Max Fried giving the Yankees the ace they needed

The Yankees officially found out on March 10 they’d be without their ace for the season when the organization announced just after 6 p.m. that night Gerrit Cole was to have Tommy John surgery.

Max Fried, signed to an 8-year, $218 million free-agent deal in the offseason to slide in behind Cole to form -- the club hoped -- an elite 1-2 rotation punch, naturally was asked the morning of March 11 about his now de facto role as staff ace.

“At the end of the day, no one is Gerrit Cole, right?" Fried said. "I've got to take the ball every time that I take the ball. It doesn't matter if he was on the mound or not. Realistically, it's just about doing my job. It's going out there and making sure that, when I take the ball, we have a really good chance to win that day.”

Three starts into his Yankees career, Fried has done that. And in doing so, he very much is looking like the top-of-the-rotation pitcher he’d been for the previous eight seasons with Atlanta, something desperately needed by his new team.

Fried, 73-36 with a 3.07 ERA with Atlanta, is 2-0 with a 1.56 ERA after throttling the Tigers over seven scoreless innings in Wednesday afternoon’s 4-3 victory in which the lefthander allowed five hits and did not walk a batter.

Making full use of his six-pitch repertoire – four-seamer, sinker, changeup, slider, curve and cutter – Fried struck out 11, two shy of his career high.

“A dominant performance,” Aaron Boone said. “Had everything.”

The performance stood out, yes, for its sheer dominance, but also because it was so needed. The Yankees had lost three straight entering the day -- in itself not a huge deal this early in the season. But their rotation two weeks in had not been anything remotely close to stellar, mostly providing further evidence that the narrative they would never survive the loss of Cole in the long term was accurate.

And, , long-term  still may well prove to be accurate.

Fried, though, has shown it at least to be possible. For one, he’s shown an ability to fulfill the always-appreciated-in-the-clubhouse role of stopper (of losing streaks). A role, usually filled by an ace, Cole embraced since signing with the Yankees before the 2020 season; a Yankees role filled by CC Sabathia before Cole; by Andy Pettitte or Mike Mussina before that…and so on.

And a role, it should be noted, filled by Fried many times for Atlanta.

Still, doing it in Atlanta and doing it in one’s first season in the New York spotlight isn’t the same.

Though, it seems, for Fried it is the same.

“Wow, that was just incredible by him,” said Aaron Judge, giving voice to the “stopper” dynamic. “Especially coming out, we lose the first two games of the series, kind of down, offense wasn’t really getting much going. For him to come out there and give us some strong innings, some big outs … that was really impressive.”

Said fellow rotation member Carlos Rodon, shaking his head afterward: “Just complete control of the game.”

The veteran lefthander smiled.

“Seven zeroes,” Rodon added. “What else can you ask for? I mean, wow.”

Fried, a native of Santa Monica, projects the California Cool vibe one would expect but drawing between-the-lines conclusions from that is a mistake.

Among the first things Fried’s manager for the entirety of his eight years in Atlanta, Brian Snitker, mentioned to Newsday about the pitcher during spring training was the pitcher’s fire.

“Super competitive,” Snitker said, emphasizing the first of those two words. “They’re getting the consummate pro. 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 [aces] look like.”

For his part, Fried downplayed the “stopper” storyline.

“For me, it’s another game,” the 31-year-old ho-hummed. “I treat every game with the same kind of importance. When I take the ball, I’ve waited four, five, six days to be able to go out there and compete again. So every opportunity I get, I treat it the same. Not make it more than what it is or less than what it is.”

As Snitker said, Fried, as aces go, is “kind what they look like.”

Including, what they often sound like.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.