Greg Bird’s personality stood out as much as his power during his major league cameo.
Every player must prove he can handle The Show – on and off the field. Playing in New York and for the Yankees, in particular, owing to their history, often provide additional hurdles for new players, young or old.
Bird, however, had a Jeter-ian quality about him. He was unfazed from the moment he walked through the door. He had mastered polite, but vanilla. He was respectful, but not intimidated. For wont of a better term, he looked as if he belonged in the majors and in pinstripes. That only made the revelation that Bird would miss the 2016 season due to a torn labrum more agonizing for the Yankees.
Bird did not have the feel of Kevin Maas about him: a power-hitting phenom one day and a trivia question not long after. But now the Yankees must worry if Bird is the new Nick Johnson – talented, but fragile.
Bird’s injury is problematic in 2016, yet potentially more devastating long term to a franchise trying to get younger while staying a high-end contender.
If Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez combine for another 1,082 plate appearances and 64 homers – as they did last year – then Bird’s absence for 2016 will be minimized. But what are the chances of that with each slugger a year older? With Teixeira having dealt last season with another significant injury – the one that provided Bird an opportunity? With Rodriguez’s bat looking so slow at age 40 late last year?
The Yankees did not view Bird as athletic enough to handle the outfield, so he was ticketed for Triple-A. But it was not hard to envision 300-ish at-bats for him as a first baseman or DH with DL stints feeling inevitable for Teixeira and A-Rod.
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Now, Dustin Ackley becomes the safety net to Teixeira. Like Bird, he was impressive in a short Yankees stint last year, and the Yankees did take calls this offseason from teams interested in obtaining him to play first base. If A-Rod goes down, Carlos Beltran would become the DH and the Yankees would play Aaron Hicks regularly in the outfield with Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner.
The Yankees are not in position to sign Pedro Alvarez or Justin Morneau because they cannot promise at-bats with Teixeira and A-Rod in place. Maybe they could pursue a minor league deal with someone such as Ike Davis, but he had hip surgery last August and, nevertheless, is looking for a major league deal.
But 2016 is not the big issue.
From Derek Jeter though 2014, you would have had a better chance finding a lemonade stand in Antarctica than a position player the Yankees developed who excelled for them. Alfonso Soriano, Robinson Cano, Brett Gardner, perhaps Melky Cabrera. Johnson appeared on that path with a profile that looked a lot like Bird’s: lefty-hitting first baseman with power and patience. But he just could not stay healthy enough to honor the talent.
Now, it is too soon to condemn Bird as perpetually brittle. But he did miss the first month of the 2014 season with a back ailment and missed a month in the minors last season with the original injury to his right shoulder. That shoulder, as it turned out, never fully healed. He will have surgery Tuesday.
Shoulder surgery for a hitter is not as devastating as for a pitcher. But shoulders are complicated. It is Bird’s lead shoulder, the one that gives his swing lift and power. Brian Cashman said of Bird’s return to form in 2017: “We’ll see. You can’t rule anything out. The operating surgeons are optimistic that with a successful surgery, he will return to play in 2017 at his normal form.”
But at the outset of this offseason, the Yankees did not even think surgery would be necessary for Bird. They needed multiple tests over weeks last year to learn the bone bruise they thought Teixeira had was instead a fracture in his shin. And during spring training in 2000, Johnson incurred what the Yankees thought was a minor injury to his hand, called him day-to-day and he didn’t play again until the following season.
Johnson was as promising then as Bird is now. Bird was one of the few Yankees who hit well late in 2015. He averaged 6.2 homers per 100 plate appearances, the sixth-best rate in the majors for those with at least 175 plate appearances (Teixeira at 6.7).
But what will a lost season and invasive surgery mean to Bird’s learning curve and skill? It was a question the Yankees did not need, not now, not for a future when Bird is supposed to be a cornerstone.