LHP Framber Valdez
Valdez emerged as the ace of the Houston Astros in their 2022 championship run. Over the past three seasons, he's pitched to a 3.06 ERA over 90 starts. He's proven to be quite durable, pitching at least 176 innings in each of the last three seasons, including a career-high 202 1/3 in 2022. In today's era, that's a successful innings-eater.
Valdez has a very similar approach to pitching as Fried, a pitcher who relies on ground ball contact to eat innings. His strikeout and walk rates are marginally better than the league average, with a 24.1% strikeout rate and a 7.7% walk rate since 2022, but he induces ground balls at an astonishing 60.3% rate. While he doesn't have the bat-missing ability that Cease has, a dominant ground ball rate still pays well, as Fried has since proven.
Admiteddly, he might not command the number of years that Fried got from the Yankees, as he'll be hitting the free agent market after his age-31 season. With equally as strong a track record, though, he should land a deal with a similar amount per season as Fried's $27.25 million. Valdez could be looking at a six-year deal around $170 million as the starting point in negotiations.