Max Fried’s elbow is hurt. The Yankees do not know how long they will be without him. That is a problem because Fried is the best pitcher on their staff.
New York placed the lefty on the 15-day injured list this week with a bone bruise in his left elbow. Fried exited his start against the Baltimore Orioles after three innings, telling the team he felt something off in the elbow. An MRI confirmed the bone bruise. The Yankees said he will be re-evaluated in “a few weeks,” and only then will they figure out when he can resume throwing.
The good news is that there is no immediate structural damage and Fried himself has said he does not think surgery will be necessary. The bad news is that bone bruises do not respond to a set timeline. They heal when they heal. A few weeks is the floor, not the ceiling.
For context, Fried has been the Yankees’ most reliable starter since they signed him before last season. The eight-year, $218 million contract was always going to be evaluated by the production at the front of it, and Fried had been delivering. He is a former All-Star with a Cy Young finish on his resume, and he has been every-fifth-day dependable in a Yankees rotation that has had its share of question marks.
Losing him puts pressure on Gerrit Cole to do more than he should have to do. Cole is still the ace, but he has been working through some inconsistency this season. The rest of the rotation, including Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman, is going to have to absorb more innings and pitch deeper into games.
The Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman now has to decide whether to make a move. The trade deadline is six weeks away. If Fried’s recovery stretches into July, New York is going to need another arm to stabilize the back end of the rotation. The Yankees have been there before, and they have the prospect capital to make a real trade if they want one.
The bigger concern is what the bone bruise means long-term. Fried has a history of elbow issues going back to his early Atlanta days. He had Tommy John surgery years ago. He has dealt with various forearm and elbow concerns over his career. The fact that a relatively minor injury sent him to the injured list right now suggests the elbow is sensitive in a way that could become a chronic problem.
The Yankees did their medical due diligence before signing him. They knew about the history. But $218 million is a lot of money to commit to a left-handed pitcher whose elbow has spent more than a decade taking damage. Even with a clean MRI, the team has to be holding its breath every fifth day.
Fried’s own assessment was calm. He told reporters he was not overly concerned about a long-term issue and that he would love to make his next start if his body cooperates. That is the right attitude. It is also exactly what every pitcher says before they end up needing a longer rehab than anyone expected.
The Yankees are in a tough AL East with the Orioles and Red Sox both expected to fight for the division. They cannot afford a long absence from their second-best starter. They also cannot afford to rush him back at less than 100 percent and risk turning a bone bruise into something worse.
The next week or two of treatment will tell the real story. If the inflammation calms down quickly and Fried is back to throwing on a normal program by early June, the Yankees probably do not lose much. If the elbow is still angry in two weeks, the trade deadline conversations get a lot more urgent.
Either way, $218 million is a lot of money to spend on a guy whose elbow you have to monitor pitch by pitch. The Yankees signed up for that. Right now they are living it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
