Mark Teixeira On WFAN: Yankees Have 'Potential To Do Great Things'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Mark Teixeira says he feels great and is working hard to repeat the kind of season he was having last year before he was bitten by the injury bug.
The Yankees' first baseman batted .255 with 31 homers in 2015, but suffered a season-ending injury in August when he fouled a ball off his leg, fracturing it.
"I put in a lot of work in the offseason last year, and it paid off," Teixeira told WFAN's Mike Francesa on Thursday. "The numbers were there, and we won a whole lot of games, and I was really happy with the way that I bounced back after the wrist surgery. ... Unfortunately, the bad is you get unlucky. That's life sometimes, and stuff happens, and you foul a ball off your leg and break it, and that's your season."
The three-time All-Star has also battled wrist and hamstring injuries in recent seasons. When asked whether the Yankees are doing anything to limit the soon-to-be-36-year-old's workload, Teixeira said no, adding that if it had not been for a "fluke injury" he would have likely played 150 games last season.
Teixeira also said he believes this year's Yankees have "the potential to do great things."
"I remember when I went down last year, we were in first place, and we were rolling, and everyone was talking about a World Series," he said. "And then we just kind of hit a wall, and that happens sometimes. Teams go into little slumps, and if you slump at the wrong time of the season, in the playoffs you're going to have a quick exit.
"I think we have an opportunity, just like we did last year, which is stay up close to first place all year, and we want to be peaking at the end of the season. We don't want to be running out of gas at the end of the season. And hopefully that's the case this season."
