Each morning, after I wake up with my morning coffee, I open Twitter and lurk at sports news, world news and what have you. One of the first things I saw this morning was a tweet by MLB Network’s Jon Morosi that stated the New York Yankees are interested in acquiring Kansas City Royals 3rd baseman Mike Moustakas to — get this– play 1st base.
I would presume manager Aaron Boone and GM Brian Cashman would want Moustakas, a career 3rd baseman, to play first base full-time, replacing Greg Bird, who has been struggling. Bird has been laboring at the plate since being activated from the disabled list at the end of May, his slash-line being .200/.306/.419.
Even though Bird is struggling, I think bringing Moustakas in to play 1st base is foolish. First of all, Moose has played exactly TWO GAMES at the position in his major league career, 17 innings worth. Bird plays very good defense, and replacing him with a guy who’s essentially never played the position could cost as many runs as he drives in.
Second of all, Moustakas’ numbers at the plate aren’t significantly better than Bird’s (.258/.312/.472). His average and slugging percentage is a bit higher, but the on base percentage is almost identical. I can’t see this being a big upgrade, given the numbers.
Lastly, if you bring in Moose to replace Bird, it says Cashman and the Yankees are giving up on him. Moustakas’ contract expires at season’s end, so it shouldn’t cost the Yankees a high level prospect in trade, but still it would cost younger future talent. I also would imagine Bird would feel alienated, possibly to the point of irreconcilable differences.
I question whether these rumors are simply a smoke-screen by the Yankees front-office to jump start Bird a little bit, perhaps a motivational ploy?
While it’s true Bird needs to get things going, I think it would be a bad idea bringing in Moustakas to play a position he has no experience in.
The Titanium Spine 