Toronto Blue Jays add Greg Bird on minors contract

The story of Greg Bird is a bit of a sad one. The sweet-swinging left-handed power bat has signed a minor-league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. He came up with the New York Yankees and was tabbed to be the next big thing at first base for the Bronx Bombers before being absolutely decimated by injury after injury.

Bird made his big league debut for the club in 2015, ultimately hitting 11 home runs and a .261 batting average over 46 games. He was the team’s primary first baseman for the entirety of the second half of the season after Mark Teixeira suffered a season-ending injury in August.

Bird’s downward spiral began after the conclusion of the 2015 season, as the injury bug bit him and wouldn’t leave his side. He missed significant time in each season from 2016 to 2019, including the entirety of the 2016 season.

2016’s injury for Bird was a torn right labrum that prompted him to miss all year. 2017 was a bruised right ankle that turned into an injury to the os trigonum (or accessory bone) in his right foot and caused him to miss over 100 games. In March of 2018, Bird underwent ankle surgery and didn’t make his season debut until the end of May and at at that point, he had already lost his starting job at first base. In 2019, Bird missed nearly the entire season with a left plantar fascia tear and ultimately wound up a free agent at year’s end.

After spending 2020 in the minor league systems of the Texas Rangers and Philadelphia Phillies, Bird found himself as a member of the Colorado Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate last season. He had what is certainly viewed as his most successful season in professional baseball, hitting 27 home runs, driving in 91 runs and, perhaps most importantly, played 112 games.

Bird rode this standout performance to a minor-league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. He will likely be second in line at first base on the organizational depth chart behind incumbent starter Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Injury issues aside, Bird has shown that when he’s healthy, he possesses considerable power from the left side, has great gap power, and an excellent eye at the plate. Throughout his career, he’s drawn over 400 walks against just 600+ strikeouts, numbers that are closer together than a lot of modern-day MLB players.