Greg Bird

After fizzling out with the Yankees, Bird opened the 2020 campaign at the Rangers' alternate training site. He was slated for an early-August promotion but instead wound up on the injured list -- a place he's very familiar with -- as a result of a calf strain. Upon activation, Bird was designated for assignment and subsequently elected free agency. He signed a minor-league deal with the Phillies in mid-September but tested positive for COVID-19 during intake protocol and never was able to work out at the alternate training facility. Bird will be given an opportunity to win a reserve spot in the spring, but with Rhys Hoskins stationed at first base, Bird isn't likely to see much playing even if he manages to breaks camp with Philadelphia. At this point, it's not even worth taking a flier on Bird. We have seen nothing to suggest he will spread his wings at the major-league level.

Bird began 2019 as New York's Opening Day first baseman but logged only 41 plate appearances before a left plantar fascia tear ended his season. When he did play, Bird looked nothing like the slugger who was once tabbed the Yankees' first baseman of the future. He cranked a solo home run in his first game, then failed to register an extra-base hit over his final 31 at-bats. It wasn't simply a matter of bad luck; Bird posted a putrid 39.0 K%, and when he did hit the ball he generated very little power as evidenced by a 26.3% hard-hit rate and 85.3 mph average exit velocity. The data is limited by a small sample size, of course, but that's the heart of the problem -- Bird has missed significant chunks of each of the last four seasons with various injuries. He's still only 26 years old, but with a slew of other options at first base, the Yankees decided to move on. Bird will have to fight for a roster spot in spring training after signing a minor-league deal with the Rangers.

If every baseball month were September, Bird would be a beast. He has slugged .565 in the month of September throughout his brief career, but now has an overall slash line of .214/.302/.434 over 659 plate appearances. He also has 31 homers and 97 runs driven in over that time which is why fantasy owners cannot quit him. You take his power and the little-league porch in right field for his home games and you just drool in anticipation of what might become of Bird if he can consistently display what he has done in September. The problem is, he looks more like Kevin Maas 2.0 so far than he does Mark Teixeira 2.0. Bird is still just 26 years old, but Luke Voit supplanted him toward the end of the season as the newest flavor of the city while Bird was left off the playoff roster. Will he even be on the roster in 2019 or will he be dealt to another team willing to give him a chance in different scenery?

Bird missed most of 2017 with an ankle injury, but returned to post an .891 OPS and eight homers in 29 games to close out the regular season, and he then led the Yankees in OPS during an extended postseason run. He fouled a ball off his ankle late in spring training and played through it for a month, but his performance suffered greatly and Bird ultimately wound up on the DL. At one point, Bird's season was feared to be over as there was talk of exploratory surgery. This came after Bird missed all of 2016 due to shoulder issues; the injury history is getting long for a player who just turned 24 years old this winter. It's easy to see the talent when Bird is on the diamond -- he can take a walk and his strikeout rate is very manageable given the power -- but until he shows he can stay on the field and perform over the course of a full season, there will be doubters.

Bird showed promise in 2015 when a season-ending injury to Mark Teixeira thrust the then 22-year-old into a starting role for a playoff team. He smacked 11 home runs with a .268 ISO in 46 games, but unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to build on that campaign. Bird's 2016 season ended before it even began with shoulder surgery in February. He returned to action in the Arizona Fall League, but hit just .215 with one home run in 17 games. With Teixeira now out of the picture, Bird is in position to open up the season as the everyday first baseman. The lefty's power will be a natural fit with the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium, but he'll need to find a way to cut down on his strikeouts to really take the next step forward (29.8 percent strikeout rate in 2015).

Thanks to an injury to Mark Teixeira, Bird was fast-tracked through the minors. He gave the Yankees 46 quality games and hit 11 home runs in just 178 plate appearances. Between all levels, Bird now has three straight 20-homer seasons, and it's that power that has the Yankees thinking he can be their first baseman of the future. The question will be if Bird can make enough contact to let the power shine. Bird struck out at a 29.8% clip, and only three qualified players struck out more often last year, so Bird will have to continue to show plus power to overcome the whiffs. He has the eye and the patience to make it work, plus he's a left-handed slugger who gets to play half his games in Yankee Stadium, but there is not much margin for error. It's all moot for 2016, unfortunately, as Bird underwent shoulder surgery in February and is slated to miss the entire season.

Bird’s minor league numbers look like those of a poor man’s Joey Votto. In 2013 he walked 18.7% of the time with a 23.0% strikeout rate and posted a BABIP fueled .288/.428/.511 line with 20 home runs in 573 plate appearances. He followed that up last year by hitting 14 home runs with a .271/.376/.472 slash line in 441 plate appearances across stops at High-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton. While his power numbers took a hit at Tampa in the Florida State League, Bird’s pop came back in a big way after getting promoted to Double-A. In just 27 games at Trenton, he hit seven of his 14 home runs on the season as a 21-year-old while putting walk and strikeout rates of 15.5% and 23.3%, respectively. Now, entering his age-22 season, Bird looks to pick up where he left off at Double-A, and if he does so, the Yankees could be looking at their first baseman of the future.