Clint Frazier battled concussion symptoms for much of his complicated Yankee tenure, and he opened up about his struggles, and the mental health battles that followed, in an extended interview on The Short Porch podcast.
Frazier crashed into the outfield wall during a spring training game in 2018, and lingering symptoms led to tough battles in the outfield in 2019, with his depth perception being affected. After feeling much more like himself in 2020, Frazier bumped a wall again before the 2021 season, and symptoms returned.
It was all part of an exhaustive battle that he hopes is behind him as he gets set for a new chapter with the Cubs.
"When you go through something for so long, and you just feel the same way every single day, it’s really hard to move forward,” Frazier said. “And the way that I was feeling was affecting my quality of life. I was severely symptomatic with some of these past issues that I was having. I was like, ‘we gotta pick the pace up. I need help. I need serious fu---in help.’”
Frazier, despite putting together a solid offensive season in 2019, was sent down in June and didn’t return until rosters expanded in September, largely due to his defensive struggles, which flared up because he struggled to maintain stability and depth perception, especially when outside circumstances like crowd noise and stadium lights could intensify the symptoms.
“When people were all over me for diving, I was just trying to catch the ball,” Frazier said. “I thought the ball was right here, and it was right there.
Frazier did admit that he didn’t tell the Yankees when his symptoms returned before the 2021 season, when it was announced that he would be the starting left fielder on Opening Day. But a brutal 5-for-55 start to the season quickly ended his time as a starter, and by June, his season was over with what the Yankees labeled as “vertigo.”
“They weren’t aware, that was on me,” Frazier said. “I was fighting for my life…I was trying to continue to play. So I didn’t tell them. And then I showed up to spring training and started to feel better, and then it kind of, like, came back, because I had an instance where I bumped the wall again. I went into the whole season feeling that exact way.”
It has been nearly four years since Frazier first started battling the effects of his concussion, and it severely hampered his ability to gain an established role with the Yankees, and it clearly affected him mentally outside of the concussion symptoms.
“I needed to separate baseball and my health because, like I said, it was about quality of life at this point,” Frazier said. “I was severely struggling with this stuff.”
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