The New York Yankees finally DFA Yankees fans favorite trade bargaining chip
The New York Yankees announced on Friday evening that they have designated three players for assignment. They announced that they designated infielder Rougned Odor, infielder Tyler Wade, and outfielder Clint Frazier.
Frazier, 27, has long been a Yankees fan favorite for a trade piece to acquire the best player from the other 29 MLB teams. However, he was one of the worst players in baseball in 2021, which is why the Yankees were unable to unload him to another team.
Frazier was acquired by the Yankees from the then-named Cleveland Indians for relief pitcher Andrew Miller back at the trade deadline in 2016. At the time, people thought it was a huge haul for Miller as Cleveland traded Frazier (who was MLB.com’s #27 prospect at the time), pitcher J.P Feyereisen, pitcher Ben Heller, and pitcher Justus Sheffield (who was Baseball America’s #81 prospect entering 2016).
However, none of the four panned out for the Yankees as Feyereisen was traded to Milwaukee in 2019 before making the major leagues. Heller has injuries (including Tommy John surgery) and never pitched more than 10 games at the major league level in any season. Sheffield made three MLB appearances for the Yankees before he was traded to Seattle for James Paxton.
But the best prospect, Clint Frazier, was the biggest disappointment for the New York Yankees
But of the four players, Clint Frazier, who was supposed to be the best piece for the New York Yankees, was the biggest disappointment.
Frazier was drafted with the 5th overall pick by Cleveland in the 2013 draft and when the Yankees got him, he had just got to Triple-A. He struggled in Triple-A with the Yankees after they got him and he wasn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball in 2017 when he got called up to the majors by the Yankees.
He spent 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 bouncing between the majors and minors and/or on the injured list. In that span, he suffered an oblique strain, a concussion, and prolonged dizziness. The concussion cost him a total of about 2 1/2 months in two separate stints in 2018 and the dizziness cost the final three-plus months of the 2021 season.
As a result of all of that, Frazier only played 228 games in the majors for the Yankees and produced an rWAR of 0.2. In 2021, he had his worse season as in 66 games and he had an rWAR of -1.4.
He also has continually been historically bad on defense in the outfield. In 2021, for example, in just 63 games in the outfield, he had -11 DRS. The defensive numbers were good for him in 2020 but in 2019, he had -10 DRS in just 53 games.
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As Frazier’s time in New York has come to a close, there will still be some teams interested in him, particularly as a DH. Perhaps, he will be able to have more success without the glitz and glamour of New York City.