Yankees Designate Veteran OF Aaron Hicks for Assignment

He had over two years left on his contract remaining.

The Yankees announced they designated outfielder Aaron Hicks for assignment on Saturday despite the outfielder having two and a half years left on his contract. The move was made to make room for Greg Allen, whom the team acquired from the Red Sox on Friday.

Hicks, who New York originally acquired from the Twins before the 2016 season, broke out with New York in 2017 and compiled a .819 OPS in 337 games from 2017 to ’20. He also established himself as a stable center fielder for the Yankees during that span.

Prior to today’s game, the Yankees made the following roster moves:

•Signed OF Greg Allen (#30) to a Major League contract and selected him to the active roster.
•Designated OF Aaron Hicks for assignment.

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 20, 2023

However, the outfielder battled injuries throughout his time with the Yankees, which included Tommy John Surgery after the 2019 season and a serious wrist injury in ’21. As a result, Hicks’s production fell off since ’21, with just a .625 OPS and the team moving him off center field after acquiring Harrison Bader.

Hicks was in the middle of a seven-year, $70 million extension he signed before the 2019 season and was set to make $29.5 million through the ’25 season. After totaling a .524 OPS over 33 games this year, the Yankees decided to eat the money the rest of the way.

“It is what it is. It’s part of the business side of it,” he said, via The New York Post’s Greg Joyce. “Just got to move on to the next chapter…This is a very good baseball team. It kind of seemed like it wasn’t working out for me.”