The New York Yankees are no longer atop the American League East. They had maintained that positioning for multiple weeks until the Toronto Blue Jays surpassed them with a win on Wednesday night against the A’s. While the Jays are surging and now ride an 11-game win streak, New York is slipping at the wrong time. They have lost five straight contests and are 3-7 over their last 10.
With the aging roster and a more convoluted trade process now in place, the Yankees are looking to spark their ball club via internal promotions. Given that two of their finer hitters in 2015 — Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez — have a combined age of 75 right now, manager Joe Girardi is cognitive of the fact that in order to keep them productive in the coming weeks, they will need to rest occasionally.
Thus, Greg Bird has been called upon to give the two veteran sluggers breathers when need be. A 22-year-old left-handed bat, Bird was a fifth round draft pick of the Yankees out of high school in 2011. He has good size and projects to be a first baseman or designated hitter at the Major League level, perfect for the sake of backing up either Tex or A-Rod.
2015 was Bird’s first such year battling pitchers at the Triple-A level. He rose to the occasion quite well after hitting only .256 with 13 home runs across 277 at-bats with Double-A Trenton from 2014-15. Since suiting up for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 34 games ago, Bird has slashed .301/.353/.500 with six round trippers and 23 RBI.
Bird isn’t exactly blowing anyone away right now, but he’s a strong gap hitter with developing power and he does not strike out a lot by today’s standards. At least historically, he hasn’t in the minors, with a career K% of 20.9. Rodriguez has a strikeout rate of 21.3 percent this season while Teixeira’s 18.3 puts Bird’s fan rate right in between the two. Given that the rookie will most likley only be spot starting here and there plus grabbing some pinch hit at-bats, it’s unlikely his K% will be where it was in the minors even though he’ll now be facing tougher pitching. If it is, his stay with New York could be a brief one.
The New York Yankees recently called upon the No. 1 prospect in their organization, RHP Luis Severino, to offset and injury to Michael Pineda. Now Bird, ranked the No. 4 prospect in the organization by MLB.com, will be the third top 10 talent to make a transition from the minors to the majors after second baseman Rob Refsnyder (No. 6) joined the team in the Bronx on July 11. He has since been re-assigned in favor of another aging starting position player, 32-year-old Stephen Drew, who is hitting only .190 through 96 games.