Max Dorian Fried ( FREED; born January 18, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He debuted with the Atlanta Braves in 2017.
Fried was selected by the San Diego Padres in the first round, seventh overall of the 2012 MLB draft. He was traded to the Braves in 2014. He was second in the National League in wins with 17 in 2019 and 7 in 2020. Fried pitched 6 shutout innings in the final game of the 2021 World Series against the Houston Astros, helping lead the Braves to their first championship in 26 years. Through 2024, Fried had the fourth best career win–loss percentage of all Braves pitchers, at .670.
Fried is a three-time MLB All-Star and is also a good fielder and hitter for a pitcher. In 2020, he won the NL Gold Glove Award at pitcher and the Fielding Bible Award at pitcher. In 2021, he won the Gold Glove Award again, as well as the Silver Slugger Award for pitchers, becoming the third pitcher in MLB history to win both awards in the same year. He was also named to the All-MLB Team those two years. In 2022, he won his third consecutive Gold Glove Award at pitcher.
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Early life
Fried was born on January 18, 1994, in Santa Monica, California. He grew up in Encino, Los Angeles, the middle son of Carrie and Jonathan Fried, and is Jewish. His younger brother Jake, also a pitcher, attended the University of Arizona. Max began attending the Reggie Smith Baseball Academy in Encino as a seven year old and learned how to throw a curveball from the retired outfielder. Fried pitched for the 2009 Maccabiah Games Team USA Juniors baseball team that won a gold medal in Israel.
Fried first attended Montclair College Preparatory School, in Van Nuys, where he played baseball, football, and basketball. As a sophomore, with Ethan Katz as his pitching coach, he was 10–3 with a 1.81 earned run average (ERA), and was named the Olympic League's most valuable player and to the All-California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Division V first team. In his junior year, Fried was 7–3 with a 1.31 ERA, with 100 strikeouts in 69 innings, as he also played outfield and batted .360 with four home runs and 30 RBIs. He was named the 2011 Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Male High School Athlete of the Year.
After Montclair Prep cut its baseball team subsequent to his junior year, Fried transferred to Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles for his senior season. He wore uniform number 32 in honor of Sandy Koufax and played with fellow future MLB pitchers Lucas Giolito and Jack Flaherty. In 2012, Fried was 8–2 with a 2.02 ERA, and 105 strikeouts in 66 innings. He was a Rawlings-Perfect Game 1st Team All-American.
Draft and minor leagues
Draft (2012)
The San Diego Padres selected Fried in the first round with the seventh overall selection of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft. Fried chose to sign with the Padres for $3 million, forgoing his commitment to the UCLA Bruins baseball team. Baseball America rated him the top left-handed pitcher in the draft.
San Diego Padres (2012–2014)
Fried made his professional debut for the Arizona League Padres in 2012 and spent the whole season there, going 0–1 with a 3.57 ERA in 17+2⁄3 innings pitched. He played for the Fort Wayne TinCaps in 2013 where he compiled a 6–7 record and 3.49 ERA in 23 starts. At the end of the year, Fried was ranked the 43rd-best prospect in the minors by MLBPipeline. He was also named an MiLB.com Padres Organization All Star, and Baseball America ranked his curveball as the best in the Padres' minor league system.
In 2014, he was ranked the Padres' top pitching prospect, and their No. 2 prospect overall, by MLB.com. Fried was injured for much of the year and did not make his season debut until July. The next month, on August 20, Fried underwent Tommy John surgery; he missed the remainder of the 2014 season.
Atlanta Braves (2014–2017)
On December 19, 2014, the Padres traded Fried, Jace Peterson, Dustin Peterson, and Mallex Smith to the Atlanta Braves for Justin Upton and Aaron Northcraft. Fried missed the entire 2015 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Fried returned to action on April 9, 2016, for the Rome Braves. He spent all of 2016 with Rome, pitching to an 8–7 record and a 3.93 ERA in 21 games (20 starts), striking out 112 batters in 103 innings. Fried ended the season ranked by Baseball America as the 6th-best prospect in the South Atlantic League. His fastball, clocked at 93–94 mph, reached 96–97 mph in the second half of the season. The Braves added Fried to their 40-man roster after the season.
Fried was invited to spring training for the first time at the start of the 2017 season. He began the season with the Double-A Mississippi Braves. He was ranked as the Braves' No. 8 prospect overall by MLB.com in May and 89th best prospect in July. Fried was named Southern League Pitcher of the Week for the week ending April 30.
Major leagues
Atlanta Braves (2017–2024)
Fried was called up to the Atlanta Braves on August 5, 2017. He debuted on August 8, throwing two scoreless innings against the Philadelphia Phillies, displaying what David O'Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called "a devastating curveball". Two weeks later, Fried returned to the minor leagues, joining the Triple-A Gwinnett Braves. In 26 innings pitched for the Braves for the season, he was 1–1 with a 3.81 ERA.
At the end of the 2017 season, Fried joined the Peoria Javelinas of the Arizona Fall League, for whom he was named league Player of the Week on October 31. He led the league with 32 strikeouts in 26 innings (third in the league), and was 3–1 with a 1.73 ERA (6th) in six starts. He ranked first among starters with a .163 opponents' batting average, was second in fewest-baserunners-allowed-per-nine-innings (7.96), and was named to the AFL's Top Prospects Team. Baseball America rated him # 3 on the AFL Hot Sheet. In December, Braves manager Brian Snitker said that he might look at Fried, Lucas Sims, or another pitcher as the team's fifth starter in 2018.
Fried began the 2018 season with the Double-A Mississippi Braves. After one game, he re-joined Gwinnett, now named the Stripers. He was called up to Atlanta in late April. In 33+2⁄3 innings pitched for the Braves in the 2018 regular season, he was 1–4 with 44 strikeouts and a 2.94 ERA. With runners in scoring position he kept batters to one hit in 30 at bats (.033); and with RISP and two outs, opposing batters were 0-for-14 with eight strikeouts.
Fried was placed in the bullpen at the start of the 2019 season, and later moved to the starting rotation. Against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 7, Fried was hit on his left hand by a ball hit by Alex Verdugo and left the game, but he made his next regularly scheduled start.
In 2019, Fried was 17–6 with a 4.02 ERA, as in 33 games (30 starts) he pitched 165+2⁄3 innings in which he struck out 173 batters. His 17 wins were second in the National League, and his .739 won-loss percentage was fifth in the league. He induced the second-lowest percentage of fly balls (22.2%), and the third-highest percentage of ground balls (53.6%), of all NL pitchers, and threw his curveball 24.6% of the time (sixth most frequent in the league). His 9.398 strikeouts per nine innings were, at the time, the fifth-highest in a single season in franchise history.
New York Yankees (2025–present)
On December 17, 2024, Fried signed an eight-year, $218 million contract with the New York Yankees. It was the largest contract issued to a left-handed pitcher and the fourth-largest deal for any pitcher in MLB history.
Fried made his Yankees debut against the Milwaukee Brewers on March 29, 2025. He pitched 42⁄3 innings, allowed seven hits and two runs, and walked two batters while striking out four. On April 4, he recorded his first win as a Yankee in a 9-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates as he pitched 52⁄3 innings, allowed six hits and one run, and walked just one batter while striking out six. On April 9, Fried recorded his sixth career 10+ strikeout game to help the Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 4–3. On April 20, Fried lost a no-hit bid in the Yankees' 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays due to a single by Chandler Simpson off the glove of Paul Goldschmidt, when the official scorer changed his sixth-inning call to a hit after originally calling it an error. Fried was named the American League Pitcher of the Month for April, after posting a 5-0 record and a 1.19 ERA. On August 16, Fried recorded his 1,000th career strikeout when he struck out Alec Burleson in the second inning in a 12-8 victory. Fried was again named AL Pitcher of the Month in September 2025, having pitched to a 1.89 ERA across five starts, with 35 strikeouts over 33+1⁄3 innings.
In Game 1 of the 2025 American League Wild Card Series against the Red Sox, Fried pitched 61⁄3 innings as he allowed four hits, no runs, and walked three batters while striking out six, but he got a no-decision in his first postseason start as a Yankee. He also became the first pitcher with a scoreless start of 6+ innings in a Yankee playoff debut since Mike Mussina in the 2001 ALDS. The Red Sox won the game 3–1. On November 2, 2025, Fried won his fourth career Gold Glove Award and his first as an American League pitcher.
On Opening Night 2026, Fried pitched 61⁄3 innings, allowing only two hits, no runs, and walking only one batter while striking out four in a 7–0 road victory over the San Francisco Giants. Fried left his 10th start of the season, against the Orioles on May 13, after only 61 pitches, in what was later cited as "left elbow posterior soreness." He missed a little more than two months of the season, returning on July 22 with 5 scoreless innings against the Pirates. On August 17, 2026, Fried was again placed on the injured list due to a bone bruise in his left elbow.
Pitching style
Fried throws a 94–96-mile-per-hour (151–154 km/h) four-seam fastball. He also throws two types of a 74-mile-per-hour (119 km/h) "plus" curveball (which he patterned after that of Sandy Koufax), an 85-mile-per-hour (137 km/h) slider (since 2019), a 93-mile-per-hour (150 km/h) sinker, and an 86-mile-per-hour (138 km/h) change-up, with the curveball resulting in the lowest batting average in 2021 (.160).