Clint Frazier said there was only one true way to test his oblique during his recent four-game rehab stint with Double-A Trenton.
Swing for the fences.
"I was swinging as hard as I could to make sure I was good," said Frazier, activated Monday from the disabled list where he had been since Aug. 9 with a left oblique strain. "I needed to clear my mind of any doubt."
Frazier, whom Joe Girardi said will be in the lineup Tuesday night and perhaps Wednesday afternoon against the Rays, went 2-for-17 with 10 strikeouts during the four games. But he felt nothing in the oblique, significant in that such injuries are notoriously tricky in healing.
"I swung and missed enough to realize I'm physically good," the 22-year-old smiled. "I had to know. I didn't want to go up there and baby it. I swung as hard as I could as many times as I could and there's no doubt in my mind now that my oblique is healed."
Frazier debuted impressively, homering and doubling in his first game July 1 at Houston, the beginning of a 20-game stretch in which he had an .860 OPS.
But the rookie slumped before his DL stint, a 5-for-33 skid dropping his slash line to .243/.274/.477.
"Definitely longer than I thought it would be," Frazier said of his absence. "But everything works out the way it's supposed to and I'm happy to be back up here with the guys."
