Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- Max Fried left his start against the Baltimore Orioles with elbow posterior soreness, raising concerns about his availability.
- The Yankees' rotation, while strong, is loaded with pitchers carrying injury risks and limited innings durability.
- The front office now faces pressure to find pitching depth at the trade market to protect a fragile October contender.
A bad few days for the New York Yankees potentially got a whole lot worse on Wednesday afternoon, when Max Fried was forced to leave his start against the Baltimore Orioles early with what the team is calling "elbow posterior soreness".
It was obvious early on that the lefty wasn't himself, exhibiting uncharacteristically spotty command before he headed back to the clubhouse after the bottom of the third inning. Fried himself downplayed things after the game, telling reporters that he was "planning on this thing being a sooner rather than later," but unless he has a medical degree we don't know about it's hard to put too much stock into that. Elbow injuries are never a great sign, and it remains a possibility that he'll be forced to miss real time.
And even if he's able to avoid any of the worst-case scenarios, the situation has exposed New York's need for more pitching depth to bolster an exciting but fragile rotation.
Max Fried injury update leaves Yankees rotation in a perilous spot
It's hard to find much fault with the Yankees' rotation so far this season, seeing as it's been arguably the very best in baseball. But the season is a marathon, not a sprint, and if New York is going to make it to the finish line in position for a run at a World Series, there's reason to believe reinforcements are needed.
- LHP Max Fried (elbow issue)
- RHP Gerrit Cole (rehab stint after Tommy John)
- LHP Max Rodon (just returned from elbow surgery)
- RHP Cam Schlittler (threw a career-high in innings last season)
- LHP Ryan Weathers (already approaching his innings total from last season)
- RHP Will Warren
- RHP Clarke Schmidt (recovering from Tommy John)
If you waved a magic wand and said that Fried, Cole, Rodon, Schlittler, Weathers and Warren would be healthy come the start of October, it would be hard not to feel excited about the Yankees' chances. But almost every single one of those players comes with question marks about their durability over the next four-plus months. New York is going to need at least one more arm to soak up starts, and internal options like Ryan Yarbrough haven't inspired a ton of confidence — which is why Brian Cashman should look to the trade market.
Yankees should make a trade for more pitching depth
Granted, this probably isn't the splash fans had in mind for a midseason acquisition. But it's still just the middle of May; there's time yet for Cashman to take a bigger swing as the trade deadline gets closer. Right now the task is something more akin to triage, finding ballast to help keep this rotation afloat and not put undue stress on any of the biggest names.
There are several options to consider — the Angels' Reid Detmers on the high end, Colorado's Michael Lorenzen on the low end — but Mahle feels like a pretty clean fit. The Giants should be option for business amid what already appears to be a lost season; a 31-year-old rental doesn't do much for their long-term plans. And while the righty's top-line numbers don't jump off the page (5.18 ERA, 5.04 FIP), there's reason to believe that the Yankees and pitching coach Matt Blake would have some decent tools to work with.
For starters, his expected ERA is a more palatable 4.42. Mahle does a decent job of keeping the ball on the ground, and when he's locating well, his fastball/splitter/cutter/slider combination has answers against both righties and lefties and effectively limits damage. He is, in short, a perfectly cromulent back-end starter, someone you can usually count on to at least give your offense a chance to win the game every fifth day.
And again, that's all the Yankees are looking for. In an ideal world, Mahle (or someone like him) doesn't have to make more than a handful of starters before being let go or even shifted to a bullpen role. The goal here is to just make sure that Fried's injury, however long it keeps him out, doesn't shift the burden onto other starters New York will need come the fall — and who already have their own maintenance to worry about.
Add us as a preferred source on Google