Yankees, Max Fried agree to eight-year, $218M deal, sources say

DALLAS — The Yankees’ organizational pivot from losing out on the Juan Soto sweepstakes began to take shape Tuesday afternoon with the signing of top-line starter Max Fried.

Sources confirmed the club’s agreement with the 30-year-old lefthander Fried to be an eight-year deal worth $218 million.

Fried, a first-round pick of the Padres in 2012, has been among the game’s best pitchers almost from the time he debuted in 2017 with Atlanta, going 73-36 with a 3.07 ERA over the last eight seasons. He went 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA in 29 starts with Atlanta last season.

Though adding Fried doesn’t address the glaring offensive hole left by Soto’s departure to the Mets, the Yankees now have a true No. 2 rotation option behind ace Gerrit Cole.

“That rotation suddenly is pretty scary at the top,” one rival AL executive said.

As starters go, the Yankees now have Cole, Fried, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt, Nestor Cortes and Marcus Stroman.

The Yankees still have needs at third base — their preference is to shift Jazz Chisholm Jr. from third base to second— first base, outfield and bullpen.

There is plenty to choose from on the free-agent market to address all of those areas, but those holes can also be addressed via trade and Stroman, Cortes and even Schmidt, whom the Yankees are extremely high on, could be used as bait.

“We’re exploring trades as well as free agency,” general manager Brian Cashman said Monday of adding to the roster.

Though Cashman, who did not speak to the media on Tuesday, has always ascribed to the longtime baseball axiom that “you can never have enough pitching,” it is unlikely the Yankees go into the spring with that glut of starters.

The Mets, whose rotation is pockmarked with questions, were not in the running to sign Fried, a source told Newsday.

Regardless, the Yankees, in one move, significantly upgraded an area of their team that already was a strength and softened, to a degree, the blow of losing Soto, one of the game’s best overall hitters, if not the best.

“Look, it's not going to stop us from hopefully going to put together another great team,” Aaron Boone said on Tuesday, speaking before news of the Fried signing broke. “There's different ways of doing it. We don't even know which way that is this winter. You don't know how it's going to unfold, what free agents come into the mix, who you match up with, who you maybe match up with in a trade. That's the fun part about now and trying to make good evaluations and good decisions ultimately to put us in a good spot moving forward.”

As for the Yankees’ vacancy at first base, among the players they have an interest in are free agent Christian Walker, who spent the last eight season with the Diamondbacks, and the lefty-swinging Cody Bellinger. The 2019 NL MVP (with the Dodgers) is currently with the Cubs, but they’ve made it known he’s available via trade. It would not be inaccurate to say the 29-year-old Bellinger, son of former Yankee Clay Bellinger, is the club’s top choice to fill the first base vacancy. The Yankees have had interest in acquiring Bellinger in previous years.

The Yankees also have multiple bullpen spots to fill.

“There's a lot of conversations happening,” Boone, whose 2025 option to return for his eight season as manager was picked up last month, said. “Whether it's with other teams, obviously agents and the free agents that are out there. They're (the front office) up there (in their hotel suite) hard at work right now and we'll see where it takes us. Not only today and the days that we're here, but obviously moving forward in the winter.”

With Tim Healey