Aaron Hicks gets start, but how often will that happen?
Yankees pinch-hitter Aaron Hicks returns to the dugout after he struck out looking during the ninth inning against the Giants in an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
If Aaron Hicks wants a role, he’s going to have to fight for it.
A day after Hicks told The Athletic that he was unsure of his role with the Yankees, the switch hitter made his first start of 2023 against the Phillies on Monday night, playing leftfield and batting seventh.
But though manager Aaron Boone said Hicks likely will get the call Tuesday as well, it looks as if playing time will continue to be at a premium for him.
He still has three years left on a seven-year contract that has paid few dividends for the Yankees thus far. Hicks, who hit .216 with eight homers in 130 games last year, was one of the few Yankees booed during baseline introductions on Opening Day. Before Monday, he had just one at-bat this year, a strikeout.
“We’re, in a way, fighting for playing time,” Boone said. “That’s how our roster is set up right now — there is that competition for at-bats. He’s going to play . . . [I’m going to] try to put him in positions where I think he can be most successful, but it’s also a product of our roster right now and flexibility, and the reality is there’s a competition right now for at-bats.
“I felt Aaron finished spring training in a good place, putting together good at-bats, and you continue to do things like that, you continue to get more and more opportunities.”
Oswaldo Cabrera, a natural infielder who essentially took the starting role from Hicks last year, started the first three games of the season in leftfield. On Sunday, Isiah Kiner-Falefa played in the outfield for the first time as a major-leaguer — further highlighting Hicks’ descent in the depth chart.
“I have no idea what my role is,” Hicks said that day, according to The Athletic. “It’s kind of uncertain . . . If you would have told me [in spring training] that I wouldn’t have started the first three games, I wouldn’t have believed you. But it is what it is. But there’s nothing I can do about it. Just sit around and wait for my opportunity and try my best.”
Boone said Hicks has expressed frustration at his uncertainty but added that it was simply the nature of the shifting landscape — exciting young talent in Cabrera and Anthony Volpe, who took Kiner-Falefa’s role at shortstop — and the eventual return of outfielder Harrison Bader, who’s progressing from an oblique injury.
“The role can evolve and change, and the biggest thing is that I want him to be ready for every opportunity and from my standpoint, trying to put him in positions where he can impact us and be the most successful,” Boone said. “I don’t want to also tell him, ‘You’re in the reserve role here’ because that’s not the reality. The reality is that our roster continues to evolve and change a little bit. We’ll eventually get Harrison back and we’ll lose a guy here and a role changes like that, so I try to communicate ahead of time as much as I can with what I’m thinking. The role right now is just be ready to go.”
That will be a challenge in itself. Hicks — who walked, grounded out and struck out in his first three at-bats Monday night — has been a starter since he broke into the big leagues in 2013 and has a career slash line of .203/.318/.405 off the bench. The career .231 hitter has consistently been beset by injury, and last year was the first time he played more than 60 games in a season since 2018. His hefty contract — there’s $30 million left on it — means he’s next to impossible to move unless the Yankees eat some significant cash.
There were good signs in spring training, however: Hicks slashed .293/.408/.390 in 41 at-bats, although he still was out-produced by Cabrera.
“I felt like he was doing some really good things on both sides of the ball,” Boone said. “The bottom line is, continue to play the way I know he’s capable of and you earn more and more opportunities, but there is a competition for those things right now.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
