Yankees should give Mike Ford a shot at first base

Greg Bird is still lost at the plate. Therefore the Yankees should give Luke Voit the everyday job or demote Bird and finally try out Mike Ford.

I simply do not have the desire to plead with those that still believe the best is yet to come from 26-year-old Yankees first baseman Greg Bird.

Instead, his abysmal numbers at the plate are all anyone needs to know why the time has come for the organization to hand the everyday reigns over to Luke Voit, or promote Mike Ford to fill in for manager Aaron Boone’s first base platoon.

While I fully understand that Bird is not the sole reason as to why the Yankees are 6-9, 5.5 games back of the first place Rays; however, unless it hasn’t been reported, Bird is healthy, yet still cannot produce as a major league player should.

In 10 games (41 plate appearances), Bird is slashing .171/.293/.257 with six runs scored, one home run, one RBI and a 16:6 K:BB ratio.

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Although Luke Voit’s batting average is only slightly above the Mendoza Line, this is the era where OBP is the ultimate metric. And so Voit’s .328 OBP and .444 SLG, combined with four home runs and 14 RBIs in 15 games (64 plate appearances) indicates Voit is more deserving of the extra at-bats.

Naturally, the Bird faithful will speculate that if he were given an equal chance, he might come close to Voit’s power numbers. However, let’s consider that Bird simply isn’t cut out for New York. Perhaps playing in San Francisco or Miami would be more advantageous destinations for Bird to blossom.

While neither Bird or Voit are going to make us forget about Mark Teixeria’s glovework anytime soon, Bird has yet to commit an error in 85.1 innings on the field, as opposed to Voit’s one error in 44 innings. Does that mean the Yanks should keep Bird as a late-inning defensive replacement?

Sadly, no, because as long as Bird is part of the 25-man roster, the organization and a particular section of fans will continue to hold out hope that 2017 ALDS Greg Bird returns, therefore keeping a guy like Mike Ford from getting a real shot to prove himself in the Bronx.

Ford, 26, was signed as a free agent out of Princeton back in 2013. And although he was selected in the 2017 Rule 5 Draft by the Mariners, Ford failed to make the big league club out Spring Training and was returned to the Yanks in March of 2018.

Battling a hip injury for most of last season, Ford still managed to hit .251/.326/.423 with 16 homers and 53 RBIs in 108 games (102 of those in Triple-A) — touting a modest 73:39 K:BB ratio.

The reason why Ford deserves serious consideration this time around is that he’s off to a blazing start for the RailRiders. Slashing .471/.525/.1.029 with 10 runs scored, four doubles, four home runs and 14 RBIs through nine games (40 plate appearances), Ford is also hitting .500 versus lefties in 12 at-bats.

If the left-handed hitting Ford isn’t allowed to prove his worth now, at a time when the Yankees truly need reinforcements, when will he?

Having slimmed down during the offseason with the help of yoga, thereby making him more agile around first base (one error in 42 innings), Triple-A manager Jay Bell has nothing but high marks for Ford thus far, as told to DJ Eberle of Pinstriped Prospects.

"“One of the things that he’s doing is his barrel-to-ball contact has been exceptional, and part of it is, he’s not just trying to pull the ball. He’s hitting it all over the field,” RailRiders manager Jay Bell said. “With what he’s accomplished – or what he’s doing right now – he’s hitting the ball to left-center field gap, and whenever he’s getting a mistake breaking ball, he’s hammering it. There are times that he’s hunting the fastball in also and he’s putting the barrel to the ball on that one too.”"

Greg Bird still has minor league options remaining, so at the very least, the club should send him down to the minors to boost his confidence and perhaps regain some sort of trade value.