Is it time to give up on Greg Bird?

Greg Bird may wind up being a cautionary tale of too much hype too soon.  He burst onto the scene at Yankee Stadium to the tune of 11 home runs and 31 RBIs in just 46 games.  While Mark Teixeira was hurt, Bird filled in flawlessly and gave a glimpse of what the future could hold at the first base position.

Three years later, it seems as though many people have already given up on Greg Bird.  There are a few valid reasons for that;  He’s more injury prone than Teixeira at a much younger age and has never strung together a consistent, healthy year.  He’s very streaky, going on tears for a few days then disappearing in the back of the Yankees’ lineup for weeks at a time.  Did I mention that his defense is overrated and he’s at best a slightly above average first baseman?

Put all those things together and throw in the pressure of playing for the Yankees, and you have yourself a hotly contested debate.  Should Greg Bird be given chance after chance to redeem himself after each setback or each strikeout?  Should he be given the benefit of the doubt for starting off slow each time he comes back from the DL?  Should he even be the Yankees’ first baseman next season?  Let’s explore this a bit further.

Greg Bird should be given one more shot

There is a small contingency of fans who believe that Greg Bird is one of the more talented players on the Yankees roster and just needs a bit of time to shape back into form.  They say he’s a formidable first baseman and with every home run they believe that his next hot streak is coming.

The problem isn’t that Greg Bird shouldn’t be given a shot to stay the Yankees’ first baseman.  The problem is that the expectations were so exceedingly high for Bird after his short stint in 2015 that anything less than that is automatic grounds for calling him a bust.  While he should definitely stay as the first baseman, expectations need to be tampered just a bit.

Greg Bird needs to hit the road

There is a much larger contingency of fans who due to recency bias want Greg Bird shot to the moon.  Their biggest gripe with him is that he doesn’t come up with clutch hits and that due to his streaky nature and injury history that he’ll never pan out to be anything.

While that may the case, what’s the alternative?  Are the Yankees going to go after Bryce Harper, pay him $400M and watch him hit 40 home runs and bat .230 again?  Isn’t there a chance that Bird isn’t as injury prone as we thought and is more a product of bad luck than brittle bones?  He’s only batting .206 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs but he has a chance to build on that this season.

The answer isn’t really clear, but what is clear is that even if Greg Bird is not the answer long term he is still the best option right now.  He still plays a good first base, he still has a lot of pop in his bat, and when hot he can carry an offense.  We may never know what the potential of Greg Bird is, but it’d be safe to hold on for as long as possible before they need to let him go.