Frazier's Superman snag is Play of the Week

A text-messaged screenshot was waiting on Clint Frazier’s cell phone when the Yankees came off the field at the end of Sunday’s 7-3 loss to the Indians. The picture displayed the outfielder frozen in mid-air, his shadow painted across Progressive Field’s grass.

Cool catch, he thought. Too bad it didn’t come in a win.

“It was a ball that was lofted in the air, so it gave me time to run under it,” Frazier said. “I saw it pretty well. I'm just glad that I was able to hold the ball in my glove, because it almost came out as I hit the ground.”

With two outs and the bases empty in the bottom of the eighth inning, Jordan Luplow ripped a laser into the left-center-field gap that Frazier chased down and snagged after selling out with a leap, hovering fully parallel to the ground while several feet up in the air. The grab was so impressive that it was named the Play of the Week on Monday, his first such honor.

Frazier said that thumping his chest against the ground knocked the wind out of him, joking that it “probably felt as good as it looked.”

The play will be an early contender for the Yankees’ best of the year -- and was certainly a highlight for Frazier, who was named as an American League Gold Glove Award finalist in right field last season. It's the third Yankees play to be named Play of the Week since the award was introduced in 2019.

“It was a good play,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It looked like he got a good jump and a good bead on it. Hopefully, we can get him rolling with the rest of the guys.”

Frazier entered Sunday’s game as a sixth-inning pinch-hitter and worked a walk against Cal Quantrill before grounding out facing Emmanuel Clase in the ninth.

Anointed as the Yanks’ starting left fielder during Spring Training, Frazier is off to a 7-for-48 (.146) start that has impacted his playing time. Frazier said that he is tweaking his batting stance in hopes of regaining his timing.

“I've been working really hard behind the scenes to get this going,” Frazier said. “I put in a lot of work during the game today in the cage. I literally went right from the batting cage into the batter's box. I liked the results. I just want to get back in that lineup and see if I can turn this around sooner rather than later.”