TAMPA — For the most part, Max Fried’s first season in pinstripes was a smashing success.
Except for the way it ended — the Blue Jays smashing him — which has stuck with the Yankees left-hander in the months following an early playoff exit.
“You try to move on from it. You don’t want to ruin your everyday life from it,” Fried said Thursday at Steinbrenner Field following the first official workout for pitchers and catchers. “But every time I get in the gym or I pick up a ball or anything that has to do with baseball, it’s definitely a motivating factor. You want to always keep getting better, learn from your mistakes and make sure you’re not making the same mistakes over again. So just trying to remember that feeling and using that as motivation to constantly get better every year.”
Following a terrific regular season, in which he posted a 2.86 ERA across 32 starts — earning him a fourth-place finish in the AL Cy Young voting — Fried threw 6 ¹/₃ shutout innings against the Red Sox in his first playoff start.
But then in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Blue Jays, with the Yankees already having dropped Game 1, he picked a bad time for a clunker.
Fried lasted just three-plus innings, getting tagged for seven runs on eight hits and two walks, as the Blue Jays cruised to a 13-7 win.
Two games later, the Yankees season was over, with Fried unable to atone for his dud that tarnished an otherwise strong first season in The Bronx.
“Felt like it was a good year, but at the end, I didn’t have the start that I needed to make,” Fried said. “So definitely left a bad taste in my mouth and motivated me for the offseason.”
That offseason did not look any different for Fried despite him coming off the heaviest workload of his career, he said.
He threw 195 ¹/₃ innings during the regular season and another 9 ¹/₃ in the postseason, but has not altered his preparation or buildup for this season because of it.
“I felt great at the end of the year,” said Fried, who faced hitters on Tuesday at the player development complex. “The last start I made, I was throwing just as hard as I had all year. I was really looking forward to potentially making another start. It wasn’t like I was hanging going into the offseason or anything like that. I felt as good as I did all year.”
Fried was forced to watch the World Series from his couch instead of pitching in it, but believes the Yankees have what it takes to make another run at it this year.
“I personally think that our group is good enough talent-wise to compete with anyone in the game,” Fried said. “Obviously, didn’t have the series that we wanted to and a big part of that was we weren’t able to pitch as well as we wanted and keep us in games.”
