Clint Frazier's thin skin could be what holds him back from reaching superstardom, WFAN's Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti said Wednesday.
Frazier finally faced the press Tuesday to answer for his defensive miscues in right field during Sunday night's loss to the Red Sox. He said he wasn't sorry about ducking reporters after that game and then complained about past coverage of him.
"It started with the hair," he said before Tuesday night's game in Toronto. "Then it started with me asking for a number that I didn't ask for. Then it started with another guy saying I should be out on the field playing through a concussion. It's been difficult, and I don't feel like it's been fair at times. I don't owe (an) apology for not talking."
Frazier also shared that he's felt like an outsider since childhood.
"I know I don't fit the mold of what some of (the) past and current Yankees are like, and that may be why it's a little bit harder for me to navigate every day and I'm trying to be myself here," he said. "Sometimes it feels like people have an issue with me just being myself and it's been difficult. It's been hard. My entire life I've always kind of been different and struggled to fit in because people perceive me a certain way. Whenever I was younger, the only thing that I felt like kept me relevant was baseball."
Esiason said on Wednesday's "Boomer and Gio" show that Frazier seems to be living in "an alternate universe," noting that the 24-year-old outfielder is popular among fans but seems to fixate only on the negatives.
"Come on, man, there's been 99% of the coverage of Clint Frazier has been nothing but positive," Esiason said. "Everybody loves the guy. Everybody's pulling for the guy.
"You want to go on Dr. Phil's couch, go on Dr. Phil's couch," Boomer added. "You don't need to be doing this in the middle of a season. You had a bad game. So what? You apologize."
Giannotti said Frazier, who hit his 11th homer of the season Tuesday night, is on the precipice of becoming a star but he needs to find a way not to let the external noise bother him.
"When I'm hearing these things and I'm reading these quotes, I'm cringing, not because I'm saying he's doing the wrong thing; I'm cringing in the sense that like I can tell he is in a bad place right now, and the dude needs a mentor or something," Giannotti said.
"Stuff like that, because baseball is such a mental game and you have to draw off your confidence in order to succeed, he might not ever turn into the player that he could be because this stuff is getting to him too much."
To listen to Wednesday's "Boomer and Gio" open, click on the audio player above.
