There will come a day when the Yankees have reason to regret the money they’re handing Max Fried, though it mightn’t be soon. Much of that fabled franchise’s history involves lefty pitchers – from Whitey Ford to Andy Pettitte; from Ron Guidry to, er, Lefty Gomez. On Jan. 5, 1920, the Yankees acquired a famous left-hander from Boston, though by 1922 they’d stopped letting him pitch. His name: Babe Ruth.
The Yankees just made Fried the highest-paid left-handed pitcher in MLB annals. He’s getting $218 million, none of it deferred, over eight years. When this contract lapses in autumn 2032, he’ll be 38. There’s every chance he won’t be worth $27.25M at that age. The Yankees won’t be thrilled with that, but 2032 is a distant light.
If Fried helps the Yankees win the World Series at any time in the interim – the most recent of their 27 triumphs came in 2009 – they’ll write off the back end of his deal as the cost of doing business. They’re the Yankees. They play in the Big Apple. Their TV rights are held by YES, a cable company they own. They mint money.
When the Yankees of Steinbrenner and the Braves of Turner met in the 1996 World Series, the clubs had the highest payrolls in their respective leagues. Ted Turner sold his teams/networks a while back. The Braves are now owned by Liberty Media, which began as a cable company but does not own its baseball team’s cable rights.
The Braves are spending more than they ever have – they were sixth among MLB clubs in payroll last season – but they cannot keep up with the Yankees and Dodgers. They wanted to keep Fried – for the record, they LOVE the guy – but had no illusions about their chances. They assumed market forces would carry the day. Sure enough …
Had Fried been willing to take $25M over five years, he’d still be a Brave. He’d also have cost himself $93M. He found a team – we guessed it would be the Yankees or the Dodgers – that could offer eight years and not care the first four far outstrip the final four. Good for him.
That’s not meant as dismissal. He helped the Braves win a World Series. He timed his free agency beautifully. Really and truly: Good for you, Max Fried.
Last winter, Aaron Nola – a pitcher of similar age and achievement – took $172M over seven seasons to re-up with Philadelphia. That’s an average annual value of $24.57M. Fried got eight at an AAV of $27.25M. That’s a bigger bump that anybody saw coming, but that can happen when baseball folks convene.
MLB’s Winter Meetings began with Juan Soto signing for $765M over 15 years. The Yankees regard their Queens-based neighbor as a suburban nuisance, but the advent of Steve Cohen as owner has made all of us wonder what might happen if a long-erring franchise smartens up. The Yankees wanted to keep Soto. The Mets got him. Ouch.
Would the Yankees have invested so heavily in Fried had they re-signed Soto? Maybe. (They do play different positions.) But maybe not. The Yankees enjoy hogging the back cover of the New York Post. They’re coming off a World Series loss in which their sloppiness got embarrassing. Soto’s gone, but they still have Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole. The Bronx Bombers aren’t about to gear down.
The Mets made big news Sunday night. The Yankees made big news Tuesday. Where does that leave the Braves? Right where we knew they’d be. We assumed Fried would leave. We assumed they’d never sink so much money over so many years into any player, especially not a pitcher. You might not like it, but that’s how this club works.
The year after Josh Donaldson left, the Braves made the NLCS for the first time since 2001. The year after Freddie Freeman left, they won 101 games. The year after Dansby Swanson left, they won 104. They’re coming off a down season by their standards, but how many teams could have lost Ronald Acuña Jr., Spencer Strider and Austin Riley to season-ending injuries and still made the playoffs?
I’m reasonably certain the Braves have a plan that addresses a Fried-less future. I’m reasonably certain they’ll field a team next year.
