Max Fried begins rehab assignment as Yankees await rotation reinforcements

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on Jul 17, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Max Fried won’t be with the Yankees when they begin the second half at home against the Dodgers. However, the left-hander will pitch in a game Friday night.

Fried, on the injured list with a left elbow bone bruise since May 16, is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment and throw a little more than 50 pitches for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. It will be his first time pitching in a game since his injury interrupted his second season with the Yankees on May 13 in Baltimore.

Aaron Boone said that Fried will make at least one more rehab start in five days. At that point, the Yankees will decide whether to activate him.

Fried, who had not felt like himself mechanically all season, had a 4-3 record, a 3.21 ERA, 19 walks and 50 strikeouts over 10 starts and 61.2 innings before going on the IL.

Since then, Fried and the Yankees have been pleased with the smoothness of his rehab process since it began with catch play in late May.

“It’s been really encouraging,” Fried said after facing live hitters for the first time since getting hurt. “Obviously, I would love to be able to just snap my fingers and be back out there, but with being a starting pitcher, it takes a little bit to build up.”

The hope is that that smoothness continues, as Fried is not the only lefty missing from the Yankees’ rotation right now.

The club is also without Carlos Rodón, who went on the IL with a case of elbow inflammation at the beginning of July. Rodón, who had a cleanup procedure performed on his left elbow at the start of the offseason, described the inflammation as “heavy” at the time. However, he was hopeful that he wouldn’t be out long, and he began throwing off flat ground prior to the All-Star break.

Rodón, who had been at the Yankees’ complex in Tampa, had plans threw more during the break and tossed 10 pitches off the mound at Yankee Stadium on Friday.

His season delayed by his offseason operation, Rodón had a 4-2 record, a 3.30 ERA, 26 walks and 52 strikeouts over nine starts and 46.1 innings prior to his IL stint.

With Rodón and Fried on the IL, the Yankees are starting the second half with just four starters locked into their rotation: Gerrit Cole, Ryan Weathers, Cam Schlittler and Will Warren.

Those first three, in that order, were tabbed to start against the Dodgers, MLB’s top team, this weekend. Warren will start Monday’s series-opener against the Pirates.

Beyond that, the Yankees don’t have a ton of rotation depth right now. Elmer Rodríguez is their top available prospect at Triple-A, but he hasn’t been overly impressive in his first four big league starts, and Brian Cashman noted in Tampa Bay last week that the Yankees will have to be strategic with how they use his remaining minor league options. The Bombers have already used three of Rodríguez’s five for the season, and they have two doubleheaders scheduled for the second half.

Those logistics played a part in the Yankees opting for a bullpen game against the first-place Rays prior to the break, and they could do the same against Pittsburgh. There’s also Brendan Beck, another arm at Triple-A, but his stuff didn’t look big league caliber in a spot start on July 4.

Because the Yankees are currently “thin” on rotation depth, as Cashman said, they could add an external starter prior to the Aug. 3 trade deadline, even with Fried and Rodón on the mend. However, if the group can eventually get and stay healthy – Clarke Schmidt, recovering from Tommy John surgery, will face hitters for an inning on Saturday – there could be some overcrowding and moves to the bullpen down the road.

Of course, that’s a big if.

“I don’t want to take any more hits. Obviously we’ve lost some important people that, thankfully, we’ll be getting them back,” Cashman said. “We don’t want to take on any more water. But that’s always possible, too. We’ve had to tap into some of the rotation depth. We understand how difficult and fragile pitching is and how important pitching is. So are we missing Max, are we missing Carlos? The answer is yes.”