in starts Fried would rather flush -- a seven-run thumping on Aug. 16 at St. Louis, for example, and another Yankees win, for what it’s worth.

“You can almost see the wheels spinning when he struggles a little bit,” Cone says. “Then he comes out the next inning and makes the right adjustments. To me, that’s impressive. Those are the games I remember the most, where I wasn’t that good but found a way to keep my team in the game.”

The Yankees believe their best chances for a deep October run hinge on Fried being at the top of his game. He knows it, too, which is why he values balance. Before home games, he’ll walk the dogs, grab a cup of coffee in his neighborhood, then have a light breakfast before spending eight or nine hours in the Bronx.

At night, he winds down, resets and prepares to do it again the next day. He rarely alters his approach. If the Yankees reach the World Series this autumn, Fried envisions his preparation looking much like it does now: a quiet evening, laptop clicked shut, dogs finally calm.

Fans may not see that part, but if all goes according to plan, they’ll certainly enjoy the results.

“I want them to see that I’m someone who leaves it all out there every single time that I get the chance,” Fried says. “I want to be known as extremely competitive, consistent and reliable. When I take the ball, I want everyone to be excited that we have a really, really good chance of winning that day.”

Bryan Hoch is a contributing writer for Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the September 2025 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.