Should Yankees' Max Fried Pickle His Hand?

New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried, currently suffering from a blister on his left index finger, might benefit from an old-school baseball remedy.

At the halfway point, the Yankees are in need of some pitching talent to make up for losses due to injury. Most recently, with Ryan Yarbrough and Clarke Schmidt down for the count, the organization has turned their eyes to the open market, ideally making a move for a starter and/or reliever at the coming trade deadline.

Enter Fried's blister, currently residing on his pitching hand.

The blister caused Fried to leave the Yankees' last game in a recent series with the Chicago Cubs, a game that ultimately ended in a Yankees loss just before All-Star Week. The blister also caused him to miss the All-Star Game on Tuesday night, with Yankees teammate Carlos Rodón stepping in for him, but we won't blame the AL's loss on it.

Writing for the New York Post, New York sports reporter Mike Vaccaro told the story of an old remedy for toughening up skin and alleviating blisters, and proposed it for Fried's problem. The solution — literal pickle brine — was used by New York Mets trainer Gus Mauch, who picked up the tip from the boxing world.

"Ryan would occasionally beg off the magic solution — “I can’t keep pickles down, and the brine smells twice as bad,” he said — but inevitably, when the blister returned, Mauch would plunk down another dime at Katz’s Korner Deli and deliver his odoriferous elixir to [Mets pitcher Nolan] Ryan, who played long enough to win 324 games and strike out 5,714 hitters once the skin on his fingers grew permanently tough," Vaccaro said.

"There are other remedies now. But inevitably, whenever someone in baseball begins to suffer from a blister, two kids who were enormous Mets fans in ’68 — Howie Rose and Gary Cohen — quickly tell a new generation of fans about Gus Mauch and his pickle brine."

As Vaccaro pointed out, the remedy was immortalized by Life Magazine in their May 31, 1968 issue (page 77, not for the faint of heart).

Ideally Fried, who is surely receiving top-notch medical care for the minor injury, won't have to resort to all that. But if it gets him back in action sooner, it may come to pass that Fried pickles.

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