Aaron Hicks Should Be Benched For More Than Just Tonight
Photo Via: Charles Wenzelberg — NY PostLet me start by making this clear — the Yankees’ problems go beyond Aaron Hicks. Starting pitching aside from Gerrit Cole is troublesome. The defense as a team is unbearable. Multiple players have run into costly outs on the base paths. But Aaron Hicks needs to be benched beyond tonight for one reason: sluggish effort.
Hicks has been one of my favorite Yankees players for quite a while now. His unbelievable mid-summer game at Target Field in July of 2019 was the highlight of that regular season. He also dinged a huge home run off the foul pole against Justin Verlander that same year in the ALCS — a series he was playing in despite a right elbow injury.
The elbow injury turned out to require Tommy John surgery, so he was set to miss most of the 2020 season. Then the pandemic pushed Opening Day back into the late summer and Hicks became possibly the only player ever to get Tommy John surgery and not miss a single game. Last year, I gave Hicks a pass on some questionable throws and even some poor swings. He hit a groove in the playoffs and was starting to swing the bat better, but still did not provide the Yankees with the middle-of-the-order home run pop that he may have hoped to give.
Fast forward to 2021 and Hicks is out there every day for the Yankees in centerfield and hitting third in the order more often than not. He is currently hitting .160 with a .236 on-base percentage and only 1 home run. What stands out offensively is that he is hitting .094 with 0 extra-base hits from the left side. Clearly, he is not seeing the ball well, to put it lightly. Usually, I am fine with an early season slump. Mark Teixeira was notorious for them, and Teixeira noted how difficult it is to get back to regular season form as a switch-hitter. Hicks, also a switch-hitter, would usually be given the same slack I would have given Teixeira.
But here and now, I cannot grant that slack to Hicks. Why? Because Aaron Hicks is playing an awful centerfield. The former cannon-armed, athletic stud defensive centerfielder has been below average for quite some time now, and it needs to change. Part of that change can happen with an attitude shift. I do not mean Aaron Hicks’ attitude off the field. I do not personally know Hicks or what he does outside of the Stadium. But Aaron Hicks needs to play with some fire. He is known for bat flipping on walks because he likes that the pitcher is scared to pitch him in the zone. Now, no pitcher is scared to throw right down the middle to him. Aaron Hicks needs multiple games off in order to build up the urge to win his job back.
The Yankees also have the perfect fiery replacement right on their bench. Mike Tauchman is an absolute firecracker on the diamond. Even in pinch-run appearances, Tauchman has fired up the team by stealing two bases and scoring from first base on a hit in the gap. Tauchman goes all-out at all times. He dives for sinking line drives, he tracks fly balls all the way to the outfield wall, and he is not afraid to yell at himself when he screws up. Tauchman is not a perfect player, but he can help the Yankees get out of this sleep-walk more than Hicks can. Also, Tauchman is left-handed, so the matchups against right-handed pitching (combined with Hicks’ awful lefty-hitting numbers) are favorable.
Give Aaron Hicks the series off against Atlanta, and make the message clear to this team: you have to earn it each and every day.