Yankees: Clint Frazier did not deserve to be sent down to Triple-A!

Many pundits have pointed to his poor play in right field and how it must improve if he is ever going to be an all-around, everyday player rather than simply someone who fills the designated hitter (DH) role. Certainly, there were a couple of games when he looked awful in the field (especially one game against the Boston Red Sox). However, he only made three errors in 2019, and he’s had only nine errors in the outfield during his entire major league career spanning 87 games and 686 innings.

Frazier is still quite young and inexperienced, and one would expect him to have a couple of off days playing in the outfield every now and then. Yet, he is an excellent athlete so there is a reason to believe that he could work on his fielding as the season progressed and improve his skills and mechanics while in the major leagues without jeopardizing the success of the Yanks.

That being said Frazier isn’t a better outfielder than either Cameron Maybin or Brett Gardner. Both of them are still on the roster because of that and because of the fact that they’re better suited to contribute off the bench rather than play every day. Despite his great bat, there’s really no use for him on the bench because with the Yankees offense they really don’t need any pinch hitters off the bench. What they need is someone who can be a late-game defensive replacement in the outfield and that’s definitely not Frazier.