Mark Teixeira will miss the first week of spring games

Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira is still recovering from the wrist surgery that he had in July, and it's going to cause him to miss the first week of spring training games. The Yankees' first exhibition game is on Tuesday against Florida State University, but Teixeira won't be able to play until March 3rd, at the earliest.

Teixeira has yet to take live batting practice this spring, but says that he is about ten days away from facing live pitchers.

When he does start playing in games, he'll being doing so with his wrists taped, something that he says he had never done before January.

“I am following doctors’ orders,’’ said Teixeira. “The tape feels good and I tape myself.’’

Kelly Johnson is going to be Teixeira's backup at first base according to Yankees manager Joe Girardi. Johnson is also expected to spend a lot of time at third base, so you can see that this isn't the ideal situation.

Russ Canzler is also in camp this spring as a non-roster invite, and we can assume that he'll play in some games at third base, filling in for Teixeira, and letting Johnson play third base. Corban Joseph is also in camp, and also has experience playing first base.

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Gavin Ewbank is the Lead Writer of Yanks Beat Blog, and you can follow him on Twitter @GavinEwbank.