Former Yank Austin ‘embarrassed’ by dad’s tweets

Tyler Austin is having his greatest major league success since being traded to the Twins, but the former Yankees first baseman’s father is making him feel like countless Little Leaguers.

Though Austin is receiving regular playing time and batting .370 with three homers in nine games with Minnesota, Austin’s father, Chris, is still upset the Yankees traded his son in a package for Lance Lynn on July 30.

In a pair of recent tweets, Chris mocked Yankees first baseman Greg Bird — “Tyler has more hits with the twins in a week than bird has in a month with the Yankees” — and when Tyler found out about his father’s posts, he angrily told him to take them down.

“Pretty embarrassed about what my dad put on there,” Austin, whose father deleted both tweets, told The Star Tribune. “I didn’t know about it until somebody sent me a picture of it. I told him imme- diately to take it down. It’s embarrassing and should never happen.”

Despite flashes of potential and a swing seemingly constructed for Yankee Stadium, Bird had hit .218 over parts of three seasons with the Yankees (547 at-bats) and was batting .206 with 11 homers this season entering Wednesday. Though Austin hit just .230 in parts of three seasons with the Yankees, he received just 244 at-bats and never was given a similar opportunity to work through his struggles in The Bronx.

Austin said he planned on contacting Bird to apologize.

“I will be reaching out to him, because something like that should never happen,” Austin said.

Even if the trade came as a surprise, Austin is happy with the end result.

“I’m excited to be here. We’ve got a great group of guys that I’m happy to share a locker room with,” Austin said. “This team is filled with talent, from top to bottom.”