Former polarizing Yankees slugger blasts NY media, reveals issue fans knew all along

The New York Yankees just snapped a six-game losing streak, but guess what?! We're in the midst of the fifth June Swoon in a row under manager Aaron Boone. It's no longer a coincidence! And former Yankee Clint Frazier provided some insight as to why that might be the case.

Though drama typically followed Frazier everywhere he went when he was in the Bronx, some of it seemed to be manufactured (like him "asking" the Yankees to un-retire Mickey Mantle's No. 7 so he could wear it, something that never happened) as well as some incidents of being in the wrong place at the wrong time (or whenever NJ.com's Randy Miller was in the clubhouse).

This week, Frazier appeared on "Foul Territory" and spoke on a multitude of topics as it pertained to the Yankees, and there was one remark he made that totally resonated with the fans: in short, there are a bunch of scientists in the front office trying to run the team.

Instead of mixing baseball minds with data-driven analysis, Frazier fed into Yankees fans' worst fears that every decision made is through some sort of formula or spreadsheet and that there's little deviating from that.

Former Yankee Clint Frazier blasts NY media, reveals issue fans knew all along

The front office doesn't believe it hot streaks, Frazier says? Makes total sense, because they also don't seem to believe in slumps as evidenced by how they've handled so many players over the years.

The most recent of which is Anthony Volpe, who has endured arguably the worst struggles in terms of rough stretches of any full-time Yankee since debuting in 2023. Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman refuse to give him a day off. He has missed just six games over the past 2.5 seasons and has been afforded the luxury to "work through" horrific offensive woes (a strategy, by the way, that hasn't helped him at all).

The discourse surrounding Volpe reached a fever pitch this week when fans lost their minds over his bases-loaded game-ending groundout on Monday followed by his game-deciding error (and game-ending strikeout) on Wednesday. Frazier, however, thinks the media is just picking on Volpe because they've run out of targets.

Do we agree with that statement? Not wholeheartedly. It's mostly the fans who are absolutely up in arms. The media also has plenty of Yankees scapegoats to go after. Volpe is probably the one that garners the most attention due to the preferential treatment he clearly receives from the team.

Either way, Frazier's prevailing sentiment was correct: Volpe needs to be himself and the Yankees need to foster that. But the role he was asked to fill is far too demanding, and the fact he's been featured in prime spots in the lineup all too often the last three years shows that the Yankees either think too highly of him or are trying to thrust him into a position that he's clearly not capable of handling.

Many Yankees fans wouldn't call Frazier a "voice of reason" by any means, but they wouldn't disagree that he provided a dose of reality here.