May 13: The Yankees announced that Hicks has been reinstated from the injured list. To clear a spot on the roster, fellow outfielder Mike Tauchman has been optioned to Triple-A.
The Yankees’ total count of players on the injured list won’t decrease, however, as the team announced that scheduled starter Jonathan Loaisiga has been scratched and placed on the 10-day IL due to a strained right shoulder. In his place, righty Chance Adams has been called up from Triple-a.
May 12: The Yankees will activate center fielder Aaron Hicks from the injured list Monday, manager Aaron Boone announced (via James Wagner of the New York Times). It’ll be a long-awaited return for Hicks, who has been on the shelf since early March with lower back issues.
Hicks’ injury was one of the earliest hits the Yankees took amid an absurd run of early season ailments. Since Hicks went down, the Yankees have dealt with key injuries to fellow foundational players in Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Luis Severino, Miguel Andujar and Dellin Betances, among others. Even though the Yankees have largely been without everyone from that group and haven’t been able to simultaneously deploy their top outfielders – Hicks, Judge and Stanton – the club has still stormed to a 23-16 record.
The Yankees were 90-plus-win title contenders in each of the previous two seasons, thanks in no small part to Hicks, who broke out in 2017. The former Twin, 29, combined for 8.2 fWAR over 942 plate appearances the past two years on the strength of a .255/.368/.470 line (127 wRC+), solid defense and quality baserunning. The switch-hitting Hicks’ 2017-18 output led to a seven-year, $70MM extension from the Yankees in late February, but he hasn’t taken a big league at-bat since reeling in that payday.
With Hicks set to man center upon his return, veteran Brett Gardner will return to the corner outfield. Gardner has struggled mightily over the past couple weeks, though, and could be in line for reduced playing time with in-season pickup Cameron Maybin playing well and fellow recent addition Mike Tauchman performing better than expected. Clint Frazier has been the most effective regular of the bunch this year, but like Gardner, he has been mired in a slump of late.
Let’s see if he stays healthy for the rest of the season.
You could say that about any player in baseball
Basing it off this players injury history. Not every player has the same penchant for injuries.
No surprise he signed that contract which many on here who love Hicks thought it was a bargain but honestly I didn’t think a long term Hicks signing was necessary with his long injury history
cash went 7 yrs for no reason, and now this guy has a shot back
And not every player has a back injury that kept him out for 2 months.
I never heard anyone say that about Trout or quite a few other players.. in fact, the only people I hear anyone say that about is players that miss substantial amount of playing time in multiple years. I guess technically, you COULD say it about any player in baseball… you could say it about any person… plant… or pet. Let’s see if Fluffy stays healthy for the rest of the season. So, you are correct.
So how is tauchmqn is better than Gardner? Gardner has speed and a better glove than him and both of their stats are similar. If anything send down tauchman
I don’t think Tauchman’s better than Gardner, but he has outproduced him recently. However, Tauchman will probably be demoted sooner than later because he has an option remaining.
Where does it say Tauchman is better than Gardner. How do you figure Gardner has anymore speed at his age, and how is his glove better?
Gardner has the 28th best sprint speed in the major leagues
So theres that
Also hes been a metricly speaking plus defender since 2010
Great. Another dumb stat. Sprint speed… stop it. Gardner is not a good ball player, doesn’t get hits so sprint speed is useless…. oh and he is a terrible base runner and can’t steal bases. Time to cut the dead weight.
First of all, sprint speed means nothing when you don’t use good routs. Second, I find it hard believe your sprint speed ranking. Lastly, Gardner hasn’t been a “plus defender” since early 2017. You can’t just use a 9 year average to show what he is today.
Two more fantasy league zeroes. You can get on Gardner for his bat, but to say he’s a bad baserunner and a poor defensive player is just plain ignorant. Go back to playing MLB The Show video games and leave the commenting to people that actually know the game.
It’s obvious you don’t watch baseball. Gardner is the epitome of a bad base runner. Yikes.
Lol preach! Gardner is still a fine LF but lost a step in center. Still a stolen base threat too. But his problem is bat speed and hitting period.
It’s obvious you don’t know baseball. Dating back to last year Gardner is 20/23 in stolen bases. Yikes.
Translation – things you dont understand and are not smart enough to grasp are stupid
Gktcha
Actually no hes not a bad runner . Last year he was the 2nd best base runner in the American league according to fangraphs
All these clueless brett Gardner defenders are hilarious. The dude is a total trash can and because they can’t find any positive to him actually playing baseball, they go and pull sprint speed out of the rear ends. Sad clueless fan.
Should have cut him years ago..
“sprint speed” isn’t a stat at all. It’s literally just a measure, taken by a radar gun, of how fast a player runs.
Only thing dumb here is the guy who refuses to understand modern baseball, and would rather pretend that batting average is the end all be all of baseball stats.
You have to wonder if getting these players back will mess with the run the Yankees are on. Yes, these players are bigger names, but the guys they have now are cohesive and streaking. On paper, putting in superior players makes you better, but in reality it can sometimes disrupt more than help.
lol, I’ll take an offense with those returning players vs what they have now any day. Keep on wondering though.
right? im sure tauchman is a nice guy but i’ll take hicks. its not like hicks (or any of the other injured yanks) is known to be clubhouse poison anyway
I actually love how this offense find ways to win without relying on the long ball. Contact in big spots and running the bases properly is huge.
I hate watching Stanton get up time and again in big spots and strike out. If they can figure out how to shorten their swings and make contact in big spots I could deal with 200 strikeouts in spots with no runners on and 2 outs swinging for fences.
I get what you’re saying (just look at Andujar right now) and would agree if everyone came back at the same time but with them coming back one at a time I think they’ll be fine.
Tauchman is terrible. He’s had a couple of big hits, but overall he’s been putrid at the plate. Happy to see Hicks back.
And how is the team doing?
what?
Luke Voit is hitting .230… can we get an update on how great the Yankee advanced cyber metric evaluators are? They did get Cameron Maybin and Urshela… no other team knew those guys would produce like this. Yankees are so much better at seeing into the future… it’s as if someone in the scouting department had a time travel machine and knew ahead of time how great these guys would be. MLBTR needs to explore.
You mean the Luke Voit that currently has a OPS+ of 120 to go with that .230 BA? Yes, he’s totally been exposed.
Yankee Love for a .230 1B/DH. LOL.
Adorable, you think batting average evaluated in a vacuum is a valuable metric.
Fantastic.
Also, what the puck is cyber metrics? Can we get an update on how you think that’s how sabermetrics is spelled?
This is a problem with the comment section, any idiot can do so.
I hope the corresponding move is to DFA Gardner
Yankees DFA Kate Smith.
How long until Hicks’ back gives out and he goes for season ending surgery? Tulo lasted five games; my over/under on Hicks is 8.
Are you getting the number 8 from hicks’ past, or tulo’s?
gardy and tauch are essentially the same player. They both are plus defensively, can run, and will hit no better than 215 with obp of .300. They occasionally hit a home run that wets the pants of some of the Yankee fans, but for the most part are 5th outfielders at this point.
The only difference is that Gardy is ridiculously overpaid for penny pinching cash
Either way when i see them at the plate i get annoyed. At best when stanton is healthy they are 9th inning defensive replacements…
RF Judge / Standon
CF Hicks
LF Stanton / Fraizer
DFA Gardner enough of the joke.
Agreed
baseball-reference.com/players/b/brantmi02.shtml
Yankees never tell you anything about when their injured are gonna be back.
Hurt his back be back in a week it’s almost June.
Anytime a Yankee goes down just prepare yourself of at least two months.
While i agree Gardy is a shell of his former self, he will not be DFA’d. He’s a great veteran clubhouse leader. When all are healthy he will be on the bench. Tauchman will be sent down. And Woodlawn’s take on his base running is preposterous
This club house crap really needs to stop. If everyone was a great club house guy then teams would stink if we they keep keeping guys that are way past their prime just because.
This guys prime and also time has past and as for me it past several years .ago. I could care less what he does in the club house he’s a complete waste of a roster spot for me.
I’m gonna keep a guy on the roster that hits 100 just because he’s a great club house guy. That;’s where guys like Stanton and Judge come in.
It’s time or has been time to move on from this guy. Actually it’s been time for a while now.