New York Yankees Have Their First Baseman of the Future in Greg Bird

Wednesday morning New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi confirmed something that every New York Yankees fan and most devoted baseball fans already knew.

The new starting first baseman for the New York Yankees will be (again, no big surprise) Greg Bird.

ESPN’s Andrew Marchand broke the news in the morning via Twitter and on ESPN.com:

Bird, who was drafted in the fifth round of the 2011 amateur draft by the Yankees, was first called up to the Yankees in August of 2015. He debuted on August 13 that year and played in 46 games with the Yankees during the regular season.

In his short stint with the 2015 squad, Bird impressed both at the plate and in the field. It was a stint long enough for Bird to exceed his rookie limits.

However, he may not have had as many chances to get into the game and impress the Yankees’ brass had it not been for an injury to Yankees’ long-time first baseman and three-time all-star Mark Teixeira, who was injured just four days after Bird was called up from Triple-A.

Teixeira fouled a ball off of his shin on August 17, 2015 in a game against the Minnesota Twins. He was diagnosed with a bone bruise and placed on the disabled-list two days later.

Eventually the bruise was discovered to be a season-ending fracture and Bird ended up getting to play the rest of the season and in the postseason as the Yankees’ first baseman.

It was lucky for Bird that things happened as they did. He hit 11 home runs and drove in 31 over just 46 big league games in 2015. He also went 1-for-3 in the Yankees loss to the Houston Astros in the 2015 American League Wild Card game.

In 2016 Teixeira was slated to be healthy. While the Yankees viewed Bird as their first baseman of the future, he was expected to spend another season in Triple-A as backup insurance for Teixeira, who had averaged just 93 games over the prior four seasons.

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Then Bird was forced to undergo shoulder surgery in February of 2016 due to a recurrence of a shoulder injury he had sustained in May of 2015 while still playing at the Double-A level. He was forced to sit out the entire 2016 season.

This season, with Teixeira now retired, Bird has returned to the team with a vengeance this spring. The lefty batter (who throws right-handed) currently has 19 hits in 44 at-bats, including six home runs, giving him a .432 batting average, a 1.545 OPS and an insane .500 OBP.

Now you can see why, if your weren’t already aware, Bird was pretty much assured the spot as the Yankees 2017 starting first baseman.

It’s impossible to tell how individual players will return from an injury or surgery. Some players falter and are never quite the same. Then there are guys like Greg Bird, who has returned to the New York Yankees this spring playing better than they ever.

If he stays healthy, and the likelihood is that he will, he will be playing first base for the Yankees for years to come.

Oh, and on an interesting side note, the 24-year-old Bird’s nickname is “Bird Dog.” That would be ok but really it should be “Bird Cat” as MLB.com’s Cut4 recently revealed that Bird’s pet – a hairless cat – is actually the grandson of a certain famous hairless cat that is known to the world as “Mr. Bigglesworth,” star of the Austin Power’s film franchise.

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