Fried has ‘room to evolve’; Yanks not done ‘lifting’
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Max Fried may have commanded the richest contract for a left-handed pitcher in baseball history, but the New York Yankees believe there is room for improvement for the two-time All-Star.
“He’s had a lot of success, but there’s a level of improvability going forward, just with how the arsenal can be crafted and pulled apart, and there’s some room to evolve with us,” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said Wednesday. “We like that.”
Fried was formally introduced at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday after agreeing to an eight-year, $218 million deal last week. He highlighted the organization’s advancements in analytics and history with developing pitchers as a selling point in his decision to sign with New York.
“They’ve got a lot of success stories of making guys a lot better,” Fried said. “And I think that just being able to take in the information and make some adjustments, as far as my pitch shapes and things to that extent, I think there’s still a little bit in there for me to hopefully do better.”
Fried, 30, gives the Yankees another front-line starter to pair with Gerrit Cole, another Southern California native, atop a rotation that was a team strength en route to the franchise’s first World Series appearance since 2009.
And the Yankees might not be done adding top-tier starting pitching.
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said club officials are scheduled to meet with Japanese star right-hander Roki Sasaki “soon” in California. Sasaki, 23, is expected to draw interest from most, if not all, clubs because he will be forced to sign at a steep discount.
Sasaki would certainly have commanded a nine-figure contract on the open market, but he is considered an international amateur free agent, a designation that suppresses his earning potential, because he is under the age of 25 and didn’t play six seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball before posting.
As a result, Sasaki will be limited to signing a minor-league deal within a club’s capped international bonus pool budget. Top bonus pools are around $7.5 million, though teams can trade for an additional 60% of its pool money.
Sasaki was posted by his Japanese club, Chiba Lotte, earlier this month, opening a 45-day window to sign with a team. He must wait to sign after the next international free agent signing period begins on Jan. 15 but can meet with teams before then. He has until Jan. 23 to sign with a team. If a deal is not reached, he would return to Chiba Lotte.
“He’s extremely talented, no doubt about it, and he has a chance to be one of the world’s greatest pitchers,” Cashman said. “It’d be nice to be able to have Yankee Stadium be his home.”
Fried chose the Yankees after posting a 3.07 ERA over parts of eight seasons with the Atlanta Braves to begin his major league career. He finished second in the NL Cy Young Award race in 2022 and won three Gold Glove Awards. He has pitched in the postseason in each of the past seven years despite various injuries limiting him to two seasons with at least 174⅓ innings pitched.
He entered the offseason as one of the three top starting pitchers on the free agent market, alongside Blake Snell and Corbin Burnes. but he did not expect the Yankees to show genuine interest.
That changed during a Zoom call with team officials last month. A connection was forged over the easygoing 90-minute session. Questions and answers flowed between the two sides. The Yankees got the sense that Fried thirsted to play in New York, and Fried became convinced that the organization was a fit.
“You just kind of get a feel for, like, all right, his guard’s down,” Cashman said. “He’s comfortable. He’s sharing. He’s not nervous. It was a good give-and-take. He was asking us questions about what makes us tick, how we go about our business. The takeaway was just that it was somebody easy to engage with, period, end of story. End of the day: good, genuine, authentic, honest individual who can really pitch.”
But there was a caveat to the Yankees’ pitch: They would only move forward with Fried if Juan Soto chose to sign elsewhere. Once Soto decided to join the New York Mets, the Yankees quickly pivoted to Fried, their No. 2 target in free agency.
“We’re just trying to chase down a championship and we feel like we’ve added a championship piece,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Fried was the first of three players added by the Yankees over the past week. The club also acquired reliever Devin Williams from the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday and first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger from the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday.
Boone on Wednesday confirmed Williams will be the team’s closer next season. As for Bellinger, Cashman said that will depend on how the rest of the offseason plays out. For now, Bellinger — who can play first base, center field and left field — gives the Yankees flexibility in free agency and on the trade market as they seek to continue bolstering the roster after Soto’s departure.
“We’ve done some heavy lifting with Max, with Devin Williams, with Bellinger,” Cashman said. “But there’s more lifting to do.”
LOS ANGELES — Veteran forward Evander Kane made his season debut for the Edmonton Oilers in Game 2 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.
Defenseman John Klingberg also returned from a lengthy injury absence as the Oilers attempted to even the series.
Kane is a 15-year NHL veteran who hasn’t played for the Oilers since Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final last June. He had surgery last September to repair a sports hernia, and he underwent knee surgery in January.
Kane was slotted on to the Oilers’ second line alongside Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman.
Klingberg hasn’t played since suffering a lower-body injury while blocking a shot March 27 in Seattle. The Swedish veteran signed with Edmonton in January after going unsigned early in the season, but he played in only 11 games while dealing with multiple injuries.
The Oilers are hoping Klingberg can help their blue line, which frequently struggled in the Kings’ 6-5 victory in Game 1.
Jeff Skinner was scratched by the Oilers to make room for Kane. The 15-year NHL veteran forward made his Stanley Cup playoff debut in Game 1, recording an assist.
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Ryan S. Clark
Chris Drury and the New York Rangers agreed to a multiyear contract extension on Wednesday, keeping him at the helm of the team’s hockey operations after missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
“I am pleased that Chris will continue to lead the Rangers hockey operations in his role as president and general manager,” Madison Square Garden chairman and CEO James Dolan said in a statement. “Over his tenure, Chris has shown passion for the Rangers, relentless work ethic and a tireless pursuit of excellence.
“While we are all disappointed in what transpired this past season, I am confident in his ability to guide this organization to success.”
Drury, 48, took over as general manager and president of hockey operations at the start of the 2021-22 season. The Rangers reached the playoffs in his first three seasons.
His future was one of a few items that remained in question, with the intent that the Rangers would use this offseason to reload in their bid to return to the playoffs. The team also is facing a third coaching search in four seasons after firing Peter Laviolette following his two seasons.
“I am honored to sign this contract extension and continue in this position with the team I grew up supporting,” said Drury, a former Rangers captain who played four seasons with the team. “As I said when I began in this role nearly four years ago, there isn’t a more special organization in hockey, and I look forward to continuing our work this offseason to help us reach our goals for next season and in the coming years.”
After winning the Presidents’ Trophy and reaching the Eastern Conference finals under Laviolette in the 2023-24 season, the Rangers started 12-4-1 this season, only to lose the next five games. That started a chain reaction of inconsistent play that ultimately led to the Rangers finishing six points out of the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
While the Rangers sought to make the playoffs, Drury also made it known they were open for business in December. That’s when they traded captain Jacob Trouba, who still had a year left on his contract, to the Anaheim Ducks. A few weeks later, they traded Kaapo Kakko, the No. 2 pick in the 2019 NHL draft, to the Seattle Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen, who would then sign an extension with the Rangers.
A month before the trade deadline, the Rangers reacquired J.T. Miller in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks. The Rangers also traded defenseman Ryan Lindgren to the Colorado Avalanche and forward Reilly Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights while adding defensemen Carson Soucy in a separate deal with the Canucks.
Still, the Rangers lost four consecutive games in early March before having two three-game losing streaks that further damaged their chances in the Eastern Conference wild-card race.
Now that Drury has a new contract, he’ll be charged with trying to improve a roster that PuckPedia projects will have only $9.67 million in available cap space. K’Andre Miller, Zac Jones and Matt Rempe are part of the club’s eight-player restricted free agent class, while the Rangers have only two unrestricted free agents in Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Calvin de Haan.
Drury will be looking for a coach in what is expected to be a competitive market. Anaheim and Seattle also fired their coaches, and three other teams — Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia — ended the season with interim coaches. The Canucks declined the option on coach Rick Tocchet, but they have offered him a new, more lucrative contract.
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