New York Yankees‘ center fielder Aaron Hicks had a successful 2020 season, even if the batting average was a tad low at .225. He managed to get on base at a .379 clip thanks to his elite 19.4 walk rate, and he contributed six home runs and four steals in the regular season.
He did all that while coming back from Tommy John surgery in his throwing arm. While appearing on the YES Network’s “Yankees Hot Stove†on Thursday night (link of the NJ Advance Media story here), the Yankees’ center fielder confessed that to this day, he still doesn’t 100 percent healthy.
“No,†Hicks said. “I still don’t really feel 100%. My strength and doing all that stuff is kind of starting to be better and kind of work as far as strength. But I still kind of don’t feel the same.â€
The Yankees’ star had to alter his swing
The athletic Yankees’ outfielder also added that he had to “change my swing a little bit to protect my arm from hyperextending.â€
“It was just the little things every now and then,†he said. “I didn’t start really feeling good until toward the back end of the season and by then it’s too late and you’ve got to keep grinding.â€
Hicks underwent elbow reconstruction surgery in October 2019. For obvious reasons, the recovery time for position players is quite shorter than for pitchers, who need several more months.
Overall, however, Hicks was happy with his 2020 campaign. “I think it went pretty well actually,†the Yankees’ star said. “I just feel like I was kind of grinding through things through the whole season, it seemed like.â€
So far, his offseason has gone as planned, too.
“Been able to lift heavier weight,†he said. “Being able to get back to pretty much normal weight so far. I kind of haven’t started throwing or doing anything like that yet. So we’re going to start that process here pretty soon. It should start to feel a lot better. Normally, the weight that I was at before, it was just a little bit annoyed. Now, I don’t feel any pain.â€