Yankees: Where is it written that Todd Frazier has to play every day

The Yankees manager faces a daunting task every time he fills out a lineup card for that day’s game. He has too many healthy and qualified players for too few positions. Sounds like a good problem to have, but not so fast.

Yankees manager, Joe Girardi has a problem. Every time he sits down to fill out his lineup of position players, he finds someone he’s leaving out who he wants in, but can’t.

Girardi realizes this and now answers the media by saying he’s going with lefty-righty combinations depending on who the opposing pitcher is that day. Well, that’s fine except it implies that he’s throwing his hands in the air by letting the opposition dictate who he plays and who he doesn’t.

Or, maybe he doesn’t want to hurt any of his player’s feelings. Or, it could be he simply doesn’t know what the hell to do, deciding to let fate take its course.

Whatever it is, Todd Frazier is getting more calls than either Chase Headley or Greg Bird. And I’m beginning to wonder if that’s the right call for the Yankees to be making.

Girardi is right when he says Frazier plays extraordinary defense at third base and he has a propensity to hit the long ball. But he’s also hitting .210 with only 89 hits for the season. And even if one-fourth of those hits are home runs (23), what is his overall value to the team offensively.

Greg Bird needs as many at-bats as Girardi can give him to get up to speed with major league pitching again. Since his return from injury, Bird has raised his batting average by fifty points to .155. I know that isn’t saying much, but he’s headed in the right direction and once he fully gets his timing back can match Frazier or anyone else with his power bat.

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But the real loser so far appears to be Chase Headley, who not only gets hit by the Frazier/Bird conundrum, but also by Matt Holliday, who also deserves to be in the lineup as the team’s DH.

Headley has been the hottest hitter on the team for more than a month now. And yet, it appears as though Girardi is squeezing him in the lineup when he plays, instead of automatically penciling him in the lineup first, followed by the others.

Headley being Headley is not making any noise about his situation. Which says something about the respect he has for Girardi as much as it does about his good character as a team first guy.

Girardi’s task is not an easy one. I get that. But Bird needs the time, and Headley deserves the time. And besides, Headley is pretty good with the glove at third base, too. I guess it’s that Headley has turned me around completely this season.

Along with many others, I was on the bandwagon to have him traded during the winter. But more recently, I’ve written things like “If Headley had been traded, we wouldn’t have this problem now” because of his value to the team over the course of 140 games.

This is not to take anything away from Todd Frazier, who is a joy to watch with his boyhood enthusiasm for the game, and especially, for just being a member of the New York Yankees team.

Still, I just wonder where it is written that Frazier has to play every day.

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