By Ryan Bologna
Feb. 3, 2021
New York Sports Nation

Pho­to: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Since his break out sea­son in 2017 Aaron Hicks has been a qual­i­ty play­er for the Yan­kees. With the way much of the fan­base speaks about him you would not think that to be the case.

Hicks receives a lot of crit­i­cism because his tra­di­tion­al stats like bat­ting aver­age are not flashy, which is why many fans might scoff at my notion that he should bat lead­off. This is exac­er­bat­ed by the fact that DJ LeMahieu is a pro­to­typ­i­cal lead­off hit­ter in the mind of tra­di­tion­al base­ball fans.

In this era of base­ball there are many oth­er ways to eval­u­ate a play­er that are straight up just bet­ter rep­re­sent play­ers abil­i­ties. Sin­gles, dou­bles, triples and home runs all count the same on a player’s bat­ting aver­age while a walk is not account­ed for. This does not mean that bat­ting aver­age is com­plete­ly worth­less and some­one bat­ting over .300 is not impres­sive, it just means that it is not the most accu­rate stat to rep­re­sent a player’s performance.

Many Yan­kees fans are old school and they use bat­ting aver­age as their main stat to eval­u­ate play­ers. That is what leads to the crit­i­cism of Hicks. But because fans are not look­ing at things he does well his val­ue to the team is under-appreciated.

Many say the $10 mil­lion price tag to Hicks is too much, but that can not be more untrue. Corey Klu­ber is get­ting paid more than Hicks in 2021 and he has not pitched a full year since 2018. Hicks on his price tag is a bar­gain for the Yankees.

Hicks sees the plate real­ly well. He has post­ed a 15.1% walk rate since 2017, which is 12th in the league in that span. He is also in the top 10 for walk rate since 2018. To paint a pic­ture even fur­ther of how good Hicks’ eye is, he was in the 97th per­centile in 2018 and the 99th per­centile in 2020 for walk rate.

What does this mean? Hicks has one of the best eyes at the plate and gets on base at an elite rate, which is exact­ly what you want from your lead­off hit­ter. Hicks is also just a straight up pro­duc­tive hit­ter, he has a 123 weight­ed runs cre­at­ed plus (wRC+) since 2017, which is not elite but sol­id, so it is not like walks are the only thing he provides.

Now that Hicks’ strengths as a play­er are estab­lished, let’s talk about why the best line­up con­struc­tion for the Yan­kees would have Hicks in the lead off spot. Below is my ide­al line­up con­struc­tion for the Yankees:

1) Aaron Hicks CF
2) Aaron Judge RF
3) DJ LeMahieu 2B
4) Gian­car­lo Stan­ton DH
5) Luke Voit 1B
6) Gley­ber Tor­res 2B
7) Gio Urshela 3B
8) Gary Sanchez C
9) Clint Fra­zier LF

I could be talked into some swaps in the low­er half. I also think Gary Sanchez could be in for a bounce­back year and could see him­self get­ting moved up in the order with a hot start.

That top half of the line­up is some­thing I would love to see and I think it would result in a ton of leads ear­ly in games for the Yan­kees. As for LeMahieu, some might think that mov­ing him down is a shot at him when it is not. With the rate LeMahieu puts the bat on the ball I real­ly like him bat­ting with run­ners on base.

Yan­kees fans should know how well LeMahieu hits with run­ners in scor­ing posi­tion. Him hit­ting third behind Hicks and Aaron Judge would put him into more of those sit­u­a­tions, espe­cial­ly in the first inning. If that doesn’t hap­pen, then there is a good chance that Judge just hit a home run and the Yan­kees are already up 2–0 two bat­ters into the game.

The upside of this for Hicks is that rather than being in the mid­dle of the line­up and fans desir­ing some­one that will hit in those run­ners on base more often than he does, he can be the table set­ter. In this line­up he would be on base at a high rate for the Yan­kees best hit­ters in Judge, LeMahieu, Stan­ton and Voit. I think every Yan­kees fan wants to see those play­ers at the plate with run­ners on base as much as possible.

You want your best hit­ters at the plate with run­ners on base. Hicks would pro­vide that in the lead off spot, and it would be wise for the Yan­kees to con­struct their line­up in a way that pro­vides the best oppor­tu­ni­ties to score runs.