Interview: MLB All-Star Adam Frazier Talks Baseball Card Hobby
The childhood dreams from Little League, Babe Ruth, and high school ball is to one day make it to the collegiate level and eventually hear your name called in the Major League Baseball Draft. For Adam Frazier, he’s carried the dream above and beyond setting school records in college, breaking into the majors, and becoming an All-Star (2021).
During the 2013 MLB Draft, the Pirates selected Frazier in the sixth round. Getting his call up in 2016, Frazier was with the Pirates until the 2021 season, then played with the San Diego Padres (2021), Seattle Mariners (2023), and Kansas City Royals (2024) before returning to the Pirates in 2025.
From the Pittsburgh Pirates spring training facility at LECOM Park (Bradenton, FL), Frazier answered questions about the sports trading card hobby.
Asked about his goals for the upcoming season, Frazier replied, “Help the team win, be available every day. Versatility will be key for us – fill in wherever is needed and help the team win. I don’t have one certain goal or another, I want to win games and make it to the playoffs.”
With more time in his younger days, Frazier was a collector heavily influenced by the local MLB team.
“I haven’t collected in a long time but when I was a kid I used to,” Frazier shared. “My brother and I, we’d collect cards. It was always fun. Like what everybody is doing now, it looks like it has picked back up, it was always fun but I haven’t done it in a long time.”
On what he collected, Frazier added, “Baseball. I had some basketball cards here and there and some Pokémon cards (laughs), but mostly baseball.”
Going deeper into his childhood collection, Frazier shared, “I didn’t know anything about it to be honest. I wanted Chipper Jones and the Braves; I grew up about an hour from Atlanta (Athens). We were trying to get all of the Braves and Ken Griffey Jr, (Mark) McGwire, (Sammy) Sosa, and players like that when we were kids. Nobody in particular outside of the Braves because I grew up watching them every night.”
Frazier has worked with Topps and Panini on the release of his various cards.
“Yeah, I have signed for both over the years,” Frazier stated. “I always wanted to take those little templates, the little – I don’t know what you call them, the metal things. My agent, he wouldn’t allow that. They’ve had some guys get in trouble for that in the past. But it is really cool. If I were able to find some of those, that would be really special.”
The Pirates welcomed Frazier to the Bigs in 2016 seeing him hit .301 in 66 games.
Trading cards for Frazier go back to 2012 with Panini’s Team USA Baseball release (#9) to his MLB rookie cards; 2017 Donruss Rated Rookie (#223), 2017 Panini Contenders Rookie Ticket Auto (#41), and 2017 Topps Series 2 (#383) among others.
Asked about the role reversal of now being the player with a rookie card that kids across the country were chasing, Frazier said, “Yeah, it was cool. I was more proud (laughs) of just making it to the big leagues because that was a dream come true more so than the cards.
“But, yeah, it is always really special. Even to be in the video games and stuff like that. Growing up as a kid, playing the games, you always want to be in the game at some point in your life, and to have the cards, is really cool too.”
The cards produced of Frazier are collected within the family.
“I think my parents have a few of them,” Frazier shared. “I don’t think any outside of the normal ones. We have a few. I haven’t really shopped for them as much to be honest. Maybe that is something I will do when I get done.”
Not being the avid collector, when approached by fans to sign cards, that is one way Frazier is introduced to his cards. There is one in particular that stands out as a nice surprise.
“Yeah, every now and then especially like the teams ones when we are celebrating and there are a couple of three guys in the picture,” Frazier stated. “There is cool one from Seattle where we are doing a dance after a win; some things like that.
“I always try to keep it (signing) to the kids because I know these guys are trying to sell cards now a days. It can be a lot and a little weird at times because guys seek us out at places where they probably shouldn’t. It is fun for the kids.”
Playing in arguably college baseball’s toughest conference, Frazier was a standout for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. In 2012, Frazier was named MVP of the SEC Baseball Tournament. During his junior year, Frazier set a school record and led the country in hits (107), and was amazing in the field producing a school record 240 assists and 120 putouts.
Another cool milestone achieved for Frazier; called up on June 24, 2016, in his MLB debut against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Frazier collected his first big league hit.
Photo credit: Beckett/Ryan Wright
