Red Sox reportedly lose out to Yankees in Max Fried sweepstakes
Fried reportedly signed an eight-year, $218 million contract with the Yankees.
After losing out on the Juan Soto sweepstakes, the Red Sox reportedly pivoted quickly to one of the top pitchers on the free-agent market in Max Fried.
Unfortunately, so did the New York Yankees.
And just hours after Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, reported that Fried’s next destination was going to be “an AL East tug of war between the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays”, the southpaw chose New York.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Yankees signed Fried to an eight-year, $218 million contract on Tuesday evening. It stands as the largest guarantee in baseball history for a left-handed pitcher.
It stands as yet another setback for the Red Sox, whose pledge to add top-tier talent this winter has so far resulted in two frustrating results in the bidding war for Soto and Fried.
Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe noted on social media ahead of Fried’s signing that the lefty was viewed as a focus for Craig Breslow and Boston’s top brass this offseason.
“Fried appears to be the top choice of the Sox,” Abraham wrote on X. “They need a lefty and a top-of-the-rotation guy. He fills both needs.”
Per WEEI’s Rob Bradford, the Yankees’ offer to Fried was “significantly” better than Boston’s pitch.
Fried, who is set to turn 31 in February, has been one of the top pitchers in baseball over the last few seasons. The two-time All-Star had his best season with Atlanta in 2022, finishing second in NL Cy Young Award voting after going 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA.
Since 2020, Fried has posted an ERA of 2.81 — the lowest in MLB among pitchers with at least 500 innings in that span.
The next lowest ERA among pitchers over that span is fellow free agent Corbin Burnes (2.88) — who the Red Sox have also had conversations with recently.
Burnes stands as the last ace-level free agent left on the market after Fried signed with New York and Blake Snell inked a deal with the Dodgers last month.
According to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam, the Red Sox “were readying an offer for Burnes, according to a source close to his free agent process” following Fried’s signing with New York.
While a generational talent in the prime of his career like the 26-year-old Soto stood as an appealing target for Boston this winter, the Red Sox’ top priority this offseason must revolve around adding more talent at the top of their starting rotation.
The clock is ticking for the Red Sox to add a pitcher of that pedigree — at least before turning to the trade market for targets like Garrett Crochet or Dylan Cease.
“Starting pitching is our biggest area of need,” Red Sox chief baseball office Craig Breslow said Monday, per Cotillo. “We’re having a ton of conversations with free agents, with teams, thinking about any number of paths to improving that. We have both a need for improving the quality and also the depth.
“Nobody has yet solved injury prevention and if we find ourselves in a situation where some of our starters start to miss time or start to regress, we want to make sure there isn’t a massive drop off for what we have available. We also want to make sure we are improving the quality and targeting guys who are pitching at the front of the rotation.”
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