As of this moment, Aaron Hicks is penciled in to be the starting center fielder for the New York Yankees in 2022. He just finished a fairly successful tune-up in the Dominican Winter League — he finished with a .729 OPS in 12 games after missing nearly the entire season in 2021 — and will look to return to the version of himself the organization extended in 2019.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, there are a couple gigantic elephants in the room when it comes to any discussion about Aaron Hicks: the much larger and more aggressive elephant is his inability to stay on the field, while the second smaller but still quite noticeable elephant is his contract.