The Twins traded Lance Lynn to the Yankees for power hitting prospect Tyler Austin just before the July 31 MLB trade deadline, and just over three weeks later Austin has smacked a trio of homers and issued one apology.
Wait, what?
“Pretty embarrassed about what my dad put on there,” Austin said Wednesday, referring to his father’s Twitter account. “Didn’t know about it until somebody sent me a picture of it, and told him immediately to take it down. It’s embarrassing and it should never have happened.”
Austin’s father, Chris Austin, tweeted his disgust with the Yankees remaining loyal to first baseman Greg Bird while trading his son, also a first baseman, to the Twins. The tweets have been deleted, but not before savvy Twitter users took screen shots of them.
man tyler austin’s dad is salty af pic.twitter.com/ECrxrB6QIc
— samantha 🍓🎰 (@newportliving) August 20, 2018
“18 homerun for Tyler on the year but bird is the word,” Chris Austin wrote Aug. 11, the same day Tyler smacked a two-run homer in his debut with the Twins. The 18 home runs are the total Tyler had between games in the majors and Triple-A this season.
In another tweet, Chris wrote: “Tyler has more hits with the twins in a week than bird has in a month with the Yankees,”
Rude? Yes.
True? Yes.
Austin has hit .370 (10 hits in 27 at-bats) with three homers with the Twins while Bird is hitting .134 with just nine hits in 67 at-bats in August.
Bird didn’t seem to care when informed about the the situation.
“Parents … people get emotional about things and they say stuff,” said Bird, via NJ.com. “Those things happen, but it doesn’t change my opinion of Tyler. I’ve seen a lot of what he’s been through and he’s seen a lot of what I’ve been through, so I’m excited to see him in Minnesota when we go there next month.”
This isn’t the first time Chris has made his thoughts public. In 2016, while Austin was on a hot streak in the minors, Chris tweeted some stats, essentially calling on the Yankees to promote his son.
tyler austin 18 games 6 homeruns 20 rbis come on yankees.
— Chris Austin (@austindad21) June 25, 2016
