2 days agoMax Fried and the New York Yankees agreed to a massive eight-year $218 million earlier this offseason. This contract is the largest sum of guaranteed money a left-handed pitcher has ever received on the free agent market. The 30-year-old has spent his entire seven-year major league career with the Atlanta Braves and has held strong ratios throughout. Since 2021, Fried has posted a combined 2.87 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP across 603 innings of work. Last summer Fried held a 3.25 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. Under the hood he generated a stellar 59.2% ground ball rate and suppressed hard contact with a strong 34.6% hard-hit rate and 5.0% barrel rate which were both among the highest marks last summer. However, Fried's strikeout potential has always been quite underwhelming. Since 2021, Fried only posted a K rate higher than 24.0% once and is coming off a season where he held a 23.2% K rate, which matched a career-low. Moving to Yankee Stadium should not affect his performance as the southpaw relies heavily on generating ground balls to get batters out. Currently sitting with an ADP of 102.2 on the NFBC, fantasy managers looking for a starting pitcher to stabilize their ratios and provide double-digit wins should target Fried in their drafts. However, fantasy managers should look to pair him with other starting pitchers who carry high strikeout upside as Fried has averaged below a strikeout per inning in each of his past five seasons.--Andy Smith - RotoBaller