Yankees should trade Clint Frazier for former rival

Despite being as inconsistent as humanly possible to start the season, New York Yankees fans should be thrilled the club is sitting four games above .500 through 38 games.

Assuming the Boston Red Sox continue to regress to the mean following their unanticipated scalding hot start to the season (when they start playing against some real competition), the Yankees should overtake them for the AL East lead in the coming weeks.

In any event, the Yankees might feel compelled to strike a trade in order to leapfrog their longtime division rival.

As far as potential trade candidates are concerned, Clint Frazier is a player fans are growing increasingly frustrated with as the season wears on.

For as much as Yankees fans have begged over the years for Frazier to be given an everyday role to prove he deserves a future in the Bronx, his underwhelming performance thus far this season might finally convince the front office to pull the plug on him.

Well, with Aaron Hicks likely out for the foreseeable future with a wrist injury, one fan proposed a trade on Twitter that not only involved Frazier, but has a little Red Sox flavor as well.

Anyone down to see Andrew Benintendi in Pinstripes?

https://twitter.com/mbeezy2599/status/1393397183269986304

Could the Yankees trade for Andrew Benintendi after Aaron Hicks’ injury?

The Yankees are certainly no strangers to acquiring former Red Sox players, and Benintendi, who was traded to the Royals in the offseason after a forgettable 2020 campaign, would fill a massive need for New York.

Benintendi is quickly proving that last season was a blip on the radar from a production standpoint, as he’s currently hitting 276/.342/.381 with three home runs and 11 RBI. With the  Royals free-falling they might look to shop their offseason acquisition before the deadline.

Some Yankees fans might hate the idea of trading Frazier, but you simply can’t defend a player who’s hitting .146 (with 29 strikeouts) as your starting outfielder. For as much as fans detested Benintendi during his Red Sox tenure, he’s clearly the superior player at this point.

Not only does Frazier look completely lost at the plate, but manager Aaron Boone was clearly infuriated with the 26-year-old outfielder earlier this week when he was ejected for arguing balls and strikes when the Yankees’ bench was already depleted.

Given how the Yankees treated Frazier with kid gloves for so many years, it never felt like he was long for the Bronx. The former No. 5 overall pick squandering his first real opportunity to prove himself should give the front office even more incentive to unload him.

Let’s just call it like it is: what does Frazier offer if he isn’t hitting? The answer isn’t much, other than the occasional web gem.

Because of that — and Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton (quad) both on the shelf — the Yankees should definitely consider trading for Benintendi. Despite his ties to the hated Red Sox, he’s markedly better compared to who New York’s currently rolling out there in left and center field.

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