Yankees: Clint Frazier needs to be the everyday left fielder moving forward

After Giancarlo Stanton was placed on the IL last Monday it opened up the door for Clint Frazier to be called up and finally receive some consistent playing time. It took him a couple of days to make an impact, but over the weekend he broke out with back to back huge games in the Yankees sweep over the Orioles.

The 2018 season for Frazier was one to forget after he missed most of the year dealing with post-concussion symptoms. It had to incredibly frustrating for the promising young outfielder because there would have been plenty of opportunities for him to impact the club last season with all the injuries the Yankee outfield went through.

Heading into this season with the concussion issues behind him Frazier had high aspirations at the start of the Spring Training and intended on winning the starting LF job from Brett Gardner. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way after he really struggled during the spring and failed to make the big league roster out of camp.

Given the lack of reps and at-bats Frazier has had over the past year it was the right decision to send him to Triple-A to start the season. However, once Stanton went down with a biceps strain he was the obvious choice to get the call-up.

Frazier looked a bit rusty during the two games he played in during the Detroit series last week in the Bronx last week and started his season off going 2-10 with two strikeouts. On Saturday in Baltimore, he started the night on the bench but he pinch-hit for Mike Tauchman in the sixth inning and struck out.

Then with two outs and the Yanks down a run in the top of the eighth he stepped up to the plate with two men on and delivered the biggest hit of the Yankee season up to this point. With the count at 2-2 Frazier got a hanging slider from O’s reliever Miguel Castro and promptly deposited it deep into the left-field seats to give the Yanks a 6-4 lead and the eventual win by the same score.

It’s been a long time coming for Frazier to get another chance to play at the big league level and with that one swing, he showed everyone he plans on staying here for the long haul. On Sunday Frazier deservedly got the start in left and followed up his heroics on Saturday night with the best game of his young career. In a 15-3 Yankees rout over the O’s, he went 4-5 with two home runs and four RBI to help secure the series sweep.

Gary Sanchez stole the show with a three-homer, six RBI day, but Frazier’s performance was one I’m sure Aaron Boone and company won’t forget. Now that he’s seemingly shaken the rust off to start his season and found his stroke offensively there’s no reason why Frazier shouldn’t be in the starting lineup every day moving forward.

Even with the Yanks set to begin a big road series against the Astros and RHP’s Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole they need to put Frazier in the lineup. Right now with all the injuries the Yankees are going through they need all the offensive firepower they can get and none of the guys they’ve called up in the past week has more than Frazier.

Now that he’s healthy and producing we’re all going to see Frazier finally get the chance to show why he’s long been considered the Yankees starting left-fielder of the future. There’s a reason why he was one of the centerpieces in the Andrew Miller trade and why he used to be a top 30 prospect, but due to the concussion in 2018, he’s kind of fallen under the radar.

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In 2017 he showed flashes of excellence in a limited span of 39 games, but up until now, we haven’t seen him get another extended big league stay. Until the reinforcements return Frazier is going to continue to play a ton. Although with Stanton possibly returning at the end of the month and Aaron Hicks not far behind him, I just hope that doesn’t lead to a decrease in his playing time.

That being said, if he continues to play like he is right now there’s no way he’s going back to Triple-A and there’s no way you can put him on the bench. Before the season began many predicted that a healthy Frazier would end up taking Gardner’s starting LF job for good at some point. Well, now that he’s already here and thriving I think we could see that happen much sooner than we all expected.

That’s what I hope will happen and I think it will because with Frazier in the starting lineup playing to his full potential this Yankee team is at it’s best and will get even better once they’re at full strength. I love Brett Gardner but at this point in his career, there’s no reason for him to start 130-140 games. If Hicks and Stanton can’t come back relatively soon then yes Gardner should play but it should never come at the expense of Frazier.

I know it’s just two good games but given Frazier’s talent, the best is likely yet to come which is exactly why the Yankees need to let him play every day, without any restrictions.