Greg Bird (baseball)

Gregory Paul Bird (born November 9, 1992) is an American professional baseball first baseman who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees.

Since Bird’s 2015 debut season, his career has been plagued by a variety of injuries. Bird missed the entire 2016 campaign and played a mere 173 games with the Yankees and their respective minor league affiliates, between 2017 and 2019.

Bird attended Grandview High School in Aurora, Colorado, where he played for the baseball team as a catcher and formed a battery with pitcher Kevin Gausman. Bird was named the Colorado Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year as a senior. He committed to attend the University of Arkansas to play college baseball for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Bird was drafted by the New York Yankees in the fifth round of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft. Bird signed with the Yankees, receiving a $1.1 million signing bonus and bypassing his commitment to Arkansas. He was drafted as a catcher but was moved to first base.

Bird made his professional debut for the Gulf Coast Yankees in 2011. He finished the season playing in four games, going 1 for 12. In 2012, he played in only 28 games due to injuries. He finished the season hitting .337/.450/.494 with two home runs. Bird started the 2013 season with the Charleston RiverDogs of the Single–A South Atlantic League. He finished the season, hitting .288/.428/.511 with 20 home runs and a minor league leading 107 walks. He won the Kevin Lawn Award as the Yankees Minor League Player of the Year.

In 2014, Bird began the season with the Tampa Yankees of the High–A Florida State League, where he batted .277 with seven home runs and 32 runs batted in before he was promoted tor the Trenton Thunder of the Double–A Eastern League, where he batted for a .253/.379/.558 triple slash to go along with seven homers and 11 RBI to create a full season equaling .271/.376/.472 slash line, 14 homers, and 43 RBI in 102 games. After the season, the Yankees assigned Bird to the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League (AFL). He hit a 450-foot (140 m) home run during the AFL Fall Stars Game. Bird led the AFL with six home runs was named the AFL Most Valuable Player.

Bird started the 2015 season with Double-A Trenton and was promoted to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders of the Triple–A International League during the season. In May, he experienced a shoulder injury.

On August 13, 2015, the Yankees announced that they would promote Bird to the major leagues, serving as a backup to Mark Teixeira at first base and Alex Rodriguez at designated hitter. He made his major league debut that night, going 0-for-5. He collected his first hit on August 15, a single off of Toronto Blue Jays reliever LaTroy Hawkins. Teixeira injured his leg during a hit-by-pitch on August 17, which was later diagnosed as a season-ending shin fracture. As a result, Bird became the Yankees' starting first baseman for the rest of 2015.