A reunion between Brett Gardner and the Yankees isn’t out of the question as the sides have stayed in touch, according to sources, but general manager Brian Cashman sounds ready to play 2021 without the team’s surviving player – and with a bigger role for Clint. Frazier.
When asked about Gardner on a Zoom call on Friday, Cashman said, “He’s been a great Yankee. We will see how things turn out in the coming weeks. “
Later, speaking to WFAN, Cashman was effusive in his praise for Frazier, who could be the team’s starting left fielder, with Aaron Hicks in the center and Aaron Judge in the right.
“Clint Frazier has continued to emphasize that he is a force and has gotten better,” Cashman said. “Last year was proof of that. When we get into this, no doubt he has cemented himself as the man, and he has been a man who has saved us a few times when we were injured. “
Frazier in the lineup would make the right-handed heavy Yankees even more right-handed, with only the switch-hitting Hicks netting a left-handed bat, alongside Mike Tauchman and Tyler Wade, possibly off the bench.
But Cashman made it clear on Friday that he was not willing to just balance the lineup.
“We tried to tackle [balance] as we’ve done in previous years, but we haven’t found a match that makes sense for us to downgrade from the talent level that happens to be right-handed to force that balance, ” Cashman said. “The question is whether that is a smart strategy of ours or not.”
Gardner played well in the latter part of 2020. After a bad start, with only a .592 OPS and seven extra-base hits in his first 116 at bats, Gardner finished strong, going 13-for-33 with a 1,190. OPS and four extra basehits in his last 42 at bats of the regular season. And in the playoffs, Gardner went 7-for-19 with a 1,079 OPS.
Frazier, 26, also had a strong 2020 after teasing the Yankees for years with his talent. He was one of their best offensive threats, but ended the regular season in a 1 out of 20 slump.
In the past, he struggled with consistency and staying healthy, and Cashman believes the aftereffects of the concussion he sustained in 2018 are behind him.
“When we bought it, it had a high ceiling, but it was not a finished product,” Cashman said. “He’s closing the gap on all of that.”
When the Yankees traded for Frazier in 2016 in the deal Andrew Miller sent to the Indians, Cashman was famous for Frazier’s “ legendary bat speed. ”
His Yankee career went up and down and he spent most of the early part of last season at the alternate training venue until Giancarlo Stanton ended up on the injured list with a hamstring strain that Frazier was recalled.
“He had a great year,” Cashman said of Frazier. ‘He’s working his tail off this winter. He is hungry. He wants to keep getting better. “