Yankees: Big surprise; it’s deja vu as Greg Bird injured again!

Greg Bird is injured again, and we’ll find out on Monday if he begins the season on the DL. The Yankees have high hopes that this will be the first healthy year for the left-handed slugger, but he might not have even made it out of Spring Training.

According to MLB injury updates, “Greg Bird is scheduled to see foot specialist Dr. Martin O’Malley on Monday in New York.” An initial MRI and CT scan showed inflammation in Bird’s surgically repaired foot. It seems likely he will begin the season at least on the Yankees bench if not the disabled list.

Bird fouled a ball off his foot about the same time last year, resulting in a three-month-plus trip to the DL and eventual surgery.

Although he didn’t return to the Yankees lineup until the end of August, he was outstanding, posting a .253 batting average with eight home runs and 25 RBI in the final 29 games of the season. The Yankees are in love with his left-handed bat in a right-handed dominated lineup.

What is interesting about Bird is that he hits better for avg. vs. LHP than RHP. He hit LHP at a .286 and .987 OPS clip during the final 29 contests, while struggling with RHP at a .168 average and .645 OPS.

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Tyler Austin, in his 20 games in ’17, hit just .225 with two homers and a .708 OPS. However, when you look at Austin’s output vs. LHP, he walloped southpaws to the tune of .361 average and an OPS of 1.258. Austin also put up similar numbers in 2016 vs. LHP.

So who has the better numbers? Everyone points to Bird, but as I see it, it’s hard to tell when you can’t compare apples to apples.

What I am saying is maybe the Yankees should give Austin a real chance. Let him face all the LHP and maybe do some platooning with Neil Walker versus tough RHP.

Give him a chance to play full-time because it must be obvious to everyone by now that Bird cannot be counted on to stay healthy for the duration of a full 162-game schedule.

Next: Bullpen will seal AL East title for Yanks

The Yankees have too much invested in this season not to give Austin an opportunity to finally prove whether he belongs or not, and the Yanks need to find that out sooner rather than later.