A reunion between Brett Gardner and the Yankees has not been ruled out, according to sources, but general manager Brian Cashman sounds ready to play in 2021 without the team’s longest player – and with a bigger role for Clint. Frazier.
Asked about Gardner during a Friday Zoom call, Cashman said ‘he was a great Yankee. We’ll see how things will turn out in the coming weeks. ”
Later, in conversation with WFAN, Cashman was exuberant in his praise for Frazier, who could be the team’s first left fielder, with Aaron Hicks in the middle and Aaron Judge in the right.
“Clint Frazier went on to reinforce that he is a force and that he has gotten better,” Cashman said. ‘The past year has been another proof of that. If he goes into this, he undoubtedly solidified as the man, and he was a man who saved us quite a few times when injuries hit. ‘
Frazier in the lineup would make the right-handed heavy Yankees even more right-handed, with only the attack that Hicks converted providing a left-handed bat, other than Mike Tauchman and Tyler Wade, possibly off the bench.
But Cashman made it clear Friday that he is not willing to give balance just for the sake of balance.
‘We tried to address [balance] ‘like in previous years, but we did not find a match that made enough sense to downgrade from the talent level that happens to be right-handed just to force that balance,’ ‘Cashman said. “It’s for interpretation whether it’s a smart strategy by us or not.”
Gardner played well in the latter part of 2020. After a bad start, with just a .592 OPS and seven hits in the first base in his first 116 record appearances, Gardner finished strong and went 13-for-33 with a 1,190 OPS and four hits on the extra base in his last 42 record appearances of the regular season. And in the playoffs, Gardner is 7-for-19 with a 1,079 OPS.
Frazier, 26, also experienced a strong 2020 after teasing the Yankees with his talent for years. He was one of their best offensive threats, but ended the regular season in a 1-for-20 slump.
In the past, he has struggled with consistency and stayed healthy, and Cashman believes the aftermath of concussion he suffered in 2018 is behind him.
“When we bought him, he had a high ceiling, but he was not a final product,” Cashman said. “He is narrowing the gap on all these things.”
When the Yankees traded for Frazier in 2016 in the deal Andrew Miller sent to the Indians, Cashman was famous for Frazier’s ‘legendary batting speed’.
His career at Yankee was up and down and he spent most of the early season at the alternate training ground until Giancarlo Stanton made the injured list with a hamstring recall that Frazier recalled.
“He’s had a hell of a year,” Cashman said of Frazier. ‘He has been working his tail off for the winter. He’s hungry. He wants to keep getting better. ”