The Yankees seem increasingly unlikely to receive a late-season (or postseason) contribution from outfielder Aaron Hicks. He’s slated to rest for several more weeks after a visit to the offices of Dr. Neal ElAttrache, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (Twitter links).
This is in some respects good news, it bears noting. Hicks had initially avoided the worst-case scenario of Tommy John surgery, but suffered a recent setback in his bid to return from elbow troubles. That option was — and still is — on the table, Sherman suggests. It would certainly be optimal to avoid that outcome, so it’s relatively promising that the medical experts feel it’s still a viable possibility to do so.
Trouble is, Hicks is now in a bit of an awkward situation regarding timing. Even if he’s declared ready to work back towards playing capacity in a few weeks’ time, that’d barely make him available for a possible postseason run. That could have real value to the team, but it’s also not hard to imagine a situation where he simply isn’t ready in time to be trusted with a postseason roster spot.
Even if a late-2019 return isn’t possible, Hicks could conceivably avoid a procedure if he shows sufficient healing progress. With a full offseason of rest, perhaps he’d be able to dodge it altogether. But if surgery does prove necessary, then any delay on the front end will result in an equivalent delay on the back side. With about six months to go until Spring Training, Hicks would likely be delayed in 2020 even if he had the surgery today. (Teammate Didi Gregorius took just under eight months to return from his recent TJ procedure.)
Fortunately, team and player seem to have the same general incentives here. Hicks is playing on an extension that runs for the next six seasons (with an option for one more), so the Yankees can take the long view. He’ll earn $10.5MM annually beginning next season and $9.5MM apiece in 2024 and 2025. With ample depth options, the club can weather an absence, though that would assuredly not be the first choice after the club’s near-miraculous high-wire act in 2019.
More immediately, the Yankees’ outfield depth is again in question. Hicks and Mike Tauchman can’t be counted on, even if there’s some small likelihood that one or the other could be available if needed in a deep playoff run. Giancarlo Stanton is still not quite back. Beyond mainstays Aaron Judge and Brett Gardner, the club is looking at a mix that includes Cameron Maybin, Clint Frazier, and utility pieces such as Thairo Estrada, Breyvic Valera, and Tyler Wade.
Shame. Like to see the best teams healthy for the finals and that in the AL is NY and Houston, sorry Twins, but beating up on the decrepit AL central teams al year.. Think NY and Houston are both better.
Tigers have taken 3 of 4 from those mighty yankees. Lol
Good thing the Tigers won’t be in the postseason
Seriously dude just being able to play the Yankees is like a World Series itself for most subpar teams including Detroit
Must be the same feeling your Yanks get playing the Astros
Yankees used to be a dynasty… they would get championship after championship… in a 50 year stretch they had almost half (20) of the championships. Nowadays, they celebrate just making the playoffs. Wildcard mostly.
Playing the Astros and Red Sox is like the Tiger’s World Series. Tigers have been beating the Yankees on a regular basis. Nothing new there. “06, ’11, ’12…
Nowadays there is a salary cap that has evened out spending. I guess that your time is limited Melch as you use a public computer at MacDonalds.
Candidly I don’t hope that you overcome your poverty to get one for yourself as you will be posting bogus stuff even more.
MacDonalds has public computers? Keep guessing fist69.
And Merch-your next door neighbor has taken your wife and shared her with everyone in the new neighborhood.
I was done with your mom any way. They can have her.
Maybin, Frazier, and the others? Yikes. That rubber band is stretched pretty thin. Frazier has a nice bat, but his outfield skills are scary. And that comes from a guy who has watched Castellanos and Christin Stewart “play” outfield!
Funny (sad) that Ellsbury doesn’t even make the list of the injured. They’ve been exceedingly fortunate so far that fill-ins have been able to step in. Maybe this is the real opportunity for Frazier.
mike156 I think it’s pretty obvious that both sides are happy to just ride out the rest of the contract at this point. Likely wouldn’t contribute much anyway, but don’t get the feeling they really want him back and he’s probably fine quietly collecting the rest of that money.
Not very convinced that he’s working hard to get back. Don’t get many updates on him and when we do, it’s nothing solid. Seems like a bunch of bs just stalling. I’d be shocked if he ever plays another game as a Yankee.
Yeah I get the sense Ellsbury and Cespedes are both taking the same approach to their contracts. Cespedes re-injured himself a while back shattering his ankle, but it was doing farm work on his ranch, so… I think he was mentally done playing once he got on the 60-Day IL/DL with the $110M guaranteed.
In Ellsbury’s case, I think he genuinely wanted to contribute, be relevant and earn his money but it just didn’t work out that way between diminishing physical abilities and I’m sure some real injuries, but by the time he was probably close to ready to come back, they had traded for Stanton, they had Judge, they had Gardner, they were still high(er) on Frazier, so there was no spot for Ellsbury and it seems like Ellsbury’s heart was never in that contract, not for one day. It was purely about the splashy signing for the Yankees and the money for Ellsbury.
Oh well. Every team has a few of these contracts and we can find a good many players that signed splashy expensive FA contracts and were irrelevant, if not basically out of the league well before the conclusion of the deals.
Sometimes. the playoffs create hero’s that nobody expected them to be and maybe the Yankees are in this position with someone emerging that wasn’t expected to for the outfield.
Good example is Pearce last year for the Red Sox who, while a nice fill in part time player, emerged as a force in the playoffs that was to be reckoned with and helped them win it all.
Only time will tell here.
Yawn
About the extent of what can be expected from you on a good day.
And you give yourself a thumbs up?…..WEAK
Trying to figure out why my post wasn’t posted…..
Don’t have to worry so much, Frazier and Maybin will be fine
Suspicious.
@whyhayzee
You’re suspicious…and redundant. You say the same thing on every Yankee post.
What are you babbling about?
Cashman will sign Isador Leftkovitch from the Atlantic City Trumpsters, and he’ll slash 400/500/900, and have a WRC+ of 150……..
Grandma used to say “if it’s gonna be, it’s just gonna be….”
I’m not too worried about a Judge, Gardner, Maybin and Frazier outfield. I realize Frazier’s been up and down this season both literally and figuratively and Maybin hasn’t played very much, but both are okay baseball players at worst and have been great at their best. Maybin has looked fantastic a few times this year. Frazier could get hot. Great outfielder defenders botch crucial plays. Bad outfield defenders make impossible catches on occasion. Point is, we have good outfielders. Not the best. But it’s not often that the best team and players on paper win the World Series. Great teams have losing streaks. Okay teams have winning streaks.
I realize what I’m saying is a bit too even handed, (Bad things happen to good people, bad people have good things happen to them, what goes up must come down, etc.) but my point is that Maybin and Frazier are already Yankees who have already played for us a ton this year and Frazier is young, he’s in development and supposedly his defense has improved.
Maybin is a veteran who’s made about $30M over his career and was underpaid on occasion. He’s been great for the Yankees in a limited capacity this season. If it was mid-season and Frazier and Maybin were starting for us for 5 or 10 games, we wouldn’t think twice about it.
Fact is, as much as we love Tauchman, he was scuffling a bit at the plate. Frazier has too much talent and too much training to not wake up at the plate and explode. Maybin has been fairly consistent for us this season and should be a singles monster with a little pop here and there.
Also these guys are gonna kill their bodies to win the post season. They’re gonna give it their all. Even Frazier, with his concussion. If this is our outfield the rest of the year, barring more catastrophic injuries, I’m good with it.
I hope Hicks comes back next year and stays healthy…
There’ll be plenty of blame to go around if the Yankees don’t make it to the WS – but brass has laid their cards on the table and this is the team. Anything can happen comes in the playoffs. Deal.
It’s funny that as Grady’s season has now kicked into high gear, basher Geeson has disappeared into the background.
He spewed anger earlier in the year and throughout the season. With all of the injuries and amazing “next man up” stories that have been written, Gardy goes about his business and plays whenever given the nod.
This could be his best season of his career.