Austin calls dad's tweets about Yankees' Bird 'embarrassing'

Minnesota Twins first baseman Tyler Austin isn't a fan of his father's social media presence.

Earlier this month, Chris Austin authored several since-deleted tweets that criticized New York Yankees slugger Greg Bird's performance at the plate in comparison to his son. Bird became the Yankees' regular first baseman after they traded Tyler to Minnesota for right-hander Lance Lynn ahead of the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline.

"It's embarrassing, to be honest," Tyler told the Star Tribune's Phil Miller about his dad's tweets on Tuesday. "I called and told him to take it down right away. That's not acceptable."

He added that he plans to reach out to his former teammate Bird to personally apologize.

In eight games with Minnesota this month, Tyler is slashing .370/.400/.741 with three home runs. He's hit 11 homers in 42 big-league games this season with both the Yankees and Twins. The 26-year-old had hit 18 homers between the major and minor leagues at the time of his dad's Aug. 11 tweet.

Bird, now in his third major-league season, has only played in 70 games this year due to injuries. The 25-year-old owns a .211/.303/.414 slash line over that span, and like Tyler has hit 11 home runs in 2018.