7 hours Ago By Kunj Shah
Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images Fried to lead rotation; AL and AL East up for grabs; Projecting the Opening Day roster; 10 standouts from WBC qualifiers MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Now that Gerrit Cole has undergone Tommy John surgery, the Yankees and Yankees fans will look to Max Fried to step up as the ace of this team in 2025. While Fried understands his importance to the rotation, he also understands that he shouldn’t try to fill Cole’s shoes or be someone he’s not.
His focus is on being Max Fried and being the best version of himself every time he gets the ball. While Fried also said that he’d love to be named the Opening Day starter, it’s no guarantee it shakes out that way: Aaron Boone said "it might not line up" for Max Fried to be the Opening Day starter "just because of when Gerrit went down and how everyone is slotted." Said "we'll continue to work through this," with an announcement expected in the next few days.
— Bryan Hoch ⚾️ (@BryanHoch) March 11, 2025The Athletic | Chad Jennings ($): With Gerrit Cole out for the year, Giancarlo Stanton’s uncertainty, and some of the other question marks the Yankees have, they’re likely no longer the favorites in the American League and the AL East is an even wider race. Other teams now have a betting chance, however, as our colleague Matt Provenzano pointed out yesterday, the state of the AL is so dire that it’s pretty insulting that the Yankees still have a chance, or arguably even had a chance with some of the non-Cole questions they already had.MLB.
com | Bryan Hoch: It’s that time of spring where teams start to zero in on what their Opening Day roster will look like. In Hoch’s own version of the Making the Team Meter, he runs down position by position to look at how he thinks the roster will shape out. Considering what we know, none of his projections stand out as way out there, and the most likely changes might come with some flips to starters versus bench players (Oswaldo Cabrera and Oswald Peraza) or if any of the pitching options truly start to separate themselves.
MLB.com | Michael Clair: The qualifiers for next year’s World Baseball Classic just wrapped up and it was a fun sight for those longing for some meaningful baseball and for those who just love the sport. This isn’t Yankees-specific, but Clair breaks down the 10 best standout performances from those qualifiers.
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