Last season Aaron Hicks said he wanted to go 30-30. It was lofty goals for a player who never accomplished either mark but would have been a clear sign that his career was on an upward trajectory.
After all, the Yankees awarded Hicks with a seven-year $70M contract in 2019 after hitting career-highs in homers (27) RBI (79) and hits (119). Then the bottom fell out and injuries mounted, which led to Hicks hitting a total of 30 homers over the next four seasons and totally falling out of favor with the fans.
Brian Cashman Says Hicks Is Leading Candidate For Left Field
As we approach Spring Training exactly a year later, Hicks’ goals are much lower, and his job security has changed significantly. Word on the MLB streets is that the New York Yankees would prefer to trade Hicks and acquire another outfielder, ending the 10-year veteran’s roller coaster tenure in pinstripes.
However, the market for a corner outfielder is shrinking and Yankees GM Brian Cashman said during a Sunday interview on SiriusXM MLB Network Radio, that he’s still got faith in the multi-tooled Hicks and insists that he’s the frontrunner for the starting left field job.
“I suspect he will be the guy that emerges because he is still really talented and everything is there,” said Cashman, adding that Hicks is fully recovered from a knee injury suffered in the postseason. “Hopefully, we can get the Aaron Hicks we know is in there back as a consistent player for us.”
Willie Calhoun Could Challenge For Yankees LF Job
If Hicks doesn’t get the nod, Boone could choose potential over experience and give the untested Oswaldo Cabrera or Estevan Florial a shot.
Boone reportedly also mentioned minor league signing MLBbro Willie Calhoun in a recent interview with the YES Network’s Jack Curry. Calhoun has tons of potential and showed flashes, but never really got it going in Texas once he was beaned in the head.
But overall, the Yankees skipper said he feels like the 33-year-old Hicks “has a chance to really bounce back” from a 2022 campaign in which he slashed .216/.330/.313 with eight home runs and 40 RBI, lost his center field job to Harrison Bader, and told the New York Post he would be open to a trade if it resulted in more playing time.
Things really went south following an above-average 30 game stretch early in the season. Hicks floundered while Yankees fans were enamored with the record setting exploits of Aaron Judge.
Can Hicks Revive Yankees Soul Patrol (All-Black Outfield)?
If Hicks is going to re-establish himself as the third leg of a potential Yankees Soul Patrol (along with MLBbros Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton) then he’s going to have to be available for more than 130 games, something he’s only done twice since 2013 and just once in the last four seasons.
With $30.5M still owed to him over the next three seasons, is going to get every opportunity to prove that he’s significantly better than he’s been able to show the past few seasons.
True baseball rears its head in October. If you can’t master the fundamentals of the game, you will get exposed. The pomp and circumstance of home run highlights and one-dimensional displays that overshadow baseball’s multi-faceted culture gives way to the intricate beauty of the sport and the wait…wait..bang that morphs into the pulse of the game as it takes playoff form and reverts back to its authentic self.
Guys who hit 62 homers during a regular season that allows them to feast on subpar pitching and tanking teams, can easily go 1-for-16 as AL MVP favorite Aaron Judge did during Houston’s four-game sweep of the Yankees in the American League Championship Series. He accepted the blame for “not stepping up when the team needed it.”
But one would be silly to assume that he could have carried the Yankees to victory over such a well-balanced and managed team by himself. His fellow MLBbro slugger Giancarlo Stanton was also non-existent.
While on a fast track to 500 career homers, Stanton only managed to muster 6 hits in 32 at bats during these playoffs, including a couple of early Bro bombs. He also failed to impose the kind of wood-waking that could compensate for Judge being in a mini-slump. With no other true threat to at least shake the opposition, the pressure on Judge to produce each and every at-bat has become a recipe for postseason disaster that he experienced for the sixth consecutive season.
This time, the unfortunate culmination to an historic season was another loss to Dusty Baker’s Houston Astros in the American League Championship series. It was a clean 4-0 sweep. The brooms were boomin’ in the Bronx. Another rain delay couldn’t even save the Yankees from Dusty’s destiny.
Judge’s decision to reject the Yankees’ $213.5 million extension through 2029 worked out brilliantly for him. Accepting such a deal would also have tainted the market, which is never good for player contracts. Prior to this season’s outburst, Judge was already a $300M player.
So shafting the initial offer and proving he is probably worth double that price for the right team was genius on his part. It’s showed guts and he will reap the glory.
What Happened ? Who Knows, But Don’t Blame The Bros
You can say the Yankees underachieved. You can blame the front office for not assembling a team that can generate runs without hitting homers. You can blame the superstars for not showing up. You can blame the superior pitching of the Astros bullpen and the hooded baseball savant sitting in the dugout with his black gloves looking like a 73-year-old Kanye West.
Either way, it’s a lesson in the art of baseball. Championships usually come down to how well you execute pitching and defense. On the offensive side, it’s about a team’s ability to play small ball when the big licks just ain’t there.
MLB can never be compartmentalized into a video game, homer derby where the other aspects of the game that makes the sport watchable and exciting is put on the back burner and buried by metrics and numbers that don’t play true when the chips are on the line. You can’t measure the heart of a player. You can’t measure momentum and you definitely can’t compute destiny. Right now, as currently constructed, the Yankees aren’t built to win a World Series.
The Phillies and Astros, however, seem like teams of destiny. Real teams, doing real things who know where they are going. The Yankees seem lost in the woods. But don’t blame the Bros.
As the OG of MLB managers and an ambassador to the game of baseball, Astros Dusty Baker took time to meet up with Yankees manager Aaron Boone after clinching his third trip to the World Series. (Photo: @chelsea_james)
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