Clint Frazier realizes he needs to slow down, avoid hitting outfield walls

CLEARWATER, Fla.

Clint Frazier wore a "Titanic"-era Leonardo DiCaprio T-shirt for Thursday’s in-game Zoom session, a movie he had little recollection of, aside from his mom not letting him watch the parts with the drawings.

Frazier also didn’t remember all the details from Tuesday’s collision with the leftfield wall at Joker Marchant Stadium, where the violent crash left him sprawled on the warning track.

As far as Frazier could tell, he smacked his left arm and shoulder, with maybe a glancing blow to the head. The game against the Tigers wasn’t televised, so the video he was able to find didn’t really fill in all the blanks.

"It was kind of blurry," he said.

But here’s what we do know after Frazier looked perfectly OK Thursday, then talked about the scary incident after coming out for a pinch runner in the sixth inning. The Yankees insist he’s fine and Frazier says he’s fine. But that won’t stop teammates and fans alike from freaking out in the future, based on his concussion history.

"I understand it," said Frazier, who had a single on Thursday and chased down a pair of fly balls. "Going forward, I’m hoping to avoid causing other people some anxiety because of a play like that. But it’s not going to prevent me from playing hard. I just have to continue to play smart and try to be a little more aware of, you know, my surroundings at all times."

That afternoon in Lakeland brought to a mind a similar one in Bradenton three years ago, when Frazier smashed the back of his head into a chain-link fence that covered the scoreboard as he made a leaping catch. He suffered a concussion as insidious as it was severe, costing him nearly all of that season. The symptoms continued to haunt him the following year.

This time, the booming thud was loud enough to be heard from high behind the backstop. The fact that Frazier stayed down for a few moments — as the trainer and Aaron Boone jogged out to examine him — ratcheted up the concern level.

"I hit it pretty hard and I was just a little caught off guard," Frazier said. "I was asked where I was at. Obviously, I was on the warning track, laying on the ground, so I’m happy that I made it out injury-free. But I’m not really any more susceptible to a concussion than anyone else."

Still, no point in testing that. And keeping those collisions to a minimum needs to be a priority for Frazier, who has come to recognize that fact. After Tuesday’s game, Frazier made sure to text outfield coach Reggie Willits to put in a request for extra work, and the two were at it again Wednesday at Steinbrenner Field. Willits hit fungoes that kept pushing Frazier closer to the wall, teaching him to gauge the shrinking space.

Now that Frazier is the starting leftfielder -- after playing the majority of his games in right last year -- it’s about being more comfortable from that angle, and having a quicker, earlier read on the ball before he gets to the danger zone. Frazier may have been a Gold Glove finalist last year, but he also recognizes his weaknesses, and losing awareness near the wall seems to be near the top of that checklist. It’s also the one most hazardous to his health.

"I told [Willits] I needed to get better," Frazier said. "The biggest thing is to try to make sure that my read is really aggressive and when I get my read, I come off the ball 100% rather than kind of coasting."

There is no eliminating the risk. Dealing with the wall is part of the position, and even the most experienced outfielders find themselves smacking into it on occasion. Fortunately, Frazier escaped harm this time. But there will be more plays like it in the future, and all the Yankees can do is prep him for those scenarios — and then hold their breath.

"First and foremost, it’s sports, it’s baseball," Boone said Thursday. "So you can’t avoid everything. But the next thing is, he’s more equipped than certainly where he was a few years ago when that [concussion] happened. Just from being a more efficient route- runner and things like that.

"So hopefully, being more efficient, being better at your craft puts you in a better position to avoid certain things. I certainly feel like he’s in a much better place fundamentally to put himself in better positions."

Frazier said Tuesday’s crash wasn’t as bad as it looked, and as someone who was there in Lakeland watching, I was surprised that he remained in the game. But Boone said the team checked on Frazier repeatedly later that night and into the next morning before he arrived at Steinbrenner Field, making sure to rule out any concussion concerns.

Now the Yankees just have to worry about preventing Frazier’s next collision. Or at least help him learn to soften the blow when the impact is inevitable.

By David Lennon

dave.lennon@newsday.comDPLennon

David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.