Baltimore Orioles star Cedric Mullins just went down with a right groin strain.
He is one of the team’s best players, and losing him is certainly painful.
He was just placed on the injured list on Tuesday afternoon.
To fill that spot, Baltimore decided to give former New York Yankees star Aaron Hicks an MLB contract.
We have made the following roster moves: pic.twitter.com/UuBLPsceFI
— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) May 30, 2023
Baltimore has several top prospects who could play the outfield and are more than ready for a chance in the majors.
However, they decided to go with the safe route, not expose them or start their service time clock, and sign the veteran.
Now, Hicks makes for a complex case.
He has been struggling for a while now.
In the 2023 campaign, he has a disappointing .524 OPS.
He was also bad in 2021 and 2022, so that’s in part why the Yankees released him.
However, Hicks isn’t ancient at 33 years old and could be a fine short-term replacement for Mullins under the right circumstances.
In seven games from May 7 to May 19, his last game with the Yanks, Hicks was slashing .353/.450/.647 with a 204 wRC+ (100 is the league average).
He had two doubles and a home run over that span, with four RBI.
He was starting to hit the ball hard consistently.
The timing of the Yankees’ decision to designate him for assignment was odd, for sure.
Granted, they needed roster spots and he had been on the bubble for a while, but he really seemed to be turning a corner.
Perhaps the Orioles are banking on that and were willing to give him a cheap major league deal to find out if he is truly about to break out.
It’s certainly a worthy gamble.
NEXT: Fans React To Today's Aaron Hicks News
