Former Yankee, Mets Player Joins North Jersey Minor League Team

AUGUSTA, NJ — A former Yankees third baseman who also played for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, Mets, Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates plans to be in the Sussex County Miners’ lineup on Friday.

Todd Frazier is expected to play during the team’s doubleheader game and weekend series against the Tri-City ValleyCats, a move the New Jersey Herald reported on Wednesday, will help Frazier to continue training for his upcoming time with Team USA in July for Tokyo’s Summer Olympics.

Though he’s traveled around the country for baseball and plans to do so in Japan, Frazier’s thrilling career start was in 1998, when he was a player for Toms River East’s Little League team.

He was with the team the year that it took the victory from Kashima, Japan during the Little League World Series World Championship Game. Toms River East beat the Japanese team 12-9, with Frazier known for taking Toms River's first home run and being its star pitcher in the World Championship.

Before the Reds drafted Frazier in 2007, a team he played with for five seasons, he played for the Rutgers’ Scarlet Knights, where he hit .347, with 42 HRs and 152 RBIs, according to a press release from the Sussex County Miners.

During his 11 seasons in professional baseball, Frazier, nicknamed the "ToddFather," has been a .241 career hitter, has had 218 HRs and 640 career RBIs, the Miners wrote.

The Miners’ Manager and Director of Baseball Operations Bobby Jones told the Herald, he was thrilled Frazier chose to play with the team and thought Frazier’s presence at the Miners’ clubhouse would especially be monumental for the team’s younger players, summing up Frazier as “a really good guy” overall.

“To be able to draw a guy like this here and now the park is where it’s at, the culture’s where it’s at, I think he fits perfectly culturally,” Jones said during his interview with the Herald.

Click here to buy tickets for the games at Skylands Stadium, with Friday’s doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m., Saturday’s game starting at 6 p.m. and winding down with fireworks and Sunday’s game at 2 p.m.

Read more in the New Jersey Herald.

Questions or comments about this story? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.