Yankees Notebook: Aaron Hicks catches a break, day-to-day with leg injury
Aaron Hicks was worried that his right shin was broken. After he fouled the ball off of the side of his lower leg, he collapsed in the dirt and when he got up he had trouble putting weight on it. But Hicks avoided the worst. Hicks does not have any broken bones and is hopeful he will be back in the lineup before the All-Star break.
“I got X-rays and CT scans and they all came back negative which is nice. So, hopefully in a couple of days I’ll be able to get back on the field and keep going,” Hicks said.
The outfielder was just starting to get back to form the last few weeks after missing most of the 2021 season because of wrist surgery to repair a damaged tendon.
“I am frustrated, especially since now I’m starting to get the results that I want,” Hicks said. “Getting more power, more extra-base hits and to just have to stop just kind of sucks. I feel good at the plate and then like that it just kind of stops you from doing what you love and it slows everything down.”
In his last nine games, Hicks slashed .370/.485/.889 with three doubles, a triple and three home runs.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said they won’t rush him back and it’s unlikely he will play before Friday.
“I mean today it’ll be important just to start to treat it. Obviously getting good news that it was not a fracture, especially looking at the replay it obviously looks pretty, pretty bad,” Boone said before Wednesday night’s game against the Reds at Yankee Stadium. “So, that’s a bit of good news and now he can start to really treat it and make some gains here, starting today, and we’ll just kind of see where we’re at and go day-to-day with it.”
LOAISIGA CLOSE
Jonathan Loaisiga gave up a run on three hits and struck out two in an inning of work for Triple-A Scranton Tuesday night. The right-hander has been on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation since May. Boone said they will discuss his next step in the coming days.
“We’ll kind of flesh all that out today and tomorrow and decide if we want to just roll with it now,” Boone said of activating Loaisiga off the IL. “But I have actually not even not watched his outing yet. I’m going to go watch that. But I heard it went pretty well and he threw the ball really well and feels good. He was already in the weight room, working out today here. So I think another encouraging one for him.”
Loaisiga had the same issue late last season and missed just 11 days. The righty had struggled this season before getting injured and the Yankees have used this as a chance to work on his mechanics.
GERMAN IN LIMBO
Domingo German is scheduled to make one more minor league rehab start, Boone said. The right-hander, who began the season on the injured list with right shoulder impingement syndrome, is scheduled to pitch Friday with Triple-A Scranton.
But it’s written in pencil.
“He threw a bullpen today with the idea that he’s going to make another Friday with Scranton. That conceivably could change,” Boone said. “Over the next 24 or 48 hours we could pull the plug on that but we’re getting him ready to make that start.”
The Yankees could need him before then to help with the bullpen or a potential spot start. They have not yet announced their starters for the Red Sox series over the weekend heading into the All-Star break.
LOOKING WAY TOO FAR AHEAD
The Yankees have three series and almost two weeks before they go to Citi Field to play the Mets in the annual Subway Series, but it’s never too early for either team to be asked about it.
“It has popped in my head a couple of times knowing that that’s on the horizon and knowing that that’ll probably be a pretty big deal, as it always is, but maybe even more so this year,” Boone said. “So I would say it popped into my head a few times, yes. And we’ll look forward to playing another great team across town.”
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