Aaron Hicks says the Yankees are trying to implement a little more attitude in 2022, and adding some notoriously tough and outspoken players like Josh Donaldson will help establish that identity that he feels has been missing.
“I think our phrase for this year is ‘Have some f--k you,’” Hicks said on the latest R2C2 podcast. “Obviously that’s something that we’re missing. I’m definitely ready to do that.”
Hicks will have to stay on the field if he is to have more of a part in the team’s desired identity makeover, as he hasn’t played more than 60 games in a season since 2018, and played in just 32 last season before a torn tendon sheath in his wrist ended his season. But Hicks, who says he is “100 percent” healthy, wants the Yankees to play up to their name in 2022, and impose their will on their opponents, who he feels don’t fear the Yanks like in years past.
“I think we need to make teams afraid of us,” Hicks said. “We need to have that ‘damn, the Yankees are coming to town,’ we need to have that to where every place we walk into, they’re afraid to play us. When we go in there, we don’t need to just beat them, we need to beat the dogsh--t out of them…to the point where the come back the next day, they’re whooped, and they’re not trying to play that game. That’s the kind of vibe we need, and that’s what we’re working towards.”
While Hicks wants to restore the Yankee dominance and toughness of the past, he also wants to make sure that the present Yankees are the focus, no longer looking back on the most recent magical run that led to the expectations that the current team now faces.
“You need to stop living in the past,” Hicks said. “You need to be like, ‘I don’t want to talk about that ’17 team, I want to talk about this team right here and making the changes we need to win a championship.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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