BRADENTON, Fla. — Whenever Pirates manager Derek Shelton and Adam Frazier chatted this offseason, they tried hard to avoid the elephant in the room. Instead, they stuck to a more conventional type of hunting, inherently ignoring the trade rumors swirling around the Pirates second baseman.
“Most of the conversations we had this winter were about the deer that he killed,” Shelton said. “He was pretty proud of that group.”
As the Pirates went through their first full-squad workout of the spring on Monday at Pirate City, it had to feel like a million-to-one shot for Frazier that he would ever find himself in this position — still very much a part of the team.
With offseason trades that sent Josh Bell to the Nationals, Joe Musgrove to the Padres and Jameson Taillon to the Yankees, many Pirates fans and people around baseball — reporters, scouts and executives alike — expected Frazier to join them.
Yet here we are, with Shelton saying unequivocally of Frazier, “He’ll be our second baseman.”
While the whole situation might be awkward, what Shelton said isn’t binding. If general manager Ben Cherington gets an offer he likes on Frazier, it would still make sense to act on it. The Pirates need more talent, while Frazier’s $4.3 million salary — second behind Gregory Polanco — represents money they’d probably rather not spend.
At the same time, it might be smart to hit the pause button here and revisit a potential trade at the deadline. After all, if there’s been interest for 14 months and no deal compelling enough for Cherington to accept, either that interest must be tepid or the Pirates’ valuation of Frazier must be extremely high.
Most likely, it’s a little of both.
“I obviously read the internet so I saw [the trade speculation],” Frazier said. “If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, I’m happy to be a Pirate and look forward to working with these guys.”
Part of the reason a deal never materialized may be how disjointed things were for Frazier in 2020. He played 58 games, finished as a Gold Glove finalist for the second consecutive year but also had a batting average (.230) and OPS (.661) that fell well short of his lifetime numbers — .273 and .749.
Could other teams think Frazier, who turned 29 in December, is regressing? It’s possible, though his struggles in 2020 are probably more attributable to a weird year than some sort of sudden decline or loss of ability.
Frazier, who has a history of starting slow, was hitting just .208 and had a .589 OPS the morning of Sept. 1. But over the final month, he hit .258 with a .756 OPS, with eight of his 23 hits going for extra bases. He also walked 10 times.
“It’s no secret that I always come out kind of slow with the bat,” Frazier said. “I’d like to fix that finally. Just be a consistent hitter. I know it’s in me to do that. It’s just a matter of executing the plan, finding a swing here in spring and getting comfortable with that.”
Frazier’s career batting averages during the first three months of a 162-game season — .266, .257 and .260 — pale in comparison to what he’s done over the final three months: .301, .278 and .272. Same for his OPS: .689, .713 and .690 versus .826, .756 and .781.
Besides working toward a better start, Frazier also might want to spend his time during spring training in conversations with the baseball gods, lobbying for a better season when it comes to batting average on balls in play — or BABIP.
This could be another reason why Frazier remains a Pirate, with randomness clouding his value.
In 2020, Frazier had a BABIP of just .246, a career-worst in his five big-league seasons by more than 50 points. Frazier’s previous low was .305 from 2018, which is two points higher than his career mark (.303).
In baseball, BABIP is often viewed as a measure of luck, and Frazier lacked that in 2020. His average exit velocity (85.5 mph) tracked with his career mark (86.6), but there seemingly just wasn’t a bunch of open grass.
“Glad you brought that up because a lot of times, us as hitters, we get hung up on the result when really you hit the ball OK and not having any good results,” Frazier said. “It’s nice to hear things like that.”
More appealing, certainly, than having your name pop up all the time in trade talks, though Frazier has seemingly grown accustomed to that. The same for the idea that life could still change in the blink of an eye.
And too bad for Frazier, as much as he wants to focus on the season ahead, it’s doubtful any of the outside noise will stop.
“You wake up and by the end of the day you could be across the country somewhere else,” Frazier said. “I try to control what I can control. I know I can’t really have a say in any of that. I’ll be where my feet are and try to get better each day.
“I’m in a position now to try to lead these guys, so I’ll do my best to do that.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: February 22, 2021, 10:09 p.m.