Aaron Hicks Signs 7/70 Extension With NYY

[sveumrules]

Aaron Hicks has signed a 7 year, 70 million dollar deal with the Yankees. He was already under contract for 6 million this season, his final year of arbys, so it is essentially a 6/64 extension.

 

After a pretty mediocre start to his career (1289 PA, 77 OPS+, 2.0 WAR) from 2013-16, he has really put it together over the last two seasons (942 PA, 123 OPS+, 8.6 WAR).

 

I think something in the neighborhood of Cain's 5/80 deal would have been his ceiling with another strong year, so he probably left a little money on the table in exchange for getting paid now & not having to worry about a potential injury tanking his FA stock.

[MrTPlush]

Heck I would avoid FA at this point too. Disaster waiting to happen.

[TooLiveBrew]

Interesting contract, & I wonder if we'll start to see more of these (not necessarily just in arb buy-out scenarios)

 

Hicks has developed into a very good hitter. Yankees look like they maxed out buying low on a physically talented guy who hadn't put together MLB success at the plate yet - they basically paid nothing via trade with MIN. He has an offensive profile that should typically carry a .360-.370 OBP with some pop. Very nice BB/K ratio, and it mirrors the MiLB numbers he posted as he developed, so it looks sustainable imo.

 

Maybe not an out & out star, but a very nice core player.