Yankees' Aaron Hicks to undergo wrist surgery, could miss rest of season

This list keeps getting longer and longer for Aaron Hicks. There have been oblique injuries and back injuries, and he even underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019. Now the latest submission: The Yankees' starting centerfielder will undergo surgery to repair his injured wrist, potentially ending his season, manager Aaron Boone announced Friday.

"I know it’s months, plural," Boone said of the timeline. "I don’t know how many. I’d rather get through the surgery and see what they say about a potential timeline and if that puts any point at the end of the season in play or not. It’s probably too early to speculate on that, but it’s going to be a while."

Hicks went on the injured list on May 13 because of a tear in the tendon sheath in his left wrist, which was first treated with anti-inflammatory medication and rest.

"It just started to become a consistent issue for him, whereas, who knows when this thing first happened, whether it’s been months, whether it’s been years," Boone said. "Every now and then, something would flare up on him, but it usually went away right away. This time it’s continued to linger. I don’t think he’s in a lot of pain, but he definitely feels it when he’s swinging. It doesn’t allow him to swing the bat the way he needs to swing the bat."

Hicks will travel to Arizona on Saturday and meet with Dr. Donald Sheridan about the procedure. The Yankees played Brett Gardner in centerfield against the White Sox on Friday night, and Tyler Wade and Clint Frazier also will be options there.

The Yankees originally called up outfielder Ryan LaMarre to replace Hicks, but he’s now on the injured list after suffering a hamstring strain while running out a ground ball on Wednesday.

The Yankee also might decide to fill the need externally and reportedly are interested in trading for the Rangers’ Delino DeShields Jr., according to a report in The Athletic.

They also could go with one of their top prospects, Estevan Florial, a natural centerfielder, though that option is a bit thornier. There was no minor-league season last year because of COVID-19, and Florial has had a few of his other seasons cut short by injury, so the Yankees don’t want to rush the 23-year-old, who’s currently with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

"He’s certainly in play and we’re very comfortable with him from a coaching- staff standpoint," Boone said. "We’ve been with him a lot. We know him well. So we’ll cross that bridge if we have to at some point, but it’s a balance that you have to strike and those are conversations that you always have, but nothing is imminent."

Hicks has had a checkered injury history, as this was the 10th IL stint of his career. Since signing a seven-year, $70 million extension before the 2019 season, he’s played in only 145 of a possible 267 games. He has a .194/.330/.399 slash line this season.

Cole in awe

Gerrit Cole said the team still is buzzing from Corey Kluber’s no-hitter on Wednesday.

"After the game, people couldn’t stop talking about it," Cole said. "We were talking about it on the bus the next day — what was our favorite pitch, what was our favorite at-bat, how sharp he was. It was a good jolt throughout the team."

One of Cole’s particular favorites was a fifth-inning strikeout of Joey Gallo, courtesy of a backdoor breaking ball.

He said not everyone was 100% aware of what was going on, especially given that the bench adhered to the time-honored tradition of not talking about a no-hitter when it’s happening.

"There was a player that didn’t even realize that he was throwing a no hitter and he asked me if I thought — because Corey’s pitch count was so great — [he asked] if we could get straight to Chappy [Aroldis Chapman]," Cole said, declining to name the player. "He’s like, ‘We’re going to get straight to Chappy tonight.’ And I’m like, ‘We’re not going to go to Chappy.’ And he’s like, ‘Why? Look at the pitch count.’ And I said, ‘Look at the scoreboard.’ ‘What about the scoreboard?’ ‘Look at the runs column, and then look just to the right of the runs column.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, yeah. We’re not going to go to Chappy.’ "

Extra bases

The Yankees welcomed back pitching coach Matt Blake and first-base coach Reggie Willits, along with some members of the support staff, all of whom had tested positive for COVID . . . Zack Britton (elbow surgery) played catch again Friday and is tentatively scheduled for a bullpen session Sunday. If that goes well, he’ll be able to begin his rehab assignment.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.