Lefty Max Fried continues to rehab from the left elbow bone bruise that sent him to the 15-day injured list last month. Today, manager Aaron Boone told reporters, including Chris Kirschner of The Athletic, that Fried is scheduled to throw off a mound tomorrow. That follows recent imaging which showed Fried’s elbow has improved and sets him up to eventually begin a rehab assignment.
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 club’s official injury report has Fried returning at some point in July. Assuming he makes it back after the All-Star break, that would give Fried 12 to 13 more starts through the end of the season.
The rotation has fared well in Fried’s absence. Since May 14th, Yankees starters have a 3.49 ERA, which ranks fourth-best in the Majors. Cam Schlittler remains an early contender for the Cy Young Award, while Carlos Rodón and Will Warren have ERAs of 3.38 or better in that span. Gerrit Cole hasn’t quite recovered his strikeout stuff since returning from Tommy John surgery, but his velocity is at normal levels. Only Ryan Weathers has objectively struggled, running a 6.44 ERA in his last five starts.
New York’s end 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 exercise caution on Fried’s recovery. An exact timeline will be clearer when he begins a rehab assignment, though tomorrow’s plan of mound work marks a crucial first step.
Turning to the offense, Kirschner adds that catcher Austin Wells is expected to play in rehab games this week. That seems to put him on track for a return later this month, assuming no setbacks. Wells went on the IL on June 6th with cervical headaches, though he’s improved after an MRI on his neck came back negative on June 8th, per the team’s injury report.
Wells had been hitting poorly before the headaches, having a 53 wRC+ in 169 plate appearances. That’s a massive drop-off from last year’s mark of 94. Wells will eventually hit better than .206 on balls in play and could catch up to his .359 expected slugging percentage, which far exceeds his actual .255 slugging percentage. Still, the 2026 version of Wells is barely a replacement-level player, and that’s only due to his defense. Meanwhile, J.C. Escarra has been even worse (35 wRC+ in 79 plate appearances), and Ali Sánchez is a fringe player with a 20 wRC+ 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 undergo imaging tomorrow on his ailing calf, as relayed by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Reports from yesterday indicated that Stanton tweaked his calf again while running the bases. When asked if Stanton is back to square one in his rehab, Boone stated, “I don’t think so, but I don’t know that.” That response aside, it’s a fair bet that Stanton will need longer to recover based on his extensive injury history.
Photo courtesy of Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images
