Even more attention than usual will be on the New York Yankees this weekend.
On Friday, they will be taking on the crosstown rival New York Mets in another highly-anticipated Subway Series. And this time, the games will feature the return of superstar Juan Soto to Yankee Stadium.
Adding to the intrigue is the fact that both New York clubs are among the wins leaders in all of baseball, with firm World Series aspirations.
And with so much on the line, the Yankees made a key tactical decision on Thursday.
“Manager Aaron Boone is skipping new fifth starter Ryan Yarbrough to get a Subway Series start this weekend for unbeaten ace Max Fried,” wrote Randy Miller of NJ Advance Media. “Now, Soto will have to face the early American League Cy Young favorite, a left-hander with a 6-0 record and 1.11 ERA who has allowed two-or-fewer runs in all nine of his starts.”
The Yankees have struggled to assemble a top-flight rotation as injuries and performance struggles plague their arms. Before the season started, they lost Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil to significant injuries with Marcus Stroman joining them on the injured list shortly after. And they recently demoted Carlos Carrasco in favor of Yarbrough.
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But Fried, along with Carlos Rodon, has been everything the Yankees could have hoped and more. Making a move that allows Fried to open up this highly-scrutinized series will give him the chance to pad his Cy Young resume.
No matter what happens, fans will be watching.
“I think it’ll be really exciting for the fan bases,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, per Miller. “Hopefully the weather is good and it provides for an exciting weekend for our city.”
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