The meeting between Brett Gardner and the Yankees has not been ruled out, as the teams have kept in touch, according to sources, but general manager Brian Cashman looks set to play in 2021 without the team’s longest-serving player and with a role. bigger for Clint Furious.
Asked about Gardner during a Friday Zoom call, Cashman said “he’s been a great Yankee. We will see how things transcend in the coming weeks.
Later, speaking to the WFAN, Cashman was effusive in his praise for Frazier, who could be the team’s initial left football field, with Aaron Hicks in the center and Aaron Judge on the right.
“Clint Frazier has continued to reinforce that he is a force and that he has been improving,” Cashman said. “Last year was another testament to that. Going into that, he’s certainly established himself as a boy, and he’s been a guy who’s been saving us a lot of times when they got injured.”
More furious in training would make the heavy right-wing Yankees even straighter, with only the Hicks giving a change that provided a left-footed bat, in addition to Mike Tauchman and Tyler Wade, potentially off the bench.
But Cashman made it clear Friday that he was unwilling to add balance to training just for that.
“It simply came to our notice then [balance] as we’ve done in previous years, but we haven’t found any game that has made enough sense to go down from the level of talent that happens to be right-wing just to force that balance, ”Cashman said.“ It depends on the interpretation if it’s a strategy. smart for us or not “.
Gardner played well in the latter part of 2020. After a bad start, with just one .592 OPS and seven extra base hits in his first 116 appearances on the plate, Gardner finished strong, finishing 13th by 33 with a 1,190 OPS and four extra-base hits in his last 42 appearances in the regular season. And in the playoffs, Gardner won 7-on-19 with 1,079 OPS.
Frazier, 26, also had a strong 2020 after years provoking the Yankees with his talent. It was one of his best offensive threats, but he finished the regular season with a 1-1 drop.
In the past, he struggled with perseverance and staying healthy and Cashman believes the latest consequences of the concussion he suffered in 2018.
“When we bought it, it had a high ceiling, but it wasn’t a finished product,” Cashman said. “It’s narrowing the gap in all of this.”
When the Yankees traded for Frazier in 2016 with the deal Andrew Mill sent to the Indians, Cashman was excited about Frazier’s “legendary batting speed”.
His Yankee career has been up and down and he spent most of the first season last season at the alternate training ground until Giancarlo Stanton reached the injured list with a hamstring strain that Frazier recalled.
“He had a hell of a year,” Cashman said of Frazier. “He is working the queue this winter. He is hungry. He wants to keep improving. “