Yankees centerfielder Aaron Hicks gets cortisone shot for ailing lower back

    TAMPA, Fla. — Aaron Hicks had one of his best days of spring training on Sunday as he tries to recover from lower back stiffness.

    The good feelings didn’t last long, however. Hicks went to the doctor on Monday and received a cortisone shot in his back. Opening Day is March 28 and the Yankees’ centerfielder is on the bubble as far as being ready.

    “Now, it’s just waiting,” Hicks said on Tuesday. “Back feels good right now, but when I start doing baseball activities is when I’ll really know.”

    It was doing those “baseball activities” that had Hicks feeling hopeful on Sunday — at first. He threw, ran and hit.

    “That was the first day I could actually throw and hit without too much pain, but I still had restrictions on mobility in my swing,” Hicks said. “That’s kind of where it got kind of sketchy . . . I’ve come in here with no pain until I start doing baseball activities. [That’s] normally when it happens. Throwing was a big issue and then hitting is even more torque, more a lot of things.”

    So when Hicks went for a checkup on the Yankees’ off day, the shot was ordered up.

    “Something like this, that’s been lingering,” Hicks said, “you’ve got to do something about it.”

Hicks, who signed a seven-year, $70 million contract extension last month, will rest for a few days to let the shot take effect before attempting to resume his preparation for the season.

    “All I did [Monday] was ice and kind of kick my feet up and kind of just hung out,” Hicks said. “We’ll see today what they want me to do.”

     Hicks said he is not concerned about being ready for the opener, even though he hasn’t appeared in a spring training game since March 1.

“No, not really,” Hicks said. “If I need to get at-bats I can just go down to the minor-league side, crank out a lot of at-bats with them. I feel pretty good today. No pain is a big thing for me as far as it comes to swinging. [When] I start doing things like that, I’ll know for sure.”

Brett Gardner started in center on Tuesday night against the Orioles. If Hicks is not ready for the season, Gardner will start in center with Giancarlo Stanton in left.

One player who won’t be replacing Hicks is Jacoby Ellsbury. Manager Aaron Boone said the Yankees expect Ellsbury to report to Tampa on Sunday to begin his comeback attempt from the injuries that cost him all of last season and the start of spring training.

Ellsbury had surgery last August to repair a torn labrum in his left hip. He was allowed to report late to spring training because of a case of plantar fasciitis.

Ellsbury, 35, still has this year and next on his contract at more than $21.1 million a season, plus a $5-million buyout for 2022, for a total of more than $47.2 million guaranteed whether he plays or not.

“Jacoby’s been gone for so long I think it’s getting him back into baseball activities,” Boone said. “He’s going to be way behind from that standpoint. First things first with Jacoby is getting him here, obviously going through his physical and starting to introduce him again to baseball activities. That’s kind of the next step.”

As for when Ellsbury may next appear in the big-league game, Boone said: “I haven’t even gotten that far down the road yet with Jacoby.”

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.