MLB trade rumors: How Yankees’ Clint Frazier feels about possibly getting dealt again

Highly regarded Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier talks trade rumors before a 6-5 loss to the Indians at Progressive Field on Friday.

CLEVELAND — Clint Frazier was looking at the team who traded him while wearing the uniform of the team that might trade him.

When the Indians dealt Frazier, then a highly-regarded outfield prospect, to the Yankees in a deal that sent Andrew Miller to Cleveland in 2016, he thought about it a little. The 2013 fifth-round pick would ponder the possibility he might get traded. To deal with it, he’d listen when people told him, “You’re not just playing for the team you’re on now, you’re playing for every team in baseball,” he said.

After the deal, Frazier admitted to feeling the pressure that comes with being a top prospect, getting traded to the Yankees and getting traded for one of the best relievers in baseball. These days, he’s more relaxed.

And, he said, the trade rumors speculating that the Yankees could move him haven’t phased him.

“I feel like I’ve done a good job in dealing with the up and down, going from the big leagues to the minor leagues, dealing with the trade rumors, dealing with my concussion,” Frazier said before the Yankees’ 6-5 loss to the Indians at Progressive Field on Friday. “I feel like I’d be putting myself in a disadvantage if I try to think too much about what’s going on. I haven’t paid much attention to it.”

Chapman makes Yankees worry

Frazier added that he doesn’t put much stock into reports citing unnamed sources that involve him.

“My biggest thing is, until somebody comes out and names themselves, I’m not worried,” he said. “Because they obviously shouldn’t be saying what they’re saying. So, I just don’t put too much emphasis on it if someone won’t attach their name to it, because I don’t understand it.”

Weeks ago, when general manager Brian Cashman was asked if Frazier was “off the table” in trade talks, Cashman said otherwise.

“I never said he’s off the table,” Cashman said at the time.

Cashman added, “”I think Clint’s got a chance to be a really good baseball player in the majors leagues for a long time and we’re glad — it took a lot to get him here, would certainly like to keep him here. We’ll see, again, how things have panned out. Certainly, this winter he was asked about a lot and we had a lot of dialogue with a lot of people. He’s still here. He’s not someone that’s easily accessible. He’s going to be someone that’s going to be asked about a lot, and understandably so.”