Why Yankees’ Mark Teixeira is undeterred by poor results in spring training
New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira (25) stretches before taking batting practice before a spring training baseball game against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, in Fort Myers, Fla. Credit: AP / Tony Gutierrez
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Mark Teixeira hasn’t had a great spring at the plate, but that’s not unusual for the 13-year veteran.
“Spring training for me has always been a struggle,” Teixeira said Saturday. “Being a switch hitter, being a power hitter, to get into the rhythm of the season always takes a while. And it’s always something different.”
This time around for Teixeira, who went 0-for-3 to drop his average to .111 on Saturday, it’s been what he called a “timing mechanism” in his lower half, which he observed on video Friday.
“My whole timing is kind of sinking back and getting onto my back leg, and I haven’t been doing that,” Teixeira said. “Because of that, I’m jumping at the ball a little bit and topping everything. I feel like I’m swinging at good pitches. I should be getting different results, but I’m hitting ground balls. But we have a week to fix that and I think I will.”
More important for Teixeira than results to this point, however, has been how his body feels.
That is far from insignificant for a player who will turn 36 on April 11 and has had difficulty, for a variety of reasons, staying on the field the last four seasons.
“I feel like I’m turning back the clock the way my body feels,” said Teixeira, who hit 31 homers and drove in 79 runs in 111 games in 2015 and had his season truncated by a fracture in his right leg caused by a foul ball Aug. 17. “I feel better now than I have in years.”
Bullpen coming into focus
Two young pitchers who entered camp with a chance to win bullpen spots, lefthander James Pazos and righthander Nick Rumbelow, were reassigned to minor-league camp Saturday.
“Sometimes it’s different coming to spring training when there’s a lot of jobs to earn and there’s an expectation,” Girardi said. “I think they’re better than what they pitched.”
It is safe to assume that lefthanders Andrew Miller and Chasen Shreve and righthander Dellin Betances will be in the bullpen. So will presumed swingman Bryan Mitchell, who again dazzled Saturday, and Ivan Nova, likely the odd man out in his battle with CC Sabathia for the job of fifth starter.
That leaves two spots, with righthanders Kirby Yates, Nick Goody, Johnny Barbato, Luis Cessa and Brandon Pinder among those fighting it out.
“We’re definitely closer,” Girardi said of making a decision. “But there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
No fooling
Girardi isn’t pretending that Carlos Beltran, who will turn 39 on April 24, is something he’s not defensively at this point.
“OK,” Girardi said when asked to describe Beltran in rightfield. “Carlos is not a centerfielder anymore. We know that. But he’ll hold his own.”
Step it up
Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said he wants Masahiro Tanaka, coming off consecutive poor starts, to ramp up the intensity of his pitches in his bullpen sessions before his next start.
“He did turn it up a little bit today and we think that’s important,” Girardi said. “We have to get him going and feeling good about himself.”
Welcome back
Jacoby Ellsbury, out with a sore right wrist after being hit by a pitch a week ago, went through a full round of batting practice Saturday and is slated to start Sunday’s home game against the Twins.
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.
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