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Originally Posted by KCRfan1
Interesting Matty, and thanks for the insight! With all due respect, Bird does have an injury history. Given the inside knowledge you have, most Yankee fans have to be stoked with Stanton. Is there a concern, with the salary taken on by Stanton, that other areas of team weakness will be patched rather than repaired?
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Bird certainly does have a history there, yet when one probes the latest injury and the medical facts of it, there is cause for great optimism.
Below is an interesting article that appeared on the subject many months ago, when he was first injured; it draws a worthwhile comparison to two other NYC sports stalwarts, namely Phil Simms and Patrick Ewing. It is also interesting to note that weeks were lost while the situation remained undiagnosed. Pasting the article, forgive the length:
"Simms and Ewing began their careers beset by injuries and were tagged as prone to being hurt. Bill Parcells actually benched Simms for Scott Brunner at one point. Ewing’s first Knicks coach, Hubie Brown, said his center needed to improve his “attendance.” Of course after injuries to knee, shoulder, thumb, etc., wrecked the first five years of his career, Simms’ sturdiness was part of the formula that helped the Giants be persistent contenders and win their first Super Bowl.Ewing missed 51 games during his first two seasons, mainly because of knee issues, then never played fewer than 78 until he was 35, becoming one of the 50 greatest players ever and helping the Knicks to serial contention.
In our current enlightened times we, well, are questioning Bird’s durability and even his desire to play. And it may be that Bird breaks easily and heals slowly and because of that — like Johnson — will never fully honor his talent. But in 2015, he was Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge before Sanchez and Judge broke out. He was arguably the best hitter in the Grapefruit League this year, and if you would have said on, say, March 24, the Yankees must trade Bird or Judge, based on Judge’s 2016 major league failures, it would have been him.
Bird hardly has played the last two seasons and perhaps that will be crippling. But he is seven months younger than the rookie Judge. Bird hit third on Opening Day, Judge eighth. The world changes quickly, but it shouldn’t be so quick as to give up on Bird or label him soft or a malingerer. Anyone who has been around Bird a lot reports he loves to play baseball, particularly hit. Why would he want to not be doing this?
“You aren’t going to let words or thoughts of others derail what you believe, and that is what I believe about Greg Bird,” Simms, a huge baseball fan, said by phone. “And, if it does, then you were not going to be what we thought you were going to be anyway.”
Bird had surgery this week to remove the os trigonum bone from his right ankle. The Yankees said they expect him to miss six weeks, but as I wrote Wednesday, Geovany Soto and Joey Gallo both had the same surgery and were playing within three weeks. General manager Brian Cashman said Bird’s bone removal, though, was larger than ordinary. But Cashman also has said he will not make any move between now and July 31 that blocks Bird long-term. Bird is just 24. When Simms was 24 he was a rookie about to endure a series of injuries. When Ewing was 24 he was amid an injury-riddled second season. Durability and greatness were still out there for Simms and Ewing. Bird is young enough and talented enough to receive patience about what is out there for him."
Of course, we saw Bird come back this season, and hit the decisive home run in a 0-0 ALDS elimination game.
Pivoting to your question about team weaknesses that need to be addressed, a big variable will be whether Ellsbury's contract can be offloaded. Even then, the farm system is deep enough to use some resources there toward a starter. To be honest I have not heard any whispers of specific next moves— though the team is not done. Third base is one key area and being under the threshold, they will be in a position to pursue a certain Mr. Machado, should they deem him the answer at the hot corner.
I am just grateful I was lucky enough, thanks to some friends, to grab a Stanton RC yesterday before the news broke
!