This time, Mike Ford enters camp with shot to win Yankees' first-base job

TAMPA, Fla. — Twelve months ago, Mike Ford acknowledged he “didn’t really see” things playing out this way.

Ford, who signed with the Yankees as an undrafted free agent out of Princeton in 2013, was preparing to enter his second big-league camp. And he was doing so completely under the radar.

There was a battle for the starting job at first last spring, but that was a competition between Luke Voit and Greg Bird. Ford was an afterthought.

It is much different this spring.

While Voit goes into camp fairly entrenched as the first baseman, the lefty-hitting Ford, who surprised with his bat after making his big-league debut early last season, could push Voit with an otherworldly spring. And at worst, the 27-year-old Ford is among the favorites to capture a spot as a reserve on the 26-man roster.

“It’s a great feeling,” Ford said of coming into the spring discussed prominently as a roster option. “It will be my third big-league camp, so I’ll be a little bit more relaxed and just try to play my game.”

The part of Ford’s game impressing most last year was his work at the plate. In three stints with the club, Ford hit .259 with a .909 OPS with 12 homers and 25 RBIs in 50 games. Ford, 5-for-11 as a pinch hitter, was particularly good down the stretch, batting .353 with a 1.142 OPS, three homers and 10 RBIs the last 15 games.

“Just that I could play there [the majors],” Ford said of what he proved to himself in his third stint with the club, from Aug. 3-Sept. 29, in which he hit .274 with a .953 OPS, including 11 of his 12 homers. “Obviously, it’s a [small] sample size. I’m going to have to keep working on things. People are going to make adjustments. Anyone can be good for 160 at-bats (Ford had 163 big-league plate appearances). So if I keep working on my craft and making adjustments, I think that I can prove to myself that I can play there for a little bit longer.”

Ford took that motivation into his offseason, one that resulted in his listed 6-foot, 225-pound body appearing slimmer and more muscular.

“That was the focus of the offseason, just to get my body right,” Ford said. “I’m at where I want to be. A lot of yoga, a little less lifting, a lot of cardio. I’m right where I want to be.”

Notes & quotes:  Masahiro Tanaka, who had a cleanup procedure early in the offseason to remove a bone spur in his right elbow, threw a 30-pitch bullpen sessionTuesday morning at the minor league complex.  “No restrictions at all because I did the surgery right after the season was over, then we had a whole month of rehab,” Tanaka said through his interpreter of any limitations he might have this spring. “No restrictions at all.”… Among the other position players working out at the complex were Aaron Judge, Tyler Wade, Clint Frazier, Miguel Andujar, Gary Sanchez and Voit.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.