After years of mediocre play, the New York Yankees finally recognized that their window of contention had closed in July 2016, becoming sellers at the Trade Deadline first the first time since before I was born. With Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman, Carlos Beltrán, Iván Nova, and more headed elsewhere, the team brought in a veritable army of young prospects which, added to a stable that included 2016 breakout star Gary Sánchez, the young pitcher Luis Severino, and the mammoth outfielder Aaron Judge,
would hopefully usher in a new era in Yankees baseball.
Foremost among these new additions would be a player whose loud personality made him loved by some members of the fanbase and hated by others in equal measure: the Red Thunder himself, Clint Frazier.
Clint Jackson Frazier
Born: September 6, 1994 (Loganville, GA)
Yankees Tenure: 2016-21
Born a little less than an hour outside Atlanta, Frazier established himself as a top prospect while at Loganville High School, where he went up against fellow future big leaguer Austin Meadows, who attended the rival Grayson High School. As a junior, he received an invitation to the Under Armour All-American Baseball Game, and as a senior, posted a .485/.561/1.134 slash line en route to being named the Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year.
As the top high school player in the 2013 draft, Frazier was selected fifth overall by Cleveland, whose $3.5 million signing bonus convinced him to forego his commitment to the University of Georgia and embark on his professional career.
Thanks to his oft-memed “legendary bat speed,” Frazier steadily climbed through the Cleveland farm system, reaching Triple-A in the middle of July 2016. But while he had taken great strides at the plate over his three years in professional ball, he still needed some time in the minors before he’d be ready for The Show. 2016, though, looked to be Cleveland’s best time to strike, and so the front office pushed all its chip into the center of the table and sent a massive package to the Yankees for reliever Andrew Miller – a package headlined, of course, by Frazier.
The young redhead immediately became the organization’s top prospect, rivaled only by fellow newcomer Gleyber Torres, formerly of the Cubs and acquired for Miller’s bullpenmate, Aroldis Chapman. With Judge, Sánchez, Tyler Austin (who also celebrates a birthday today!), and Mason Williams already receiving regular at-bats in the Bronx, the Yankees opted to send their new outfielder to Scranton, where he posted a .228/.278/.396 slash in 25 games.
Heading into the 2017 season, Frazier projected as the Yankees’ left fielder of the future — assuming, of course, that he continued to develop his pitch recognition. Unfortunately, in what would become a sign of things to come, unnecessary drama — at least partially imposed by others — began to follow him. Articles about his long red locks and the Yankees’ age-old (and very outdated) grooming policy, plus a false report that he wanted Mickey Mantle’s No. 7, made him a lightning rod for criticism, as the media looked for the baseball equivalent of Odell Beckham Jr., i.e. a player guaranteed to generate outrage, and therefore, clicks.
Despite the noise, Frazier performed on the diamond, eventually making his MLB debut in July 1st after fellow Baby Bomber suffered a devastating injury in the first inning of his debut the day before. He notched his first career hit with a sixth-inning leadoff double, and his first career homer to lead off the next frame. Seven days later, a three-run-shot off Milwaukee closer Corey Knebel gave the Yankees a 5-3 victory, his first walk-off bomb if his career.
Frazier ultimately appeared in 39 games as a rookie, missing time with an oblique injury, and while the team left him off the postseason roster, it looked like a lock that he would fill some kind of role for the 2018 Yankees, with a chance to earn a starting spot out of spring training. And then, everything went sideways.
First, the Yankees added reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton, giving the Yankees the most crowded outfield in baseball, with Judge, Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Brett Gardner, and Jacoby Ellsbury all under contract (at the time, we didn’t know Ellsbury had played his last game in pinstripes). Then, on February 24, 2018, Frazier suffered the first of many concussions after colliding into the wall. Not only did these injuries limit him to 69 games between Triple-A and the Majors, it also meant that, when the team broke camp in 2019, they wanted Frazier to spend more time in the minors. Of course, the 2019 Yankees being the #NextManUp squad, they needed to recall Frazier almost immediately. The Red Thunder ran with his opportunity, slashing .324/.343/.632 with six home runs in 18 games …. and then sprained his left ankle, becoming the 15th member of the team to hit the injured list.
Upon his return to the lineup in May, Frazier struggled defensively, piling up miscues and errors — and not hitting well enough to overcome the mistakes — to the point that the team sent him down on June 16th after the sudden and unexpected acquisition of Edwin Encarnación. Meanwhile, he reinforced a poor reputation with the media, as he refused to talk to reporters after games and pointedly taking his full contractually-allowed three days to report to Scranton after his demotion. Since Mike Tauchman, Mike Ford, and even Cameron Maybin had continued to rake in The Show, the Yankees kept Frazier in the minors the rest of the year, with him making a cameo as a part-time player once the division had been locked up in September to keep the starters healthy down the stretch.
After years of underperformance, controversies, and injuries, the 2020 season represented Frazier’s last chance at making a good impression and carving out a role in the Bronx. Fortunately for him, he delivered. Thanks to injuries to Judge and Stanton, Frazier — fully free of concussion symptoms for the first time since 2018 — found himself penciled into the lineup on pretty much a daily basis, and he responded with a .267/.394/.511 slash line while earning a Gold Glove nomination in what was a weak year for corner outfielders. More importantly, he proved that he could be a positive role model off the field, wearing a mask while playing in order to do his part to slow the spread of COVID-19 during some of the worst days of the crisis — earning him the nickname I still call him today, “The Masked Swinger” (hey, “The Masked Singer” was a pretty fun show to pass the time with during the COVID shutdown).
Unfortunately, that season would prove to be the high point of Frazier’s career, as the young outfielder made a critical mistake. In a game against the Blue Jays that September, No. 77 suffered another concussion, and, afraid of disrupting his breakout campaign, opted not to tell the team. Still suffering from concussion-related symptoms, he began the 2021 season as the team’s everyday left fielder, struggled at the plate and in the field, and was placed on the injured list on July 1st with vision problems and vertigo. When he pulled himself from a rehab game that August, his Yankees career was effectively over. Frazier was designated for assignment that November, as the team turned to trade acquisition Joey Gallo to man left field.
Frazier played the next two years in Chicago, splitting 52 games between the North and South Sides. Ultimately, though, the injuries caught up to him, and after spending 2024 in the Atlantic League with the Charleston Dirty Birds, decided to hang up the spikes.
These days, Frazier hosts a podcast, occasionally making waves as he talks Yankees baseball, and while he often draws ire from fans (and even occasionally former teammates), he has sometimes shed light on the behind-the-scenes workings of the Aaron Boone Yankees. He remains to this day a polarizing figure. Still, as I look back on Frazier’s career on his 32nd birthday, I can’t help but look at those few stretches in which he was healthy and wonder, “What would have happened if Clint Frazier had never crashed into that outfield wall?”
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
