When Greg Bird was summoned from the minor leagues by the New York Yankees the goal wasn’t for him to replace Mark Teixeira. That would have been foolish. When Bird made his MLB debut on August 13th, Teixeira was performing like a fringe MVP candidate in the midst of his best season with the bat since 2008.
Instead, Bird’s directive when he arrived was simply to give the team a boost offensively and fill in for the Yankees’ aging sluggers from time to time. He arrived with a great deal of fanfare given his success in the upper minors, but he was not meant to play a glamorous role.