Yankees: What happens if Bird is not the Messiah at first base?

The Yankees, like many of us lately, have been putting all of our eggs in the same basket in counting, not only the return of Greg Bird to the lineup but the return of a productive and healthy Bird. Is there a Plan B if that doesn’t happen?

Are the Yankees asking themselves that question, because if they are not, there is adequate evidence in Greg Bird’s career to date that warrants the question being asked?

Real quick, when was the last time you remember Bird being a regular in the Yankees lineup? A quick answer – he never has been. Unless you want to count the nineteen games he played this season with a batting average of .100 and an on-base percentage of .250 before going down with yet another injury on May 2.

This is not – I repeat – not a Greg Bird bashing piece. But the fact of the matter is that the Yankees are not likely to be as lucky as they have been in winning and making some noise in the playoffs without a legitimate first baseman.

For nearly all major league teams, it’s a power position that needs a full complement of production. From Lou Gehrig to Don Mattingly to Mark Teixeira, the Yankees have always excelled at the position, and the rewards have graced the team accordingly.

Who’ll be the next in line?

Bird, from day one, was projected to be the next in line to replace Teixeira, and for a while, it looked like he was the easy answer. But in this game, at this level, it’s only about “what have you done for me lately.”

Bird has been on the MIA list since the end of 2015 when he was anointed with the position. But then, he missed the entire 2016 season down with an injury, coming back in a flash with a four-week stretch in Spring Training this year jettisoning balls out of ballparks virtually every day, and sometimes more than once in a day.

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Following that, of course, the debacle that began the 2017 season. Joe Girardi, to his credit, is a player’s manager and he will insert Bird in the lineup somewhere, and stick with him hoping that he can regain his stroke sooner and not later.

Which raises another question. Where does Girardi put Bird in the Yankees lineup without upsetting what has become a regular and winning lineup? Throughout most of Spring Training, he was in the three hole. Forget that, though as Aaron Judge has earned that spot. Questions and more questions.

This all becomes a moot question, though, if Bird returns, stays healthy, and contributes to the run scoring machine that Brian Cashman crafted them to be.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst

But that’s a lot of ifs. And general managers in baseball shouldn’t be hoping for the best. Only we, as fans have that luxury. Cashman needs to be preparing for the worst and working around a scenario wherein Bird either gets re-injured or never recovers anything even close to what he showed us in March.

Which probably means, and you’re gonna love this one, that Cashman decides to hold onto his $3.5 million investment in Chris Carter, even when Tyler Austin returns as a stop-gap insulator at first base. Note: Austin was activated and optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Greg Bird is currently hitting  .400 in his Class-A Tampa rehab games with a .571 OBP and a 1.071 OPS.  A short sample of only 14 plate appearances to be sure, but hopefully, the arrow is moving up the scale for Bird, instead of down where it’s been for nearly two years.

The Yankees need him as a regular contributor in their lineup with few if any hiccups in between. The hole at first base has reached the point of being an abyss with Carter in the everyday lineup, to the point where the Yankees might say, “Anything is better than that.”

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If clubs like the Royals, Pirates, Rays and even the Blue Jays find they need to be sellers, the Yankees will have plenty of players to trade.

But not so fast. The solution may or may not be just around the corner with the return of Bird. But if I were Brian Cashman, I’d be checking the possible alternatives beginning right now.