TAMPA — Max Fried and Gerrit Cole are two very completely different pitchers on the mound however alike of their expertise and drive to succeed.
So the 2 new rotation mates have hit it off thus far at spring coaching, every hoping to be taught from the opposite to in the end assist the Yankees in the long term.
“To be able to sit and watch him work and his routine and the way he goes about his preparation, I’m going to do as much as I can to soak up as much as I can,” Fried stated Thursday at Steinbrenner Area. “At the end of the day, we’re here to win. Anything I can learn from him that I can add to my game, I’m all ears.”
Fried is a lanky left-hander who pitches to contact, whereas Cole is a righty who for a lot of his profession has overpowered hitters with a dominant fastball as a strikeout artist (although his strikeouts per 9 have gone down prior to now two seasons).
However in addition they are two of the highest pitchers within the sport and now are house owners of the 2 largest contracts given to pitchers by the Yankees — which ought to make them teammates at the very least by way of 2028.
Cole is within the midst of a nine-year, $324 million contract, whereas Fried inked an eight-year, $218 million deal this offseason.
As quickly as Fried signed with the Yankees in December, Cole reached out to a pal who was teammates with the lefty on the Braves to get a snapshot of him earlier than the 2 started speaking.
“Just an excellent addition,” Cole stated. “Really unique talent and a lot of things he can do with the baseball. An outlier in several regards and a highly regarded teammate as well. It’s been fun to get to know him through texting and talking on the phone through the offseason and then the five or six days I’ve been here as well. It’s just been a pleasure to watch him go about his work.”
Fried arrived in Tampa just a few weeks early to start out getting acquainted with his new group and teammates, and has been happy together with his early impressions.
The Yankees, likewise, are inspired by what they’ve seen thus far.
“What’s been exciting for me is to see how engaging he’s been,” supervisor Aaron Boone stated. “He’s been really open to a lot of different things since he got over to [the player development complex] a couple weeks ago. He’s made it a point to really engage and interact with his teammates and get to know everyone. It’s been how you hope a big free agent acquisition coming in [would be]. He seems happy and comfortable, and certainly the talent shows.”
