Yankees vs. Pirates weather postponement annoyingly impacts Max Fried's return

The New York Yankees opened the season with enough depth to withstand a few injuries here and there, but ... not every injury everywhere all at once. As this summer's schedule has heated up, along with the Red Sox (we kinda helped with that), they've had to survive without Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, and pockets without Trent Grisham and Ryan McMahon. That's not what the roster was designed for, and the more A-level talent they can add, the better. Fried, thankfully, seems poised to be the first one of the expensive walking wounded to return. Unfortunately, he'll be minorly delayed by forces outside his control.

The Yankees captured the series opener against the Pirates on Monday 8-5, a game in which every run was scored before the end of the third inning. With looming rainstorms, Tuesday night's middle game was canceled about five hours before the first pitch and moved to Wednesday night, completing a split-admission doubleheader before the Yankees head on the road to Philadelphia.

That means both Gerrit Cole and Will Warren will have to throw on Wednesday (probably), creating the need for one final bullpen game before Fried's able to get his full workload under his belt.

The initial plan was for Fried to throw 60 pitches in a (dry) rehab start on Wednesday, then meet up with the Yankees in Chicago for the White Sox series. That'll probably still be the case (and, if not, he'll stay in Chicago and face the Cubs), but the timing has now been slopped up by the rain, forcing the Yankees to scramble one more time.

Yankees' best options to fill spot start as Max Fried's return delayed by rain

So far, the Yankees' bullpen games have gone better than the Yankees' attempts to use Brendan Beck, who might've singlehandedly kept Ryan Jeffers off the trade market. New York captured the finale in Tampa against Drew Rasmussen 12-4 and edged the Dodgers on Sunday 2-1 thanks to Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s heroics. Ryan Yarbrough started one of those contests, while Paul Blackburn opened the other.

Elmer Rodriguez, the spot starter they believe in most, was added to the roster on Sunday as the 27th Man for the doubleheader so as not to burn an option. He's running out of those, and didn't appear in the game whatsoever. The Yankees would probably rather go back to the 'pen than change course and use him again.

Regardless, if Fried gets through Wednesday's tuneup unscathed, he'll toe the big league rubber in one of two different Chicago stadiums. When he was injured on May 14, that timeline did not seem plausible, and we can tolerate a day of rain if Fried remains due for a midsummer comeback.

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