Max Fried is down for the count.
When he gets back up remains to be seen, though the Yankees at least feel they have avoided the worst when it comes to the left-hander’s elbow.
Fried will be placed on the 15-day injured list with a left elbow bone bruise, which was the “initial finding” from a Thursday MRI and CT scan, the Yankees said Friday.
That diagnosis comes with the caveat that the team also sent the imaging to noted surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache, which Fried described as “due diligence” rather than a concern there may be a more serious injury, as the Yankees ace said his ulnar collateral ligament “looks good.”
For now, Fried figures to at least miss a month, though he said the timeline was “ambiguous” because he will be shut down for at least a few weeks or when he is asymptomatic, at which point he will undergo repeat imaging to determine whether he can begin throwing again. Typically for pitchers, the time of no-throw is equal to the time it takes to build back up.
Max Fried left Wednesday’s game early due to injury. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
“Definitely bummed that I’m going to have to be missing some time, but overall happy that it doesn’t look like it’s going to be anything serious,” Fried said Friday at Citi Field. “No surgery required or anything like that. Never want to go on the IL and miss games, but also understand that the long-term outlook still looks good.”
The Yankees will need someone to replace Fried in the rotation by Tuesday – likely to be prospect Elmer Rodríguez, though the Yankees had not yet finalized that as of Friday. It will not be Gerrit Cole, at least not yet, as the former AL Cy Young winner is likely to make two more rehab starts finishing off his comeback from Tommy John surgery, the next one coming on Saturday at Triple-A.
While rotation depth is an area of strength for the Yankees — they just got Carlos Rodón back from the IL last weekend, with Cole coming soon, Rodríguez and Carlos Lagrange waiting in the wings at Triple-A and Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers all pitching well in the big leagues — losing Fried for any time is still a blow. After leaving Wednesday’s start against the Orioles after just three innings because of elbow soreness, Fried had a 3.21 ERA and a 1.6 bWAR, the leader of a rotation that had been the backbone for the Yankees’ strong start to the season.
“It kind of is what it is right now,” manager Aaron Boone said. “In some ways, good news in that the ligament’s in good shape and just a matter of how the timeline’s going to shake out. Long-term, feel like we’re in a good spot. We’ll just listen to the body here over the next days and weeks and see what ultimately that timeline leads to.”
Fried said the injury was caused by “hyperextending” and “the banging of the two bones” around the elbow.
“Just irritated it a little bit, pissed it off,” Fried said. “Now I’m going to let it calm down and get back to it.”
While Fried hopes he can return “as soon as I possibly can,” he also indicated he would be honest with how he was feeling so it does not turn into something bigger by coming back too soon.
“If it’s a shorter timeline if I’m feeling good, then I’m going to do everything I can to get back out there,” he said. “But also, give the grace of if it needs a little bit more time, being able to do what I need to do to make sure I’m healthy, that this never happens again and when I come back, it’s for the long haul.”
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Fried mentioned fine-tuning his mechanics to avoid something like this in the future, but he will largely be relegated to getting treatment in the coming weeks before he can ramp back up.
“Every day it’s going to get better,” he said. “But just knowing the risks of pushing it with that sort of thing, you don’t want to push it too far because then it can get pretty bad.”
