The rainout of Tuesday’s game against the Pirates and subsequent rescheduling to a day-night double header on Wednesday brought forward some earlier-than-expected news. The Yankees have announced that they will activate Max Fried from the IL and that the southpaw starter will start the second game of the doubleheader, with Gerrit Cole starting the day game.
Fried has been sidelined since mid-May with a bone bruise in his left elbow that thankfully did not require surgical intervention. He was forced
to depart his May 13th start against the Orioles after just three innings with noticeably lowered velocity on all his pitches, and subsequent imaging revealed the bone bruise. Fried was one of their best starters at the time of his injury, with a 4-3 record in ten starts, 3.21 ERA (132 ERA+), 2.71 FIP, and 50 strikeouts in 61.2 innings.
Fried checked all the boxes in what was an understandably deliberate and cautious rehab process. He made his lone rehab assignment appearance with the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders last Friday, allowing two runs on three hits with three strikeouts and no walks on 52 pitches. The initial plan was for Fried to make one more rehab appearance of roughly 60 pitches before rejoining the big league team, but the Yankees scrapped those plans and moved up his activation off the IL with the doubleheader rearranging their rotation schedule.
Fried’s return comes at a crucial time with the team still weathering the absence of Carlos Rodón to left elbow inflammation. It will also be the first time that he and Cole will be active teammates — Cole spending the entirety of 2025 off the 40-man roster during his Tommy John rehab — and it’s an extra bonus that they will be pitching back-to-back on the same day. Expect Fried to be on a similar pitch count to the 60 they were targeting for the scrapped rehab appearance, but regardless it is welcome news for the Yankees to be getting one of their stars back.
