Aaron Boone's Yankees lineup for Monday's 7:05 p.m. start against the Philadelphia Phillies included a noticeable change as Aaron Hicks hit seventh and started in left field.
The move came after the 33-year-old veteran, who has been with the franchise since 2016 and is under contract through 2025 with a club option for 2026, got just one at-bat over New York's first three games.
Prior to the opener of a three-game series with the Phillies at Yankee Stadium, Boone admitted that Hicks was frustrated but has a new "reality."
"The role can evolve and change, and every opportunity and -- from my standpoint -- trying to put him in positions where I feel like he can impact us and be the most successful," Boone said. "So try and communicate ahead of time that he's in there or he's not, things like that, but I don't want to also tell him, 'You're in a reserve role here or you're the starter,' because that's not the reality.
"I mean, the reality is our roster continues to evolve and change a little bit and we'll eventually get Harrison (Bader) back and you lose a guy here and a role changes like that. So I try and communicate ahead of time as much as I can with what I'm thinking and that's the role right now is just be ready to go."
Hicks' lone plate appearance was a pinch-hit strikeout in Saturday's 7-5 loss to the San Francisco Giants.
"I mean, we've had our conversations," Boone said. "But, again ... the last few weeks of spring training, I feel like he was doing a lot of really good things on both sides of the ball. So bottom line is that -- continue to play like I know that he's capable of and you earn more and more opportunities. But there are competition for those things right now."
The Yankees' starting outfield for the first two games -- led by this past Thursday's 5-0 win -- was a left-center-right combination of Oswaldo Cabrera, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
Sunday's 6-0 win saw former starting shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa get the nod in center field while Cabrera remained in left, Judge moved to right and Stanton was the designated hitter.
Hicks slashed .293/.408/.390 with one home run and two RBI in 18 spring training games.
He did so after his tumultuous 2022 season, slashing .216/.330/.313 with eight home runs and 40 RBI in 130 regular season games.
Hicks entered Monday slashing .233/.340/.402 with 80 home runs and 273 RBI in 624 regular season games as a Yankee.