Clint Frazier arrived to the Yankees organization in a trade in 2016, headlining the return for Andrew Miller.
The fifth-overall pick in the 2013 amateur draft, Frazier has yet to find sustained success in the majors and his tenure with the Yankees is over after the team designated him for assignment on Friday.
Asked Monday what went wrong for Frazier in The Bronx, Aaron Boone said, “the big leagues is hard. … Even when you’re really talented, nothing is a sure thing.”
That was certainly true for Frazier.
The manager said he had not yet reached out to Frazier after Friday’s move and blamed some of the outfielder’s hardships on health issues.
“Fortunately for him, his story is not complete from a baseball standpoint,” Boone said. “The bottom line for Clint is he’s a guy with a lot of ability and it’s just a matter of, he’s dealt with some injuries and different things that kept him off the field at times. But I feel if he gets the right opportunity and [stays healthy], he still has a really good opportunity to write a really good career story.”
It just won’t be with the Yankees.
Frazier dealt with concussions and concussion symptoms, but also drew criticism at times for his attitude.
He was named the starting left fielder prior to last season after a breakout performance during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, but was unable to keep up the production before being sidelined again by an unidentified ailment.
Boone said Frazier, 27, being DFA’d had nothing to do with his social media presence — which was occasionally controversial — and more to do with wanting to keep some younger prospects in the organization.
“In this day and age, the reality is, a lot of really successful people — really successful ballplayers — especially 20-something-year-old people, are very popular on social media and do have a social media presence,” Boone said. “That doesn’t prohibit someone from being uber-successful. Different things affect different guys in positive and negative ways. It’s about each individual navigating their own path and what they can handle. I don’t want to suggest that was necessarily the reason [for Frazier’s DFA].”
And Boone added he has no regrets about how they handled Frazier, who last played for the Yankees on June 30, before vision and dizziness issues sidelined him.
“We poured into him as much as we possibly could,” said Boone, who was at Yankee Stadium on Monday, handing out groceries to Bronx residents as part of the Yankees’ partnership with the Food Bank For New York City to help families facing food shortages.
“I do feel he made really good strides in a lot of areas in his game at different times,” Boone said. “Some of the time missed with ailments and injuries are what ultimately kept him from finding a consistent path [in the majors] and at different times it was being a little blocked by some guys on the roster.”
Frazier wasn’t the only longtime Yankee caught up in the roster crunch, as Tyler Wade and Rougned Odor were also designated for assignment.
Wade was traded to the Angels on Monday, officially ending his time as a Yankee. Wade heads to Los Angeles in exchange for either cash considerations or a player to be named later.
