Yankees’ Luke Voit-Greg Bird battle will go into the season

JUPITER, Fla. — No player needs spring training to be five weeks rather than six more than Greg Bird.

He just can’t seem to get out of Dodge — or the Grapefruit League — without incurring a late-March injury. Bird was hit on his right elbow Wednesday, joking afterward that somehow with him the ball always misses the protective pad.

No laughs Thursday when he reported he was still aching. Bird was removed from the lineup against the Cardinals. He returned to Tampa for X-rays and a CT scan. Aaron Boone said both came back negative. The Yankees manager thinks Bird could play as early as Saturday and that this does not imperil his making the Opening Day roster.

But betting on Bird’s health has been a bad play. As Brian Cashman noted, “In Bird’s case most of his service time has been on the disabled list.” The general manager was illustrating that neither Bird nor Luke Voit has a full season of major league success. Bird had the great finish to 2015, Voit the breakout late last season.

Both have impressed this spring training and the Yankees project high ceilings for both. Cashman, though, said, “I don’t think you can declare an absolute on both of them. We believe both of them are [above-average performers]. But that is what you play the games for. You have to stay healthy and continue to perform.”

Since Mark Teixeira’s plummeting final year in 2016, first base has been a black hole for the Yankees. From the beginning of 2016 through the July 31 trade deadline last year, the Yanks had a .713 OPS from their first baseman. Only the Angels (.709) have been worse.

Remember 2016 when Teixeira wobbled and the Yanks tried Dustin Ackley, Rob Refsnyder and even briefly Ike Davis? How about 2017 and Chris Carter, Chase Headley and Garrett Cooper? Tyler Austin and Neil Walker took the position of Gehrig and Mattingly for a whirl last season.

Throughout it all Bird failed to stay healthy or productive enough to make the job his. Voit was obtained from the Cardinals last July 29 in what seemed a minor depth move with Bird again hurt. Voit had two minor league stints before hitting two homers for the Yankees on Aug. 24. He had 14 from there until the end of the season, only NL MVP Christian Yelich (15) hit more.

That made Voit the man to beat for the job this spring. He has not been beaten. Voit has four homers and a 1.053 OPS. But Bird sure has pushed. He has three homers a 1.131 OPS, and 11 walks to 10 strikeouts, his .490 on-base percentage a reminder of the hitting eye that is among the strongest reasons the Yankees have stayed patient through his long injury absences.

“It is nice that both are having success and allowing us to dream,” Cashman said. “It is a position that has underperformed for us the past few years because we placed bets on guys since Tex retired that have not worked out, because of injuries mainly. When the dust settles, I feel going in with these two guys and the ceilings that we have a chance to be something special. I think that position has a chance to be taken care of, get out of the way and by doing so we won’t have to worry about first. It has been a problem the last few years. Voit came in last year and solved the problem significantly. Hopefully that is who he is and Bird is who we think he is and when the dust settles, boom.”

And the battle for the position will stretch into the season. With Aaron Hicks to begin on the injured list and not eligible to return before the seventh game, Brett Gardner will mainly play center, Giancarlo Stanton left and Bird and Voit will share first base and DH.

Bird’s lefty bat early should be valuable with the switch-hitting Hicks and lefty-swinging Didi Gregorius both out, leaving Gardner as the lone lefty-hitting regular.

But he will have to be more than promise. Bird must remain healthy, must carry over to the season his penchant for good spring stats.

Cashman said he still envisions Bird as having a “high on-base percentage with 25-plus homers.” If that player shows up in April and Voit carries over late 2018 to early 2019 the Yanks will have tabled a tough choice, but ultimately will have to make it. Because Cashman said at full strength the plan is still to carry one first baseman.

“I don’t know that anyone has won it or lost [the first-base job],” Boone said. “Both guys are good players in my mind. At a certain point we may be up against making a very difficult decision and that is part of sports. When you have a lot of good players like we do you have to make difficult, hard decisions, that is part of it.”

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