At The Moment Aaron Hicks Appears To Be The Left Fielder For The New York Yankees

Despite an offseason highlighted by the re-signing of Aaron Judge to the largest contract in team history and the addition of Carlos Rodon to further enhance a productive rotation, there are some weak spots for the Yankees.

One is left field, a position that was the model of stability with Hideki Matsui and Brett Gardner combining for 13 opening day starts between 2003 and 2020.

And as of now, it seems the Yankees are going to give Aaron Hicks a shot to be the every day left fielder, though the key phrase is “as of now”.

This is based on comments by Brian Cashman to anyone who may have been listening to Sirius Radio on Sunday morning.

Those comments seemingly went somewhat under the radar since they occurred less than 24 hours after the Giants ended their surprising season with a 38-7 loss in the divisional round to the dominant Philadelphia Eagles but many people who follow the Giants root for the Yankees are hardly enamored with the idea of Hicks remaining on the team let alone starting in left field.

“I suspect he will be the guy that emerges [in left field] because he is still really talented and everything is there,” Cashman said in his radio appearance. “Hopefully we can get the Aaron Hicks we know is in there back as a consistent player for us.”

The player Cashman is hoping for is the outfielder, who is seven years into his time with the Yankees and entering the fifth season of a seven-year, $70 million extension signed in spring training 2019. The extension came after Hicks batted .248 with 27 homers and 79 RBIs in 137 games while also posting an OPS of .833.

Hicks highlighted 2018 with three homers against the Boston Red Sox on July 1 while playing 131 of his 137 games as a center fielder.

Since his career year, Hicks’ numbers are a .220 average (194-for-882) with 30 homers and 111 RBIs in a span of 275 games sandwiched around numerous injuries.

He played 130 of those games last season, including Sept. 9 when he dropped a pair of fly balls against Tampa Bay in the same inning and those misplays were part of a season where started off hitting .306, then hit .127 before hitting .257 in June and July. After batting .137 in August, Hicks batted .209 over the final 24 games and then sustained a scary knee injury in the postseason after losing his center field job to postseason star Harrison Bader

It’s hard to know if Hicks can ever put it together consistently. There were glimpses in 2018 but that may have been the peak.

Either way, the Yankees seem intent on at least starting him in left field where he has played 112 games spanning about 785 innings.

Or perhaps the confidence in a nationally heard radio show is a method of the Yankees talking up Hicks in a possible trade. Though if a trade actually occurred the Yankees would likely be asked to pay for a portion of the remaining $30.5 million.

The Yankees at the moment are right at the luxury tax number of $293 million, marking the highest part of the competitive balance tax. They were hoping to retain Andrew Benintendi, who was there for a month last season before getting hurt but the Yankees seemed uninterested in his price of five years for $75 million that the White Sox signed him for the next five years.

The true impact left fielder is Bryan Reynolds, who asked the Pirates to trade him and is slated to make about $6.8 million next season before reaching his penultimate year of arbitration.

Other possibilities include Max Kepler to add a lefty bat or Jurickson Profar via free agency but given how close the Yankees are to the tax line, it seems like Hicks is the left fielder at the moment, though when spring training opened in March after the owners locked out the players for over three months, Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela went from being Yankee regulars to members of the Minnesota Twins.

“We have lines out on certain opportunities,” Cashman said. “If it happens in February or March, so be it or we go with what we have.”

If Hicks is the opening day left fielder, it will be his second opening day there as he also was there for the 2016 season opener after being acquired from Minnesota in Nov. 2015. Back then Hicks was somewhat of an unproven commodity as a top prospect for the Twins and two years later, he became the player deemed worthy of a long-term extension only to struggle badly at the plate and with avoiding the injured list.