The conclusion to the 2025 MLB season wasn’t a particularly satisfactory one for Yankee fans, falling well short of the previous campaign in which they made it all the way to the Fall Classic, this time losing to a division rival in the ALDS—the same rival that stole the AL East crown from right under this team’s nose. In the middle of dropping that best-of-five series against Toronto, the Yankees saw their biggest free agent acquisition of the previous offseason absolutely implode on the road—Max Fried could not handle the Blue Jays in Game 2, one the Yankees desperately needed to win after getting their doors blown off in Game 1.
Postseason narratives are particularly sticky with top-level starting pitchers; we’ve already seen Max Fried talk in advance of the upcoming season about using that moment as fuel to motivate a strong sophomore campaign. As much as we might support using such motivation, it’s important to turn the page and, in particular, avoid singling out Fried as one of the primary reasons why the Yankees lost that series.
Without even getting into Fried’s previous (excellent) postseason outing against the Red Sox and the outstanding work he did during the season, the Yankees gave ample evidence before and after that Game 2 that their list of problems was longer than Fried’s struggles. Sure, it’s possible that had Fried been at the top of his game, the Yankees would’ve gone through. However, when you look at the path of each of those four games, the Blue Jays beat the Yankees handsomely in each of their three wins, while New York had to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat to secure their only win. All seven runs the Yankees scored in a Game 2 loss, the one Fried was involved in, came during garbage time innings. It’s not as simple as pointing out that New York only needed a decent outing to compete in that game.
If you take even a small step back, the idea of there being a question mark about Fried’s abilities in the postseason with the Yankees sounds ludicrous when you account for his performance against Boston. Facing Garrett Crochet in Game 1 of the Wild Card round, Fried outdueled his opponent with 6.1 scoreless innings, only for the bullpen to immediately cough up the lead in what turned out to be a loss. The Yankees obviously came back to win that series, and Cam Schllitler got his moment in the spotlight, which is beyond the point—in a pressure-packed moment against the Red Sox in the playoffs, Fried not only did his job but was able to dominate.
Projecting future postseason performances, when the Yankees inevitably count on Fried again—regardless of how the rest of that playoff rotation looks—the confidence level in giving the ball to him will be as high as it was coming into last season. Yes, his numbers with the Braves in the postseason didn’t instill a great deal of confidence, but that wasn’t a concern when he signed. Furthermore, it’s not like he didn’t have his moments, including tossing six scoreless innings at Minute Maid Park to win Game 6 of the World Series, thus clinching the Braves’ first title in the 21st century.
It’s important to head off these narratives, since they can be sticky. One game shouldn’t outweigh a full season of superlative performance (which came under immense pressure after Gerrit Cole went down), especially when a good game from Fried against the Blue Jays would’ve been far from enough to ensure a game and series win. It’s good that Fried is using the postseason as fuel, but it’s just as good to remember that he wasn’t singularly at fault last fall.