‘Birdie’ starts over again with Isotopes
Colorado native has dealt with several injuries that derailed role on Yankees
Once considered the first baseman of the future of the N.Y. Yankees, Greg Bird knows all about what it takes to rise through the minor league ranks.
Now, the Colorado native who signed in February with the home-state Rockies, uses the almost unimaginable run of injuries that derailed his journey toward pinstripes stardom to help him keep perspective as he embarks on his second chance with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes.
“We’re human, so it’s hard sometimes to, I guess, deal with what you can’t control,” said Bird, who was 0-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored for the Isotopes on Tuesday in a 6-4 loss to the Sugar Land Skeeters to end a six-game home stand.
“… The amount that I’ve learned through them all has been more beneficial for me and put me in a better spot in my life than I think I would have been in if they didn’t happen.”
At 28-years-old, Bird is hardly at an age where time is running out, but his body has more years on it than most.
Drafted in the fifth round of the 2011 MLB Draft out of Grandview High School in Aurora, Colo., he made his Yankees debut Aug. 13, 2015. And then it started. He missed the entire 2016 season with a torn labrum.
He missed 114 games in 2017 after surgery on his right foot.
He missed 80 games in 2018 with a bone spur in his right ankle.
In 2019, it was just 10 games before a torn plantar fascia brought things to an end with the Yankees.
“It’s like the sort of like, fool me once, okay,” Bird said. “Fool me twice, okay. Fool me a third time, okay. Fool me a fourth time — it was the fact that it happened over and over and over again.”
For Isotopes manager Warren Schaeffer, Bird’s presence on the team is as much about the powerful bat he brings the plate as the culture he helps establish with the rest of the team.
“I feel like Birdie is invaluable to