‘Cookie cutter’ to cut: Chicago dumps Frazier
Instead of a return to The Bronx as a visiting player, Clint Frazier has been sent packing again.
The Cubs designated Frazier for assignment on Friday afternoon, hours ahead of what would have been his first game against the Yankees since they DFA’d him in November.
Needing a 40-man roster spot with the return of reliever Chris Martin from the restricted list, the Cubs opted to cut ties with Frazier after just 45 plate appearances instead of giving the 27year-old outfielder a longer look. Frazier had a minor league option remaining, but the Cubs decided to use his 40-man roster spot on Martin.
Frazier, who missed more than a month this season after an appendectomy, was batting
.216 with a .653 OPS in 19 games after signing a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Cubs last offseason.
“I think it’s a spot where we haven’t been able to give him real opportunities to watch him succeed right now,” Cubs manager David Ross said before opening the series at Yankee Stadium.
Frazier was at Yankee Stadium on Friday afternoon, but declined to speak with a small group of reporters in the hallway outside of the Cubs’ clubhouse. A team spokesman said Frazier was still processing the news.
“He was upset,” Ross said of Frazier’s reaction. “Emotional would be a good word. I think he likes it here [the Cubs] a lot and he believes in his baseball skills, which we do too. I think it’s just one of those really tough decisions we have to make sometimes, which stink. … He’s worked his tail off and done nothing but be a great teammate here. All of his [teammates] like him, the coaches like him a lot. Again, just a roster spot, a move we had to make.”
Since returning from the appendectomy, Frazier was batting .313 (5-for-16) with a .851 OPS in nine games (five starts), but was not a fulltime player. Even if the Cubs had cleared a roster spot for Martin by making a different move, it’s possible Frazier could have been optioned soon anyway, with outfielder Seiya Suzuki nearing a return from the injured list.
If Frazier goes unclaimed on waivers, the Cubs would have seven days to trade him, outright him to the minors (an assignment he could decline, opting for free agency) or release him.
“I would hope [Frazier stays with the organization],” Ross said. “But I think he also has some life decisions he wants to look at.”
Before his unceremonious DFA, Frazier had sounded happy to be gone from the Yankees, telling the Chicago Sun-Times this week, “You had to be a cookie-cutter version to be on that team.”
Frazier, who was hailed by general manager Brian Cashman for his “legendary bat speed” when the Yankees acquired him as the headliner prospect in a 2016 deal for Andrew Miller, had a tumultuous tenure in The Bronx. It was largely plagued by injuries, especially a 2018 concussion and the lingering effects of it that limited him to 15 games that season.
Last year, Frazier went on the IL in July and never returned with what the Yankees initially described as vertigo and later called vision issues. Frazier told the SunTimes he believes he was battling another concussion that he did not disclose to the Yankees “for fear it wouldn’t be taken seriously,” according to the story.
“We kind of went through everything, exhausted every option, talked with so many different specialists,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Friday. “I think we absolutely supported him and gave him the absolute best care that we possibly could. That’s all I can say.”