On the left Fried Max continues to recover from a left elbow injury that sent him to the 15-day injured list last month. Today, boss Aaron Boone told reporters, including The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner, that Fried is scheduled to throw in the bullpen tomorrow. This follows a recent photo that revealed that Fried’s elbow has improved and has finally started rehabilitation.
Fried had a 3.21 ERA in ten starts before the injury, continuing his dominance from last year, when he was worth 4.8 WAR according to FanGraphs and finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting. The team’s official injury report says Fried will return sometime in July. Assuming he returns after the All-Star break, that would give Fried 12 to 13 more starts by the end of the season.
The turnaround went smoothly as Fried was absent. Since May 14, Yankees starters have a 3.49 ERA, which ranks fourth best in the Majors. Cam Schlittler remains a front-runner for the Cy Young Award, season Carlos Rodón again Is Warren they had ERAs of 3.38 or better during that time. Gerrit Cole he hasn’t fully recovered his swing since returning from Tommy John surgery, but his velocity is up to par. Only Ryan Weathers He has struggled, posting a 6.44 ERA over his last five starts.
New York’s ultimate goal should be a playoff rotation of Schlittler, Fried, Cole, and Rodón. Knowing that and the club’s current position in first place in the AL East, the club will continue to monitor Fried’s recovery. The exact timeline will be clear when he begins the repair work, although the future plan for the mound work marks an important first step.
Turning to the case, Kirschner added that catcher Austin Wells expected to play rehab games this week. That seems to put him in a position to return at the end of this month, regardless of what is holding him back. Wells went on the IL on June 6 with a cervical headache, although he is better after an MRI on his neck came back negative on June 8, according to the team’s injury report.
Wells has been hitting well before the headache, with a 53 wRC+ in 169 plate appearances. That’s a big drop from last year’s mark of 94 he finally hit better than .206 on balls in play and could reach a .359 expected slugging percentage, far surpassing his actual .255 slugging percentage. However, the 2026 version of Wells just isn’t a replacement-level player, and that’s only because of his defense. Currently, JC Escarra has been awful (35 wRC + in 79 plate appearances), too Ali Sánchez is an outfielder with a wRC+ of 20+ in 141 career plate appearances in the Majors. Given those options, it’s clear that New York needs some kind of upgrade behind the plate at the trade deadline.
In other news, Boone confirmed that Giancarlo Stanton will shoot tomorrow on his sore calf, as reported by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Yesterday’s reports indicated that Stanton had also tweaked his calf while running the bases. When asked if Stanton has returned to his rehab status, Boone said, “I don’t think so, but I don’t know that.” That answer aside, it’s a fair bet that Stanton will need a long time to recover based on his injury history.
Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images
