The New York Yankees had an off-day Monday, but they still took an L. Left-hander Max Fried was placed on the injured list with a bone bruise in his pitching elbow, the team announced. Fried missed two months with the same injury earlier this year.
The veteran southpaw made five effective starts between injured list stints and 15 starts this season overall. Fried, 32, is in the second season of an eight-year, $218 million contract. It is the largest contract for a left-handed pitcher in baseball history.
Last year, Fried threw a career-high 195 ⅓ innings with a 2.86 ERA and finished fourth in the AL Cy Young voting. With their offense struggling, the Yankees have become a run prevention team. They're 15-13 since the All-Star break, despite scoring no more than three runs in 19 of those 28 games, because their pitching has been incredible.
The Yankees have allowed only 3.39 runs per game since the All-Star break, well ahead of the second-place Mets (3.55). Fried is obviously a huge part of the run prevention plan. The Yankees have not yet provided a timetable for his absence, though the previous bone bruise cost him two months.
A similar timetable would rule Fried out for the rest of the regular season and potentially impact his postseason availability. American League wild-card Standings 1. Yankees: 69-55 (+8 ½ GB) 2.
Red Sox: 67-58 (+6 GB) 3. Blue Jays: 61-65 The Yankees are six games behind the Rays in the AL East, and that's where they will feel Fried's absence the most, at least in the regular season. They'll have a harder time chasing down Tampa for the division title (and thus a Wild Card Series bye) without Fried than they will simply hanging onto a postseason berth.
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