Clint Frazier’s Favorite Clubhouse Wasn’t in the Bronx

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kristie Ackert | Last updated Jun 19, 2025 6:15 PM ET

Clint Frazier didn’t hesitate.

Asked which experience he’d rather relive—the regimented life as a New York Yankee or the chaotic freedom of the 2023 Chicago White Sox—Frazier didn’t flinch.

“White Sox all day, dude,” he told former Chicago catcher A.J. Pierzynski on the Foul Territory podcast. “If the Red Sox got a documentary, the White Sox are so much more deserving of it… That was the most fun I’ve ever had.”

It was a telling moment from a player who arrived in New York with outsized expectations and left with a resume shaped as much by drama as production.

Frazier was the headlining return in the 2016 deadline trade that sent All-Star reliever Andrew Miller to Cleveland. A former first-round pick and top-25 prospect, he was supposed to be part of the Yankees’ next core. At times, he looked the part. In 228 games over parts of five seasons in the Bronx, he hit .239 with 29 home runs, a .327 OBP and a .434 slugging percentage.

But it never quite worked. He clashed with the New York media, didn't produce consistently and struggled with injuries—particularly a series of concussions and vertigo that derailed his 2018 and 2021 campaigns.

Frazier often chafed under the Yankees’ strict culture. He grew a beard under his COVID mask in 2020 as a quiet protest against the team’s grooming policy and later admitted he was “highly offended” when the Yankees scrapped the rule in 2025—long after he was gone.

“I felt like I was one of the guys there that certainly was trying to push the envelope,” he said. “So when they got rid of it … that felt personal.”

He also said he felt the prank that the Yankees veterans like Brett Gardner, CC Sabathia, Aaron Hicks and Dellin Betances played on him in 2019 was "cruel." They faked a letter to say he got a deal with the Jordan brand. It came at the same time of his three-error game against the Red Sox on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball when he blew off the media and then blew up at the media days later for asking about it.

Frazier hasn’t played in the majors since 2023, but it’s clear which clubhouse left the deeper impression. The Yankees gave him the stage. The White Sox gave him the fun.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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