Out goes Frazier?
SLUGGER GETTING SQUEEZED FROM YANKS’ LINEUP
Clint Frazier doesn’t figure to get many at-bats with Yankees in possible 2020 season, and one AL scout suggests he’s a good DH fit for other teams.
Without a pitch being thrown, a bat being swung or a ball being dropped in the outfield, Clint Frazier’s situation with the Yankees has already become more complicated for the 2020 season. Nearly four years after Yankees GM Brian Cashman dealt away reliever Andrew Miller for the prospect with the “legendary” bat speed, Frazier has still not established himself in the Yankees plans for 2020, let alone the future.
Frazier is quickly getting squeezed out of the Bombers’ picture. As we’ve learned in bits and pieces the Yankees’ starting outfield is starting to fill up as baseball’s coronavirus pandemic-caused shutdown continues. Giancarlo Stanton, who would have been on the injured list with a strained right calf for the original Opening Day on March 26, is ready to go according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone. Aaron Hicks’ rehab from October Tommy John is progressing. If baseball and the players union can get over the health, safety and financial hurdles and lay the groundwork for a pandemic-shortened MLB season, Cashman said he would be a legit option at center field this summer. While they have been much more vague about Aaron Judge returning from his fractured rib, Cashman has still been optimistic the slugger would return this summer.
The Yankees brought back Brett Gardner off a career 2019 to play center and left field with Stanton likely to split time between the outfield and DH. Mike Tauchman, a stellar defensive outfielder who surpassed Frazier on the depth chart last season, will likely to be back up at right field for Judge. Miguel Andujar, with a much better major league hitting resume than Frazier, as of this spring would be taking to the outfield.
Frazier’s abilities to break into the lineup will be limited.
“His bat still has a lot of potential, he hit when he came up early last season,” one American League scout said, “but his struggles in the outfield since the concussion are just the worst I’ve seen. He’s probably a DH if you have the room for him, but with Stanton and [Gary] Sanchez they probably don’t have that spot for him.”
Frazier is expected to be one of the five extra players on a 30-man roster if MLB and the union are able to lay the groundwork for the coronavirusshortened 2020 season, but as not much more than an emergency outfielder. While the opportunities in that position seem incredibly limited with the Yankees, even with an expanded roster, things could really open up for the one-time first-round, fifth overall 2013 draft pick.
With baseball throwing every idea they have had proposed over the last decade into the attempts to have a 2020 season, they have included the idea that there will be a universal designated hitter. This could open up a whole new market for the Yankees in terms of moving Frazier — or even Andujar — for a better value.
After a 2018 spring training concussion that limited Frazier to 54 games (15 at the major league level) Frazier has been ranked at the bottom of the big league outfielders. While one scout points out he still has the tools to become acceptable out there — above average speed and an average to above average arm strength — his instincts and vision out there seem compromised by his lack of development and injuries.
While Frazier is a long way from an established big-league hitter, his potential is much greater there.
In 123 big league games (393 atbats) the right-handed hitter, who GM Brian Cashman said had “legendary bat speed’’ following the trade, has a .254 average with 16 homers, 56 RBIs and a .771 OPS. Most teams and talent evaluators use 1,500 bats to establish a big-league baseline. In a turbulent 2019, Frazier showed he could carry an offense at times — in April and June — and he could be beaten by his own lack of discipline (a barely acceptable 28.5% walk rate is a red flag).
“You look at the bat speed, the adjustments he was making to his approach, he is a player who could add some power to a lineup that doesn’t have a DH right now,” the American League scout said. “He’s a guy who could help some of those teams as a hitter and a fifth outfielder.”