As the Yankees get ready to kick off the 2023 season, there are two noticeable question marks that will likely see extended playing time in Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson, two veterans who struggled consistently in 2022.
By putting faith in those two question marks this season, Boomer says the team is taking a noticeable risk in a year where the team hopes to contend for a championship.
“Brian Cashman is rolling the dice with a few of these players,” Boomer said. “And these are two of them.”
Does that rolling of the dice present a sense of negligence from Cashman and company, opting to run it back with two players who showed very little at the plate all of last season instead of making potential additions in the offseason? For Gio, that decision just came down to money.
“I just wonder, because of the luxury tax and how much it means for the Yankees to not go over it, is the only reason Aaron Hicks and Josh Donaldson are here because of money?” Gio said. “That’s the only reason I can think of.”
Boomer thinks it may be a bit more than that, though he isn’t very hopeful that a player like Hicks will reward the Yankees’ faith this season.
“I still think they believe Aaron Hicks has got an upside,” Boomer said. “They gave [Hicks] that long-term, low-paid contract…and now, he has been an injury waiting to happen. When he does come back, it adversely affects everything he’s doing.”
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