Todd Frazier

Todd Frazier only wore pinstripes for one summer, and he still managed to give the Baby Bombers one of their signature October moments. A Jersey guy, a childhood Yankees fan, a trade-deadline pickup who turned into a clubhouse fixture inside of about six weeks -- and then, in a series everybody in the Bronx still thinks about, he was the guy who got it started.

The Long Way Home

Frazier grew up in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, and if you want the single best piece of Todd Frazier trivia, it's this one: he was the star of the Toms River East American team that won the 1998 Little League World Series. Not just a role player, either -- he went 9-for-15 with four homers over the tournament, then went 4-for-4 with a leadoff homer AND got the win as the pitcher in the championship game. A 12-year-old doing both of those things in the same game is the kind of thing you'd assume got exaggerated over time. It didn't. Little League actually put him in their Hall of Excellence for it years later.

He stuck around Jersey for college, too, hitting Rutgers' single-season (22) and career (47) home run records and winning Big East Player of the Year in 2007 -- the same year the Reds took him 34th overall. He debuted with Cincinnati in 2011, made two All-Star teams (2014, 2015), and won the 2015 Home Run Derby in his own ballpark, beating Joc Pederson 15-14 in the final. Great American Ball Park going nuts for a hometown Derby champ. Good stuff, if you're a Reds fan.

Then, in December 2015, Cincinnati traded him to the White Sox -- a genuine three-team deal, with the Dodgers involved as the middleman moving prospects in both directions. Frazier spent a year and a half in Chicago doing what Frazier does (power, strikeouts, a personality that filled a clubhouse), and by July 2017 he was hitting .207 with the White Sox on a team going nowhere.

Getting the Call

On July 19, 2017, the White Sox sent Frazier, David Robertson, and Tommy Kahnle to the Yankees in a seven-player trade -- straight two-team deal, White Sox and Yankees only, no third club involved this time. Chicago got back three prospects (Blake Rutherford, Ian Clarkin, Tito Polo) plus reliever Tyler Clippard heading the other way. The Yankees, a year ahead of schedule on their rebuild and suddenly in the thick of a playoff race behind a rookie named Aaron Judge, needed bullpen help and a professional bat at third base. They got both, plus a guy who actually meant it when he said playing for New York was the childhood dream.

"It's a homecoming that you can only dream of, and now it's really truly happening," Frazier said after the trade. He grew up rooting for this team. Now he was driving to the Bronx to play for it. That's not manufactured sentiment -- that's just what happens when you hand a Jersey kid a Yankees uniform.

Yankees Career

Sixty-six games isn't much of a sample, but Frazier made it count. He hit 11 homers and drove in 32 runs down the stretch, walking more than he'd walked in years (35 free passes in just 194 at-bats), and gave the Yankees a legitimate third baseman while Chase Headley slid over to first base. The average never got pretty -- .222 for the stint -- but the OBP (.365) and the pop were exactly what a team fighting for a Wild Card spot needed from a rental.

The ALCS Game 3 Homer

Here's the moment Yankees fans actually remember him for. The 2017 ALCS against Houston had the Yankees down 0-2 after two ugly losses in Houston, and Game 3 back at the Stadium needed a jolt. CC Sabathia gave the Astros nothing -- six shutout innings -- and early in the game Frazier turned on a pitch and drove it out for a three-run homer. Aaron Judge added another three-run shot of his own later on, and the Yankees rolled, 8-1, cutting the series deficit to 2-1 and flipping the entire mood of the series.

"It meant everything," Frazier said afterward. "Felt pretty good. It's very exciting." Not exactly a Shakespearean quote, but you don't need Shakespeare when the ball's still in the second deck.

The Yankees would win two more at home to take a 3-2 series lead before Houston closed it out in seven games back at Minute Maid Park -- a series that, as it turned out two years later, the Astros were stealing signs in the entire time. Frazier finished the ALCS run at .186 for the whole postseason, one homer, five RBI in 13 games. Not a huge postseason by the numbers. But that Game 3 swing is the one that's still on YouTube, still gets replayed every October, and still makes you wonder what could've happened if the Yankees had found one more big swing somewhere in Houston.

One and Done

Frazier hit free agency again that winter, and the Yankees didn't bring him back -- they had Miguel Andujar knocking on the door at third and other holes to fill. He signed a two-year, $17 million deal with the Mets in February 2018, splitting the difference between what he wanted and what the market offered a 32-year-old coming off a down year at the plate. From there it was the Rangers, back to the Mets, then a rough stretch with the Pirates that ended with his release in May 2021. He announced his retirement in April 2022, an 11-season career across six organizations: the Reds, White Sox, Yankees, Mets, Rangers, and Pirates.

Key Moments

One summer. One trade that actually delivered. One swing that's still on highlight reels every October. Todd Frazier didn't get a long Yankees career, but for a Jersey kid who grew up rooting for this team, he got the ending he'd have picked for himself: a big October homer in pinstripes, in a season everybody in the Bronx still talks about.