The Yankees have labored through a brutal three-day stretch of COVID-19 issues this week, and have now been dealt more bad news on the injury front.
Aaron Hicks, after being kept out of the lineup on Thursday night due to wrist soreness, has a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist, and surgery is a possibility.
The injury is the same one former Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira (also a switch hitter) suffered in 2013, when he played in just 15 games and had surgery to repair the injury. David Ortiz suffered a similar injury in 2009 and nearly retired, and Jose Bautista suffered tore the ECU tendon sheath in 2012 and elected for surgery after trying to rest it.
Both Ortiz and Bautista came back to become All-Stars the following seasons, while Teixeira played in 123 games his following season but was an All-Star in 2015 at 35 years old.
Aaron Boone told reporters on Friday that Hicks won’t go on the IL just yet, and could even be in play for this weekend, depending on how the outfielder responds to a medication regimen, but it could lead to an eventual IL stint, or an extended one if surgery becomes the recommendation.
For Hicks, the injury comes at a brutal time, as he had just begun to turn around a painfully slow start to the season at the plate. In his last 10 games, he batted .345 with a .962 OPS, and drove in the game’s only run on Wednesday night with a sac fly to give the Yanks a crucial 1-0 win over the Rays to clinch a series victory. On the season, he was batting just .194 with four home runs.
Hicks’ injury is the latest in a long line of ailments that have plagued him since being traded to the Yankees after the 2015 season. He has never played more than 137 games in a season in pinstripes (that high mark came in 2018), and he played in just 59 games in 2019 before getting Tommy John surgery at the end of the season. He played nearly all of the shortened season in 2020, but played in just 211 games in his first two seasons with the Yanks.
Brett Gardner and Clint Frazier, who have both been struggling badly at the plate this season, will likely see more playing time in the short term.
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