The Aaron Hicks Era is Mercifully Over

The biggest news over the weekend was a particularly long overdue transaction, but the Yankees also took care of business. They played against an inferior Cincinnati team and didn’t play down to the level of competition and swept the Reds. Remember, the next chapter of Hardball Hyperbole is coming Wednesday. I hope you’re enjoying that.

Finally, the Yankees made the decision that everyone except the men who run the organization knew needed to be made long ago: Aaron Hicks was designated for assignment Saturday.

I have nothing against Hicks. Why would I? He seems like a decent enough guy when he’s interviewed, and he’s a damn good golfer which I like. Hey, he’s married to Tiger Woods’ niece, Cheyenne, who is a professional golfer.

However, and there’s no soft way to put this, he has been one of the worst players in Major League Baseball this year, and really, his funk has dated back several years. He has not been a productive player since 2018 when he somehow hit 27 home runs, slashed .248/.366/.467 for an OPS of .833 and played solid defense.

And that one unicorn season led to the contract we, and I’m sure the Yankees’ brass (though they’d never admit it) have come to rue, the seven-year, $70 million deal that has been not only a waste of money, but has kept Hicks on the team clogging up a roster spot that could have gone to a more useful player.

Hicks failed miserably to live up to that contract as he battled repeated injuries and a loss of his ability to hit, especially from the left side. Since signing, he played 303 games, hit .218 with a .689 OPS, hit only 31 home runs, drove in 116, and struck out 269 times compared to drawing 155 walks. Just a complete drain on the lineup.

Now, our nightmare is over, though it’s funny to me that the player who ultimately pushed Hicks off the roster was outfielder Greg Allen, who may be the exact same player. The Yankees acquired him Friday in a trade from the Red Sox, a rare deal between the long-time rivals. They gave up pitcher Diego Hernandez and cash so yeah, it all seems like a pretty inconsequential transaction. Except for the fact that it launched Hicks out of New York.

“It is what it is,” Hicks told the New York Post. “It’s part of the business side of it. Just got to move on to the next chapter. This is a very good baseball team. It kind of seems like it wasn’t working out for me. Obviously with the decision that they decided to make, maybe somewhere else might be a little bit better.”

Obviously it was a hard day for him, and also for his teammates, and it was reported that some tears were shed. Understandable because as much as we screamed about Hicks, his teammates always had his back. They are friends, Hicks has been with the Yankees for nearly eight years so relationships have been forged, and Aaron Boone acknowledged that.

“Difficult decision, one we felt we had to make,” Boone said. “It’s family. You go through everything with these guys. Obviously, with Aaron, he’s had some ups and downs. He had some good seasons for us, some playoff moments for us. The last few years, he’s had some struggles, some injuries. Not an easy conversation.”

Allen was with the Yankees briefly in 2021 and provided a brief spark because he has speed. Before that he had been with the Guardians and Padres, but in reality, he’s not much more than a pinch-runner, defensive replacement type of player. In other words, Hicks.

He’s a career .232 hitter with seven home runs and 45 stolen bases who has spent most of the last two years either injured or in the minors. This year he was with the Red Sox Triple-A team in Worcester and was playing well with an on-base percentage of .407 and 23 stolen bases. So I guess that was the allure, his speed, the fact he’s a switch hitter, and he can play all the outfield positions as a bench player, something Hicks was clearly struggling with.

“Once we were able to get Greg Allen, we had to make a decision,” Boone said. “It's been a tough role for Aaron. It’s one Greg has filled in a lot throughout his career. He’s played really well this year. He has a similar skill set that we’ve seen throughout his career. He’s played the role before, and he’s played it well.”

Here are my observations on the three games against the Reds.

May 19: Yankees 6, Reds 2

➤ This was the kind of game that it feels like Clarke Schmidt is capable of. Now, he wasn’t great, and the Reds offense certainly isn’t much to worry about, but Schmidt pitched five scoreless innings during which he showed the kind of stuff the Yankees know he has. He mostly stayed out of deep counts because he was putting guys away, the one thing that has held him back. And then in the sixth, he gave up two hits and Boone pulled him.

➤ His final line wound up being five hits, two walks and two runs because Jimmy Cordero came in and immediately gave up a two-run double to Jake Fraley that cut the Yankees lead to 3-2. You figured all that good work by Schmidt would get wasted when Cordero then walked Spencer Steer, but he really buckled down and retired the next three batters including two by strikeout. Huge escape for a guy who is starting to earn a little more trust, not that Boone has much choice right now.

➤ Aaron Judge is on a heater, man. He hit his seventh home run in seven games, another blast to dead center that gave the Yankees a quick 1-0 lead. I would suggest that pitchers should stop throwing this guy meaty fastballs because right now, he’s pummeling them. We all know the way to get Judge out is to feed him breaking balls down and away and hey, if he doesn’t chase and you walk him, that’s probably not a bad result.

➤ Anthony Rizzo was in a bit of a funk, but coming back to Cincinnati helped. He used to kill the Reds when he played for the Cubs and sure enough, he hit a two-run homer in the sixth, his 35th all-time at Great American Ballpark.

➤ Great job tacking on in the ninth. It was still only 3-2 but Gleyber Torres and Oswaldo Cabrera walked and Kyle Higashioka, who had struck out three times, doubled to the gap in left for two runs, and he scored on a single by Judge. That allowed Boone to use Nick Ramirez instead of Clay Holmes in the ninth.

BOX SCORE

May 20: Yankees 7, Reds 4 (10)

➤ Not a great start for Jhony Brito who put the Yankees in a 4-1 hole during his four innings of work, hurt by four hits and four walks. That guy either has it or he doesn’t, there’s no in between. But once he was done, the bullpen was phenomenal, six scoreless innings of one-hit ball which allowed the Yankees offense some time to rally. After the game, Brito was sent down to Scranton to make room for Luis Severino who made his season debut Sunday.

➤ Judge was the catalyst as he went 4-for-4 with three RBI. He had an RBI single in the second and was in the middle of a three-run fifth which tied the game. The rally started when Isiah Kiner-Falefa homered off Luke Weaver. Then Torres and Ben Rortvedt, who made his catching debut, singled and Judge ripped an RBI double, followed by a tying RBI single by Rizzo.

➤ Nothing changed until the 10th as both offenses went numb. Ron Marinaccio and Michael King pitched two innings and Holmes one to get the Yankees to extra innings, really impressive work.

➤ In the 10th, Judge immediately drove home the automatic runner at second (Allen making his debut) with a single, and Rizzo cranked another homer in Cincinnati, a two-run shot that iced it. He now has 36 career homers in this park, second-most by any visiting player behind only Andrew McCutcheon who used to torment the Reds when he played for the Pirates.

➤ How about Ryan Weber in the 10th? I swear, it feels like I could get a hit off this guy, but somehow he gets it done. He was outstanding in a big spot in Toronto, and here, with the automatic runner starting at second base, he never moved as Weber needed only 10 pitches to wrap it up.

BOX SCORE

May 21: Yankees 4, Reds 1

➤ An excellent finish to complete the sweep, though Holmes made it a little sweaty in the bottom of the ninth before he got out of his own bases-loaded jam by taking care of the final out on an easy comebacker.

➤ Hey, remember Luis Severino? Yeah, he’s a pitcher on the Yankees who’s been around since 2018, though sometimes it’s hard to remember because he’s on the injured list so often. I digress. This was his season debut and he was pretty good. This was a great team to have him debut against - as opposed to the Rays or Jays - and he went 4.2 innings and gave up a run on four hits and a walk on 75 pitches. They pulled him in the fifth after he gave up a two-out single so he wasn’t eligible for the win. I just think that’s stupid that they couldn’t give him one more batter to see if he could end the fifth, but hey, these days, no one cares about pitcher wins except the pitchers.

➤ The bullpen was excellent again. Albert Abreu, Cordero, and Wandy Peralta pitched 3.1 perfect innings and then Holmes gave up two hits and a walk before earning the save. In this series, the Yankees bullpen handled 14.1 innings and allowed zero runs on two hits. Yes, it’s the Reds, but that’s unbelievable.

➤ Judge got a day off and the Yankees didn’t need him. Harrison Bader hit a two-run homer in the fifth, Torres hit a solo shot in the sixth, and then in the seventh, Jake Bauers walked, new guy Allen pinch ran and he stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Volpe’s double. Allen later tripled in his first at bat. He’s already way better than Hicks!

➤ This wrapped up a terrific road trip as the Yankees won six of seven over the Jays and Reds which puts them a season-high nine games over .500. And with the Rays losing Sunday, the Yankees are only 5.5 games behind, the closest they’ve been since April 22.

BOX SCORE

➤ May 23, 1962: Joe Pepitone passed away a couple months ago, and in the various obituaries that were written about the old Yankees first baseman, some of his career highlights were referenced. One that wasn’t was a cool feat that he accomplished on this day in what was just the 17th game of his MLB career.

When Pepitone and his revolutionary hair dryer first came up to the Yankees at the start of the 1962 season, they were still in their dynasty window, having just won the 1961 World Series, and they would go on to win in 1962 plus win AL pennants in 1963 and 1964.

Pepitone was considered to be the next great Yankee, a player who would help extend the dynasty for years to come, but while he was a three-time All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove winner, he never quite lived up to the hype, though it didn’t help that at the end of his Yankee career the team was awful.

But Pepitone certainly had his moments. During a 13-7 rout of the Kansas City A’s, he became just the second player in Yankees history to hit two home runs in the same inning. With the Yankees trailing 7-4 in the eighth, he led off the inning with a home run off Dan Pfister. The Yankees batted around and Pepitone came up again and capped a nine-run explosion with a three-run bomb.

The only other Yankee to accomplish the feat at that time was Joe DiMaggio. Since then, Cliff Johnson and Alex Rodriguez have also done it.

The Yankees have a very much-needed day off Monday, their first since May 4. That’s a lot of baseball, and they’ve been doing it with a makeshift pitching staff. Once that day off is done, it’s right back into the fire as they host red-hot Baltimore for three games Tuesday through Thursday.

The Orioles are exactly who I thought they would be this season; a dangerous, up-and-coming team ready to get into the fray. Did I think they’d be 31-16 -tied four the fourth-best start through 47 games in franchise history - and just 2.5 games behind the Rays at this point? No, but I knew they’d be tough.

They just went into Toronto and swept the Jays three straight and have won eight of their last 11. They’re eighth in MLB in team OPS at .757 thanks to a lineup that is just clicking. Adley Rutschman is on his way to becoming the best catcher in baseball; Ryan Mountcastle has 10 homers and 34 RBI; and Cedric Mullins is hitting .283 and leads the team with 38 RBI and 13 stolen bases. On the pitching side, they rank 12th in team ERA at 4.03.

The pitching matchups look like this: Tuesday at 7:05 on YES it’s Gerrit Cole (2.01 ERA) against Kyle Bradish (3.90); Wednesday at 7:05 on Amazon Prime, it’s Nestor Cortes (5.21) against Tyler Wells (2.94); and Thursday at 7:05 on YES, it’s Clarke Schmidt (6.00) against Kyle Gibson (4.27).