DOWN GOES FRAZIER!
Ball lands on Yank’s head, down he goes
Top Yankee prospect takes a fly ball off his noggin in spring training game
TAMPA — Doink!
Yankees right fielder Clint Frazier dove to catch a fly ball on Sunday, but the ball caught his noggin’ instead.
With one out in the ninth inning, Pirates left fielder Jerrick Suiter skied what seemed like a routine fly ball to right-center. But the wind was swirling hard, and Frazier and center fielder Dustin Fowler couldn’t hear each other as they converged on the ball.
Frazier finally heard Fowler when he was in mid-air. By that time, it was too late. The ball deflected off Fowler’s glove and struck Frazier on the side of the head. Thankfully, due to his Yankee cap and red curly mop of hair, he wasn’t injured. Suiter ended up on third, and Fowler was charged with an error on the play.
“In the end, I have to get out of his way,” Frazier said after the Yankees defeated the Pirates 3-2 in their Grapefruit League affair. “He’s the center fielder. I can’t be knocking balls out of his glove.”
The center fielder has priority over his corner outfielders on fly balls. “I think it’s just early in spring training. Fowler and I haven’t had a situation like that,” Frazier said. “Luckily, both of us came out of it uninjured. That’s his ball, and I have to get out of the way.”
Frazier, who has seen time at all three outfield spots, plays the game aggressively. In this case, he was too aggressive. Fowler was calling for it, and he needed to defer. “I think controlled aggression is what I have to work on,” he said. “I’m not the center fielder so when he calls for it I can’t act like the center fielder when I’m a corner.”
Frazier then nearly threw Suiter out to end the game, but his seemingly perfect throw from right on Pirates catcher Christian Kelly’s fly ball short-hopped Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez, who couldn’t secure it and apply the tag.
“If I gave him a longer hop he would’ve handled it no problem, so that’s two faults on me in the last inning of the game,” Frazier said.
Frazier, a 22-yearold prospect who is expected to open the 2017 season at Triple-A Scranton, went 1-for-2 at the plate and is hitting .375 this spring. He called his time at big-league camp so far “amazing.”
“I’ve met a lot of really good people in this organization that have not just helped me on the field, but helped me off of it as well,” he said. “I can’t say thank you enough to the guys that have taken me under their wing.”
Frazier said he put too much pressure on himself to live up to expectations after he was traded to the Yankees in a deal for lefty Andrew Miller. Harnessing his emotions and making sure he doesn’t get too anxious will be the key for Frazier in his maturation and development.
“I think I’ve shown the ability to hit breaking balls, fastballs, be aggressive on the basepaths, and make errors in the outfield. I’ve done it all,” Frazier said. “And I’m not done messing up and I’m not done showing them what I can do right now, so it’s going to be fun to finish this spring out.”