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Max Fried’s Decade-Old Tweet About Derek Jeter Resurfaces After Yankees Deal

Kristen Wong

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The New York Yankees didn’t waste time after being snubbed by a certain superstar outfielder and got a big offseason pickup of their own on Tuesday, signing former Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Fried to a massive deal.

Fried agreed to an eight-year, $218 million contract, the largest guarantee for a left-handed pitcher in MLB history.

Yankees fans were understandably elated about the signing this week. Many of them started digging into Fried’s past and unearthed a 2014 tweet in which the then-Braves lefty paid his respects to Yankees legend Derek Jeter after Jeter decided to hang up his cleats.

“When it's meant to be. It's meant to be #RE2PECT,” Fried wrote on X.

Fans had a feeling Fried was going to be a great fit for the team:

Fried, 30, is a two-time All-Star who recorded a 3.25 ERA in Atlanta this past season and owns a 3.07 ERA across his eight-year MLB career. He’ll slide in nicely behind ace Gerrit Cole in the Yankees’ starting rotation and potentially help the defending AL champions make another deep postseason push. 

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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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