Do We See Clint Frazier Sometime in 2017?

The youth movement currently going down in the Bronx is in full swing, well as close to full swing as you are going to get with the New York Yankees anyway, and that means there will be prospects a’plenty here in 2017 and beyond. One prospect in particular has a real shot at making the team out of spring training or shortly after in my opinion is Clint Frazier, the Cleveland Indians former top prospect that came over in the Andrew Miller trade from last season. Will he make the team out of spring training? Will he be one of those late additions at the trade deadline after, for example, a Brett Gardner trade continues the youth movement? Will we see Frazier before September call ups? Will we see him at all? Keep reading to see what I think on the matter.

Frazier finally reached Triple-A in 2016 with the Yankees spending 25 games with the RailRiders posting a .228/.278/.396 triple slash with just three home runs and seven RBI. That’s not impressive on paper and when you look at his strikeout numbers, 20 K’s in 25 games, you are left wondering if he, like Aaron Judge, has discipline problems at the plate that are finally being exposed in the upper levels of the Minor Leagues. For that reason, along with the most common reason that he simply doesn’t have the experience to take the next step just yet, he will likely begin the season down in Scranton this season, but how long is he destined to stay?

Well that depends on how quickly he can put into effect the things he worked on over the offseason. Well that and the absolute logjam in the outfield that the Yankees currently have. Manning four spots already are Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks but when you look at the roster you also have players like Rob Refsnyder, Matt Holliday, Tyler Austin, Chris Carter and others who could play the outfield as well that sit ahead of Frazier on the depth chart. This is not simply a “one injury and Frazier is up” sort of deal this time around, the Yankees would need probably four-or-five injuries to see Frazier before at least July in my opinion, if that early.

Either the Yankees will have to have a lot of injuries or the team will need to move a couple players, Brett Gardner for instance, at the trading deadline before we see Frazier in my opinion. I don’t expect to see the red-headed whiz kid until at least the 2018 season but weirder things have happened in the Bronx… so stay tuned.