When the Orioles’ lineup was introduced in Yankee Stadium earlier than Monday night time’s sequence opener, Aaron Hicks’ identify drew the loudest boos. They rained once more in the course of the second inning, showering Hicks after a tribute video highlighting his eight years with the New York Yankees. Choruses have come on both facet of his at-bats, together with the one which ended with a solo residence run Tuesday.
This week marks Hicks’ first sequence within the Bronx as a customer since 2015. But being on the receiving finish of booing right here isn’t unfamiliar.
“I mean, it was like that when I was here,” Hicks mentioned. “I definitely enjoyed my time here. I enjoyed being a Yankee, and I enjoyed the team. It’s kind of one of those things where it’s a little disappointing, but at the same time, it’s like they’re gonna do what they’re gonna do, and I can’t control that.”
The Yankees launched Hicks in May amid the fifth season of a seven-year, $70 million extension he signed coming off a 2018 marketing campaign wherein he set profession highs with 137 video games performed and 27 residence runs. But he struggled to match that manufacturing over the course of the deal, navigating accidents and drawing ire from the New York fan base. At the time of his launch, the 33-year-old outfielder was hitting .188 with a .524 OPS and one residence run in 2023.
But since signing with Baltimore days later, he has proven he’s nonetheless able to enjoying properly. Tuesday’s residence run marked his fifth as an Oriole, coming in his twenty eighth recreation with the staff to match his whole this yr with the Yankees. Signed as a fill-in when Cedric Mullins suffered a proper groin pressure, Hicks has slashed .264/.379/.494, incomes the chance to stay within the lineup upon Mullins’ return.
“I felt like the whole time [in New York], I was just trying to play for playing time,” Hicks mentioned. “To have the ability to come right here and play daily, it’s been large. Of course, the change of surroundings has been good.
“Everything’s been positive since I’ve been here. This team is fun. They’re young, and they’re hungry, and it’s been fun to be here.”
Hicks has mentioned as a lot since arriving in Baltimore, donning a beard he was unable to whereas working below the Yankees’ facial hair coverage. Still, Hicks mentioned he doesn’t really feel he has one thing to show to his outdated group, noting he stays near a lot of his former teammates. In the primary two video games of the sequence — each Orioles losses — he’s 2-for-7 with a stroll and two strikeouts.
He mentioned earlier than the sequence he wasn’t sure what the followers’ response could be to him, although he’s conscious of how they typically deal with visiting gamers. After two days of boos, Hicks acknowledged he “kind of assumed” that will be the case, given what he skilled over his ultimate months with the group.
“I kind of went down a struggling road in which I really couldn’t get myself out of it,” Hicks mentioned. “I feel like when I started to have kind of success, I really wasn’t given an opportunity. And now that I’m over here, I’m getting a lot of opportunities, and I’ve been trying to make the most of it.”
Orioles supervisor Brandon Hyde mentioned Hicks has been doing precisely that.
“Ever since he’s been here, he has been a huge boost for our team,” Hyde mentioned. “What he’s introduced from a veteran management standpoint and the at-bats that he takes throughout the recreation, the protection he’s performed, he’s been great for us.
“We don’t have a ton of older veteran presence in our lineup, and so I was hoping that he could come here and just kind of maybe play easy and play like he has nothing to lose. And he did that.”
Hicks has mentioned the setting helps. In the Yankees’ clubhouse, he was one in every of a number of high-priced veterans. In the Orioles’, he’s one in every of few skilled gamers. As of the beginning of the season, he leads the membership in main league service time, coming into the yr with two extra days than veteran Kyle Gibson, a former teammate with the Minnesota Twins who he’s reconnected with in Baltimore.
“A polarizing player on the road always gets it,” Gibson mentioned. “He did a lot of good things for this team, and I know that he was injury-riddled a little bit there toward the end of his stretch here, but playing with him in Minnesota and understanding how good of an athlete he is and how good of a player he is, he’s fit in really well here, and we’re excited to have him.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com