There hasn’t been a whole lot that has gone wrong for the New York Yankees this season, but Clint Frazier’s defense has been one of the things that has.
The 24 year old has just a .930 fielding percentage, and is 11 outs under replacement. This means that an average outfielder would get 11 more outs than Frazier has gotten so far this year.
What happened against Boston
Clint Frazier, well, struggled a bit against Boston on Sunday in right field. He had four misplays. Yes, four.
The first one was a simple base hit to him that skipped over his glove, letting a run score and putting a runner at third.
The second, just a few plays later, was what we like to call an “in betweener”. The ball was hit in the gap between him and DJ LeMahieu and Frazier backed off of it, forcing LeMahieu to make an over-the-shoulder diving catch. It was a great catch, but it was Frazier’s ball all day.
The third was a couple plays later. The ball was hit in front and right of Frazier and the ball was falling short and he really didn’t have a shot to catch it, but laid out anyway. He got just enough glove on it to keep it in front of him, sorta, and the runners advanced extra bases.
His final misplay was an inning later, misjudging a base hit and letting it turn into a triple.
Frazier needs to fix his defense, or he could be leaving the team. With players beginning to return from injury, it could be him going to AAA or even being traded. His defense does nothing but hurts the team.