The Los Angeles Angels agreed to phrases on a one-year contract with veteran outfielder Aaron Hicks on Monday, including him to an outfield combine that features Mike Trout, Taylor Ward, Mickey Moniak and Jo Adell.
Hicks continues to be underneath the seven-year, $70 million contract he initially signed with the New York Yankees, which extends by the 2025 season. The deal pays Hicks $9.5 million in 2024 and $9.5 million in 2025 and features a $1 million buyout for a membership possibility in 2026. The Yankees are nonetheless chargeable for all of it minus the key league minimal of $740,000 the Angels pays him in 2024.
Hicks, 34, was launched by the Yankees after slashing simply .188/.263/.261 by the primary two months of the 2023 season however improved dramatically upon becoming a member of the division-rival Baltimore Orioles, his slash line leaping to .275/.381/.425 over the remaining 65 video games. Hicks’ finest stretch got here from 2017 to 2020, throughout which he carried an .819 OPS whereas accumulating 60 house runs and eight.7 FanGraphs wins above alternative in 338 video games.
Hicks is a switch-hitter who has performed largely middle area, however he additionally has loads of expertise at each outfield corners. His addition may unencumber a path for the Angels to make use of one in all their different outfielders to accumulate a beginning pitcher or an impression bat through commerce, however he additionally serves as essential depth given the questions surrounding Adell’s improvement.
Hicks’ presence is not anticipated to immediate Trout to maneuver off middle area.
“Mike’s our middle fielder,” Angels basic supervisor Perry Minasian mentioned on a video convention with native reporters. “We have discovered this over the past couple of years, not less than since I have been right here — you want gamers that may play a number of positions. You do not know what’s gonna occur. He is any person that is performed middle; he performed middle final 12 months for Baltimore in sure cases, clearly an excellent workforce that made the playoffs. He can play proper, he can play left, he can actually throw, so he is any person that may assist us in numerous other ways.”