As Mike Elias himself said, perhaps wistfully, the Orioles executive vice president and general manager doesn’t have a crystal ball. Predicting an injury that could leave outfielder Cedric Mullins on the shelf for the next several weeks was impossible.
Now that Baltimore is here, though, with Mullins on the 10-day injured list due to a groin strain, Elias has made his move. The Orioles signed outfielder Aaron Hicks on Tuesday, and by 5 p.m., he was already on the field in an Orioles hat and shirt taking his first hacks in batting practice.
“We actually even expressed kind of a check-in with Aaron and his camp prior to Mullins’ injury,” said Elias, who noted he didn’t want to put a more concrete timeline on Mullins’ return than weeks, not months. “Obviously, when we did it then, it’s a little bit more from a depth mindset. And when the injury happened yesterday, it totally accelerated the focus from my standpoint.”
The jigsaw puzzle that is Baltimore’s outfield now includes a new switch-hitter who has experience — if not much success lately — playing in the American League East. The 33-year-old Hicks was released last week by the New York Yankees and now finds himself as a reinforcement for the Orioles.
The offensive metrics, on the whole, aren’t entirely encouraging. Neither are his defensive fielding numbers. In 28 games with the Yankees, Hicks hit .188 with a .524 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. While Hicks has a plus-arm, he has recorded negative-nine career outs above average in the field, according to FanGraphs.
But Elias is bringing Hicks to Baltimore with the hope that he can join a revolving mix in center field that includes Austin Hays, Ryan McKenna and even Jorge Mateo. On Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians, Hays is playing center and Terrin Vavra will patrol left.
The upside for Hicks, Elias said, is that he’s a switch-hitter. With Mullins out of the lineup, Elias said he wanted to add another left-handed bat to a group of center fielders who all hit right-handed. Hicks, however, has a lower career average (.222) against right-handed pitching compared to .247 against southpaws.
“We have stuff that we look at from a scouting and evaluation perspective that, as I’ve said before, is very different from just looking at the back of a baseball card,” Elias said. “And we hope we get a bounce back from anyone that we bring in. Doesn’t always work out, but you look at Adam Frazier and Kyle Gibson. They didn’t have their best years last year, too, but we saw stuff that we thought meant that they might play well here in the future, and so far they’ve really helped us out.
“You’re not going to get a great outcome on everything, but we see stuff with Aaron Hicks that we like, that feels like a good fit for us, and I think — I hope — this is a shot in the arm for him and I hope he helps us out, helps us win some games. That’s our hope.”
Hays said he doesn’t “know if you can replace what he [Mullins] brings to the table.” Mullins serves as the leadoff hitter most games and holds a plus-32 outs above average grade, per FanGraphs. “He’s elite at every facet of the game,” Hays added.
In that sense, a like-for-like replacement isn’t out there.
Instead, the Orioles aren’t trying to have one player shoulder the entire load Mullins carried for Baltimore. Manager Brandon Hyde said he’ll rotate his options based on matchups, and Elias said McKenna is likely in the lineup as the center fielder against left-handed pitching (McKenna is hitting .293 against lefties this year).
Beyond that, though, there is room for variation that will see Hays and Hicks each play center field from time to time. The difficulty with the new Camden Yards dimensions is that playing left field is almost as difficult as center. There’s a vast expanse to cover.
“It’s a guy that we always talk about as a plus defender in the outfield, the guy can really throw, he’s got experience in three spots in the outfield,” Hyde said of Hicks. “In this park, too, you really need two center fielders and Aaron has got a lot of center field experience. He’s played left field here before also, so he brings the defensive aspect and then the switch hitting is big for us and gives us more versatility from a right-left standpoint. We’re excited to have him.”
Baltimore might have been able to look internally to fill its desire for a left-handed-hitting outfielder, but prospects Colton Cowser and Kyle Stowers are on the injured list. Elias said the focus for Cowser — a player hitting .331 with a 1.023 OPS with Triple-A Norfolk — is to get him back healthy to the Tides.
The timeline for Cowser’s quad injury is “best measured in days rather than weeks,” Elias said. From there, more positive play could lead to a promotion.
“Certainly, he was building a case towards promotion consideration prior to his injury and prior to Cedric’s injury, and we’ll just see where we’re at,” Elias said.
In the meantime, however, it’s Hicks who will be integral in replacing Mullins, along with an amalgam of players.
“One through 13,” Hays said, “being ready to do whatever we have to do to pick each other up and get out there and compete.”
