A legendary — and briny — solution to Max Fried’s blister pickle

Every now and again, there will be a pitcher somewhere in the major leagues who develops one of the simplest yet most aggravating ailments a pitcher can get: a blister on one of the fingers of his throwing hand.

Sometimes, especially if you catch them early, blisters are an easily fixable malady: a pin prick, a Band-Aid, maybe some Neosporin, a few days off. Sometimes it gets a little more complicated than that — maybe there’s some blood trapped in it, and it’ll cost 10 or 15 days on the injured list to avoid infection.

The most famous blister in New York City at the moment sits on the index finger of Max Fried’s left hand. It cost him in his last start, Saturday against the Cubs, when it probably helped the Cubs get four runs off him (three earned) and certainly chased him from the game after just three innings.

“It’s getting better, definitely down,” Fried said Monday in Atlanta, at the All-Star festivities. “If there was a time to get it, this was the one.”