Clint Frazier scheduled for more tests to determine cause of vertigo
Yankees pinch hitter Clint Frazier reacts after he struck out swinging against the Los Angeles Angels to end the seventh inning of an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Monday, June 28, 2021. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Yankees still do not have clarity on Clint Frazier, who was placed on the injured list Friday with vertigo.
The move came after Frazier, hitting .186 with five homers and a .634 OPS in 66 games, left Wednesday’s 11-8 loss to the Angels with "complaints of dizziness," Aaron Boone said that night.
During much of the day Friday, Frazier went through what Boone vaguely described as "a battery of tests," and on Saturday morning, the manager said there will be more testing to come.
"He will continue with tests next week," Boone said. "The preliminary tests that he has gone through the last couple of days . . . trying to rule out or find more serious things have turned up all normal, which, obviously, is good news. But I know he will continue to be evaluated and go through some more rounds of testing early next week."
Boone did not have any specifics on what that testing will entail, where it will be and if it will require Frazier to travel.
"I’m not sure exactly where all of them are, but it will just be a more comprehensive look at everything," Boone said.
Any discussion relating to Frazier and injuries, of course, involves concerns about his head. Frazier suffered a serious concussion early in spring training 2018 when he crashed into the leftfield wall in Bradenton, Florida, during an exhibition game against the Pirates. The injury stayed with him the rest of that season and pretty much throughout 2019.
"We don't believe it's that, and that's what a lot of this stuff has hopefully ruled out," Boone said. "But I'd rather complete the testing early this week to say for sure."
Rotation plans
Boone said Gerrit Cole will start the first game of Sunday’s split doubleheader, with the second game still up in the air.
Boone said Friday that Michael King and Nestor Cortes Jr. would be candidates. After Saturday’s loss, Boone said the Yankees likely will go with Cortes.
King was taken out of the mix when he came on in the sixth inning of the Yankees' 8-3 loss to the Mets on Saturday. Although he allowed two of Justin Wilson's runners to score in the five-run sixth, the righthander was brilliant in his four innings, striking out nine and allowing three hits and a walk.
Sevy throws
Luis Severino, who had a setback in his rehab three weeks ago when he suffered a Grade 2 right groin strain, threw off a mound Saturday for the first time since the injury. Severino, initially expected back around the All-Star break, now isn’t expected back until mid-August at the earliest. The righthander threw in the neighborhood of 25 pitches from the Stadium bullpen mound.
"Sounds like everything went well," Boone said of Severino’s session, as well as Zack Britton’s. Britton is on the injured list with a left hamstring strain.
Voit OK
Luke Voit got hit in the right knee by a 92-mph fastball thrown by Miguel Castro in the sixth inning but stayed in the game.
"I should be good to go tomorrow," said Voit, hitting .188 with a .595 OPS this season. "No ifs, ands or buts about that."
Voit missed the first part of the season while recovering from a meniscus tear in his left knee, then spent more time on the IL because of an oblique strain.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
More Yankees headlines
