Before Yankees-Orioles series, Aaron Boone talks Aaron Hicks' return

It’s been a little more than six weeks since the Yankees designated Aaron Hicks for assignment, effectively marking the end of his seven years in pinstripes. Since then, the outfielder signed on with the division-rival Baltimore Orioles and has been lighting it up.

In 26 games with the Orioles, Hicks has slashed .263/.379/.475 with four home runs, three doubles, a triple, 12 RBI, 15 walks and 16 runs scored through 80 at-bats, even with a recent 3-for-27 rough patch.

On Monday, Baltimore begins a three-game series with the Yanks in the Bronx and with Hicks in the starting lineup, batting seventh and playing left field, it means it will be his first time back at Yankee Stadium since the release.

“I mean, he’s just taking advantage of some opportunities,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game. “I know early on he was doing really well, got a big hit for him yesterday, so it’ll be good to see him out there. Hopefully we can contain him a little bit, but to his credit, like I’ve said, he could’ve taken his ball and gone home and he got right back out there, threw himself in the mix and I know he’s worked really hard to continue to earn opportunities over there.”

Hicks’ production with the O’s this season has been a complete reversal of what he was able to produce with the Yanks, especially right up until his designation.

In a similar amount of games and at-bats for New York before his departure, the 33-year-old slashed a feeble .188/.263/.261 with one home run and five RBI – not exactly filling up the stat sheet.

And it wasn’t just this season where Hicks wasn’t cutting it at the plate. In 130 games last season, he batted .216 with eight home runs, 40 RBI and a .643 OPS after being limited to just 32 games in 2021 with a wrist injury -- far cries from his best season in 2018 when he had 27 home runs, 79 RBI and a .833 OPS in 137 games.

Speaking of injuries, Hicks had a lot of them during his time in the Bronx. Before the wrist injury, it was a flexor strain. Before the flexor strain, it was a lower back strain. Before the lower back strain, it was an oblique strain – left and right.

Boone pointed to some of those injuries as reasons why Hicks didn’t fully pan out in pinstripes as he was unable to find his rhythm which is why his offensive numbers suffered.

Overall, in 651 games with the Yankees spanning eight seasons, Hicks slashed .232/.337/.398 with 81 home runs and a .735 OPS.

“Obviously the last couple of years, he was one of the guys that kinda got into the crosshairs. … He did a lot of really good things here, too, and had a few really good seasons here,” Boone said. “Had some really good postseason moments here and hopefully as time goes (on), that appreciation will be there.”

The first Yankee pitcher to face Hicks and the rest of the Orioles lineup is Domingo German, fresh off his perfect game against the Oakland Athletics and the co-AL Player of the Week, shared with Shohei Ohtani.

Asked how he thinks German will be received by the home crowd on Monday night, Boone said “I imagine great.”

“I’m sure that’ll be the case. It should be pretty cool (to) start the homestand with Domingo back out there coming off of a magical night. Hopefully it gets its proper appreciation. I’m sure it will,” he said.

Boone is also hoping German can continue to build off of that start. Prior to his perfect game, German had a 5.10 ERA and was coming off two horrendous starts in which he gave up 17 total runs (15 earned) in 5.1 innings.

Funny how baseball works, huh?

“Obviously the perfect game speaks for itself, but I think going into that, whatever his ERA was [it] was higher than, to me, how he’s pitched,” Boone said. “He’s pitched really well for us in the first half, he had two really bad outings that kind of set him back a little bit, but I think he answered that a little bit with his last outing.

“He’s done a really good job, I think he really appreciates what happened and his place in history for that and that’s one of those things that will last forever.”