Old Max Fried tweets hint Yankees have emotional edge over Red Sox in free agency

If the Yankees and Red Sox are about to go head-to-head for free agent left-hander Max Fried, it's good to know that his childhood dreams were made of the right stuff. Didn't matter for Juan Soto last week, but hey, allow us to dream for a second.

According to MLB insider Ken Rosenthal, the Fried sweepstakes may be coming to a head. The desperate Yankees are heavily involved in the chase; following a successful Zoom call last week, the team is now “all over” Fried, according to one source Rosenthal spoke with. The Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays are also chasing the left-hander.

Boston needs starting pitching, and has remained on the periphery of the Garrett Crochet trade talks. Perhaps they'd rather just spend instead of sending out prospect capital? The Blue Jays have long been targeted as a team that could do something a little crazy this week. Maybe that's Fried. We suspect it was Anthony Santander, but who can say?

If all three AL East rivals do end up crash landing in the same financial neighborhood on Fried, hopefully he chooses the Yankees. It doesn't take a deep dive to find a few clues and breadcrumbs from his past. While Fried was in the Padres' system (yes, just after going to high school with Lucas Giolito, a current Red Sox), he seemed ... pretty transfixed by the end of Derek Jeter's legendary career.

Will former Yankees fan Max Fried join the Bronx Bombers after a Red Sox bidding war?

He'd fit in nicely alongside Gerrit Cole, a true Yankee Fan Today, Tomorrow, Forever. Just saying.

While injury issues have interrupted Fried a few times in recent years (60-Day IL with a forearm strain in 2023), he's reached 165+ innings in four of the MLB's past five 162-game seasons. In 2024, he made 29 starts for 174 1/3 innings, striking out 166 and posting a 3.25 ERA.

Fried certainly has to be managed, but the Yankees have done a good job of developing pitching depth, and even a rotation of Cole/Fried/Carlos Rodón/Luis Gil/Clarke Schmidt would feature Nestor Cortes Jr., Marcus Stroman, and Will Warren as current overflow.

Pitching wasn't the Yankees' issue in 2024, but showing financial Re2pect to someone who really wants to join the club wouldn't be a bad way to kick off Plan B.