Yankees' Max Fried gets high praise from Atlanta manager Brian Snitker: 'They're getting the consummate pro'

TAMPA, Fla. — Brian Snitker, Atlanta’s 69-year-old manager, has seen the proverbial everything during his nearly half-century in the sport.

Drafted into the Atlanta organization in 1977 as a 21-year-old catcher, Snitker soon discovered a big-league playing career likely wasn’t in the cards, and in 1981, he decided to give coaching a try. He was hired by Hank Aaron — then the organization’s senior vice president — to coach in the minors, and he gradually worked his way up the chain, finally becoming the club’s manager in 2016.

He knows pitching, having coached or been around some of the best arms of the last 30-plus years, a cadre that includes Hall of Famers John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux.

All of which is to say Snitker, who guided the franchise to the World Series title in 2021, isn’t prone to gushing. But he does when it comes to Max Fried, whom Snitker managed in the first eight seasons of the lefthander’s big-league career.

“They’re getting the consummate pro,” Snitker told Newsday in a recent interview. “This guy . . . he’s never not trying to get better. He’s always looking for an edge. He’s a tireless worker, he’s so dedicated to his craft. Wonderful young man. I’ve been blessed to see him throw every major-league pitch that he has, and he’s just a wonderful, wonderful person and just a great competitor. He’s kind of what they look like.”

By “they” he meant a top-of-the-rotation pitcher, a role Fried, signed to an eight-year, $218 million free-agent contract in the offseason, will fill.

Fried, 73-36 with a 3.07 ERA in his career, is a two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Award winner. Known more for his precision with his five- and at times six-pitch mix rather than his power, Fried will slot into the Yankees’ rotation behind righthander Gerrit Cole, a power pitcher first and foremost. Snitker believes that will be a tough combination for opponents to deal with.

“He gets contact. He’s got a great assortment,” said Snitker, who threw Fried back-to-back with power lefthander Chris Sale — who ended up winning the National League Cy Young Award — last season. “I told him last year, if I back-to-back you and Sale, I said it’s just two totally different looks. Don’t worry about having back-to-back lefties because Max is different.

“It’ll be a great mix when you got somebody like Gerrit Cole and then you’re looking at Max, who’s more precise, I guess, the stuff. He’s got a really good assortment, he throws them all for strikes. He has a great idea of what he’s doing. They’re going to love him there.”

When it comes to Fried’s extensive repertoire, Snitker said “just how he can spin the ball” is what jumps to mind.

“His curveball’s always been just so, so good,” he said. “He added a slider, changeup’s always been a good pitch. But his ability to spin the ball, to me, was the first thing I noticed when I saw him throw.”

Aaron Boone said during the winter meetings that Fried’s pitch mix combined with his athleticism stood out the most. Watching Fried’s bullpen sessions and live batting practice sessions — Fried threw his second live BP of camp Thursday — has backed up those feelings.

“Just how easily he can manipulate the ball and how much movement he creates, just how expansive his arsenal is and really having a lot of weapons to deal with a lot of different types of hitters,” Boone said. “And then how well he moves and how athletic he is on the mound. That jumped out at me his first bullpen.

“You’re watching bullpens and then he walks in and jumps on the mound . . . I mentioned Devin [Williams] as a Mercedes, I said the same thing about Max — ‘that’s a Mercedes-Benz getting on the mound.’ ”

Snitker said he will miss Fried, both the pitcher and the person. “He was a joy to have, a joy to be around,” he said. “You hate to lose a guy like that, but I wish him nothing but the best. The one game he throws against us, I’m not going to be pulling for him, but I will the rest of the time.”

Notes & quotes: Roger Clemens, at the request of Boone, a teammate with the 2003 Yankees, will be in camp Friday as a guest instructor for the first time. Clemens pitched for the Yankees from 1999-2003 and again in 2007, the final season of his 24 years in the majors.