Gardner’s return won’t displace Frazier as starter
Engine was manufactured by East Hartford-based Pratt &Whitney
Brett Gardner’s return to the Yankees won’t displace Clint Frazier from taking over as New York’s starting left fielder.
Gardner agreed Friday to a $4 million, one-year contract to return to the Yankees for a 14th season, a deal subject to a successful physical for the 37-year-old.
Manager Aaron Boone cautioned developments during a season could alter intentions but for now Frazier was projected over Gardner in an outfield that has Aaron Hicks in center and Aaron Judge in right.
“I expect Clint to be our left fielder and to be in that starting lineup,“Boone said Saturday at spring training. “A guy like Gardy is a guy who would play a lot, certainly, as a lot of our guys that will quote unquote be bench players or whatever, but Clint is going to be a regular player for us going into the season.”
Gardner hit .223 with five homers and 15 RBIs in 130 at-bats last year, rebounding after a slump that sunk his average at .169 at the start of September. He batted .369 (7 for 19) in the playoffs.
“It’s huge,” catcher Kyle Higashioka said of Gardner’s return. “Gardy has always been one of my favorite teammates. Just the leadership and the experience that he provides is going to be really vital to us. Guys like that are such a great role model for guys coming up. He’s just the ultimate professional.“
Over the full 2019 season, Gardner reached careerbest totals of 28 homers and
74 RBIs to go along with a
.251 average. He is the last player remaining for the Yankees’ 2009 World Series champions and a fan favorite for his fiery demeanor and longevity.
“One of the things I look at is his toughness, the ability to post, the ability to play through things, the premium he puts on being ready to go each and every day,” Boone said. “There is a blue collar-ness to the way he goes about his business I think that is infectious. He’s got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder that he plays with.
“And I think he’s got a young man’s body. He’s in great shape. He has aged very well. And I think you’ve seen him really I think adapt and apply information to continue to make himself in a lot of ways a better player but certainly still a very relevant player,” he said.
Gardner and the switchhitting Hicks often were the only left-handed bats in the Yankees’ starting lineup last year. Jay Bruce, another lefty-hitting outfielder, will be at spring training camp.
Gardner is targeted for significant at-bats even if he’s not a regular starter.
“We’ll talk through different roles and things like that,” Boone said. “We’re a long way away from April 1st even, so a lot of things can happen. The season always takes twists and turns. So you always have plans and
usually you have to adjust with those plans. On a guy like Gardy, we know he’s a guy that can still play at very high level.”
Gardner also serves a mentor to Frazier, who showed great improvement last year in his fourth season with the Yankees. The 26year-old hit .267 with eight homers and 26 RBIs in 131 at-bats during the pandemic-shortened season, after batting .267 with 12 homers and 38 RBIs over 225 at-bats in 2019.
“It’s been fun to see that relationship grow,” Boone said. “I do feel like in a way they probably pushed each other a little bit. But I know that Clint has over the last couple of years really started
to take the things that he can learn from a Brett Gardner and apply them and in turn, I think, Clint does a good job of kind of in his own way, kind of needling Gardy and pushing Gardy along. And they have a pretty cool banter back and forth, frankly, that that I enjoy witnessing. But, look, I think those are two guys that can be really impactful players.”
NOTES: Gary Sanchez, benched for in favor of Higashioka for four of five Division Series games, expressed confidence he will be the regular catcher. “I don’t see myself just playing two times a week,“he said through a translator. “I would like to have the opportunity to play every day.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the causes of an engine failure that occurred on board a United Airlines flight shortly after it took off from Denver International Airport on Saturday.
The aircraft, a Boeing 777200, appeared to scatter dozens of pieces of debris across a residential area roughly a halfmile wide, badly damaging at least one home and one vehicle, local authorities said. No injuries have been reported on the ground or among the flight’s 231 passengers and 10 crew members.
Residents of Broomfield, a suburb of Denver, reported hearing a loud boom overhead and a video posted to social media appeared to show the plane flying with its engine on fire. Authorities have not shared any details on possible causes of the failure.
The incident comes amid Boeing’s effort to restore public confidence in its planes. In December, Boeing’s 737 Max jets flew their first commercial flights for the first time since two crashes of the planes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people.
The Max crashes eroded the flying public’s trust in Boeing, one of two major companies that dominate commercial airplane production. After the crashes, Boeing halted production of its flagship jet, fired its chief executive and agreed to pay more than $2.5 billion to resolve a Justice Department criminal charge that it conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration during a review of the 737 Max.
The Boeing 777-200 is a larger jet that has been in use since the 1990s. According to Boeing data, the jets have experienced less than one major accident per 1 million departures — one of the lowest accident rates of any major commercial jetliner. The plane is not equipped with MCAS, the software that investigators believe malfunctioned during the 737 Max crashes.
In an emailed statement, Boeing spokesman Bradley Akubuiro said the company is pleased that the airplane returned safely to Denver. “Boeing technical advisers are supporting the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board with its investigation,” he said.
The plane’s engine was manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Raytheon headquartered in East Hartford, Conn., a spokesman for the NTSB confirmed. Pratt & Whitney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NTSB typically coordinates accident investigations with the help of the plane manufacturer, local authorities, the airline and any parts manufacturers that may have information relevant to a safety incident. The agency began retrieving scattered debris and collecting it in an airplane hangar at Denver International Airport over the weekend.
United Airlines, which operated the flight originally scheduled to land in Honolulu on Saturday, said a majority of the passengers were put on a new plane that landed safety in Hawaii that night. The company said it is working with federal investigators.
In Broomfield, local authorities fielded hundreds of calls from residents who found pieces of debris, said Rachel Welte, the public information officer for Broomfield Police Department. One plane part fell through the roof of a home, and another damaged a truck, she said.
Debris was discovered all over Commons Park, a large recreational area with soccer fields, she said. “Considering how large the debris field was, it’s absolutely remarkable” no one was injured, Welte said.