WATCH: Yankees’ Brian Cashman explains why Greg Bird could end up at Triple-A

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman explains why talented but underperforming first baseman Greg Bird could wind up at Triple-A in 2019 while speaking at the 2018 MLB GM Meetings in Carlsbad, Calif. on Tuesday, November 6, 2018 (11/6/18).

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CARLSBAD, Calif. — Watch Yankees general manager Brian Cashman explain why talented but underperforming first baseman Greg Bird could wind up at Triple-A during the 2018 MLB GM Meetings at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.

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Read his full quote below:

Q: Where does Bird fit in?

Cashman: Well, he’s on the roster, he has options. The ceiling is still the ceiling – probably him more than anybody will benefit from having a recovery side of the winter.

Q: When do you get to the point where wonder if he’s going to hit ceiling?

Cashman: Well, he’s had injuries, so obviously it’s prevented him from being the best he could possibly be, so we’re still willing to give it some opportunity. I know what the talent level is and that’s the one great thing about this game – you’ve seen countless examples of players over time that take time to figure it out, take time to work through injuries, sometimes their best is yet to come and sometimes their best never comes. So I still think in his case, the best is potentially yet to come. At least we’ll give it that opportunity because we have flexibility with him. Obviously we had a first baseman that we acquired late in the year that played really well for us. He’s currently manning that position. (Luke) Voit will have a chance to reclaim his spot, or reinforce that that’s his spot. And Bird will have a chance to try to take it from him. We’ll see. There’s flexibility because they both have options. (Voit penciled in) He finished batting in the middle of our lineup during the post-season so I don’t see why three weeks since that time would change our evaluation process. Somebody’s earned that right and somebody because of injuries has been derailed for a period of time. But I do think Birdie will benefit from the time off and will have a chance to resuscitate and prove himself. That’s the great thing about our game. If you’re having success, you have to come back and prove that you can maintain that success. If you have failure you have a chance to change the narrative by resuscitating. 

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