NEW YORK -- Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira already is feeling like he's on his way to making good on his vow to finish 2016 as a productive middle-of-the-lineup guy.

Fat chance, you say?

He knows his odds probably are stacked against him. After all, he's a 36-year-old opting to rehab his way back from torn cartilage in his right knee when surgery is the only way to fix the issue.

No matter, Teixeira's decision was to calm his knee down enough so that he can make the final months of his eight-year, $180-million contract something special, and so far, so good.

Sitting at his locker before the Yankees-Detroit Tigers game on Saturday night, Teixeira looked upbeat when approached by NJ Advance Media.

How's he doing?

"Good, I'm making progress," Teixeira said.

Already?

Just eight days earlier Teixeira was forced out of a game in Baltimore due to right knee discomfort and it was only last Monday when manager Joe Girardi predicted it would be at least a month before he even had a shot of getting his first baseman back.

"I'm not running or anything yet, but I'm strengthening," Teixeira said.

And here's the good news ...

"I think it's calmed down. Now I need to build up strength ... build up to running. That'll be in a few days."

Run in a few days?

"Yeah, I think next week I'm gonna start running," he said. "So we'll see where that takes us."

A healthy Teixeira could be a huge boost for the Yankees' hopes of playing their way into postseason baseball again.

Teixeira has been bothered off and on this season by neck and knee issues, and the result was the hurt start to a very good career .... a .180 average, three homers and 12 RBIs in 48 games.

Teixeira, whose been stuck on 397 career homers since April 13, is as sick about his numbers as Yankees fans, but the veteran switch-hitter is confident that he can be what he was if he can get his knee problem under control. After all, he's always been at his best in second halves and just last season he represented the Yankees at the All-Star Game.

Meantime, the Yankees will try to get by at first base with rookie Rob Refsnyder, a second baseman/outfielder who converted there last weekend due to season-ending injuries to the organization's two best backup plans for first, Greg Byrd before spring training (right labrum surgery) and Dustin Ackley in late May (dislocated shoulder).

The Yanks lost another first baseman this past Thursday when Chris Parmelee came up from Triple-A and hit two homers in his first start, then strained his hamstring in his second, which has him on the DL.

"That's sports, man," Teixeira said. "People get hurt. That's the unfortunate part."

Teixeira is an optimist though. He's believing he'll be back with the Yankees sometime soon.

How soon?

"I don't even want to predict," he said.

Teixeira doesn't want to predict because he's a little superstitious and doesn't want to jinx himself

"Exactly," he said with a smile. "So we'll take it one day at a time."

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com Philadelphia Sports on Facebook.