Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Greg Bird's New Outlook, High School Reunion, and Case to Crack the Blue Jays
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Kevin Gausman had the best seat in the house for the Greg Bird show.
The Blue Jays starting pitcher hit second for Colorado’s Grandview High School back in 2009 and was often standing on first for Bird’s many homers. Then a catcher, Bird was the best high school hitter Gausman ever saw, smashing 39 homers and 111 RBI across three years and 56 games.
The teammates are the only two players drafted from the Aurora, Co. school of 3,000 students, and were easily the best players on their high school squad. In Gausman’s senior season—Bird’s junior year—they had eyes on a title, but a week before the season, Bird got hurt.
"That probably would've been our year," Gausman said. "We could've done something special."
But that’s been the story of Bird’s baseball life. Setting high expectations with his on-field production only to be set back by injury. A fifth-round pick in 2011, injuries pushed Bird from behind the plate less than a season into his minor-league career. After an .871 OPS in his 2015 rookie year with the Yankees, shoulder surgery, a foot injury, bone spurs, and a plantar fascia tear cut the next four campaigns short.
But now, reunited with his high school teammate in Toronto with a new perspective, Bird’s not looking to play to any expectations. He’s just looking to make the team.
“I gotta prove that I can play baseball again at a high level,” Bird told Inside The Blue Jays.
After a half-decade in the trainer’s room, Bird broke 110 games in a season for just the second time in his career in 2021. In 461 plate appearances for the Colorado Rockies Triple A affiliate, the 29-year-old hit .267 with a .894 OPS and 27 homers. Despite the strong showing in the minors, Bird remained stuck in Albuquerque behind a mashing C.J. Cron, but there's no salt. The lefty needed to be in one spot, he said, playing a full season rather than bouncing between teams and on and off the injured list.
“Mentally, physically, everything. I needed to just go out and play again,” Bird said. “I hadn't done that in a while."
Bird’s issues have been primarily health, but with the constant rehab and recovery comes isolation and “mental shit.” As a young professional player, hitting 11 homers in his first 46 games, he thought he’d made it. Now, seven years later, he’s fighting for a career.
Since Bird’s high school days, he’s changed his batting stance, standing a little lower and wider in the box, but the biggest difference Gausman sees in his reunited teammate is a tweaked perspective. Going out for dinner early in Toronto's camp, Gausman could feel Bird’s excitement for spring, no bitterness from a once-top prospect with a closing window. He’s still the laid-back, Tennessee-born fishermen Gausman grew up throwing to. Playing baseball still brings Bird happiness, and so does winning.
The first basemen was part of two 100-win Yankees teams, four postseason squads, and has 57 career playoff plate appearances. In free agency this winter, Bird admits he didn’t have many choices, but he latched onto Toronto’s playoff potential and quickly signed after the team showed interest in a minor-league deal.
"If you're gonna put in the work and go after the big leagues,” Bird said. “You want to be on a good team."
Bird knows the Jays have an MVP-caliber first basemen, and he knows why he’s here. He’s fighting for a bench and designed hitter spot as a rare lefty bat in Toronto’s spring camp, even after the addition of Raimel Tapia. Asking manager Charlie Montoyo to play him as much as possible, Bird has hit .364 with a .533 on-base percentage playing in five of Toronto's six spring games, so far.
The bat still slaps, but that's never been the question. If Bird can prove the re-found health is real, there’s a spot for the lefty on Toronto’s Opening Day roster. With that would come a chance for Gausman and Bird to deliver the special run they missed out on in 2009.
