Former top prospect for the Yankees, who spent five seasons in New York, signs an independent league contract.
Clint Frazier, a former prospect for Major League Baseball, is currently playing in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
The 29-year-old Frazier has joined the Charleston Dirty Birds, the team revealed on social media on Friday.
The Cleveland Indians, who were in the first round of the 2013 MLB Draft, selected Frazier. After ascending through the minor league ranks, he was traded to the New York Yankees in a sensational deadline trade in 2016 that sent Cleveland’s reliever Andrew Miller to New York. Pitchers Ben Heller and J.P. Feyereisen were also included in the deal, but the main players were Frazier and Justus Sheffield.
According to MLB Pipeline, Frazier was the No. 2 prospect for Cleveland in 2016 and the No. 2 prospect for the Yankees in 2017. Both seasons, he was universally ranked among baseball’s top 50 prospects. After that, in July 2017, he was called up by the Yankees, and at the age of 22, he made his debut against the Houston Astros. In his debut, he even hit a home run.Although Frazier had a fantastic start to his career, his rookie season in August was cut short due to a left oblique injury.
With a concussion, Frazier began the 2018 season on the disabled list. After that, he alternated between the majors and minors for the whole season, with his season ending in September as a result of persistent concussion symptoms.
After spending the first few months of the 2019 season in Triple-A, Frazier was optioned in June. He was gone for the remainder of the season. In the end, 2020 proved to be his best MLB season. Frazier hammered in 39 games.267/.394/.511 with 26 RBIs and eight home homers. Then his injury problems came back.
During his final season with New York in 2021, Frazier left a June game early because of lightheadedness. He was placed on the disabled list and was not to play again for the rest of the season. During his five years with New York, Frazier hit.239 with an OPS of.761, and following the 2021 season, he was designated for assignment.
After that, Frazier played for the Cubs and White Sox in Chicago for the next two seasons. He made only 19 appearances in 2022 with the Cubs and 33 appearances in 2023 with the White Sox. In 2023, Frazier had an OPS of.545 and hit.197.
Having been a free agent during the summer, Frazier has decided to play independent ball for the time being. He intends to try to at least partially restart his career and possibly return to Major League Baseball in the future.
Frazier has plenty of time to make things right because he is still only 29 years old.
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