Healthy Hicks says he’s ready to rake in 2021
TAMPA — Aaron Hicks still felt it last year. The Yankees outfielder was coming off Tommy John surgery and still felt his elbow was not 100% last season.
“The elbow feels night and day from last year,” Hicks said. “Talking about the Tommy John, I think extending my right arm (batting) left-handed definitely was making me a little nervous to make full swings. Swinging and missing was definitely a thing I was worried about early on. So I definitely protected it. But as of right now everything feels great.
“I definitely feel like I’m 100% now just by the way I’ve been able to throw to the bases. I feel like I’m able to throw with a little bit more effort. I’ll be ready to make the plays that I know I can make, and that’s key.”
But now that he is healthy, Hicks sees a chance to break out. While his priority has to be staying healthy after his history of injuries, the Yankees’ switch-hitting center fielder also has a milestone in mind. He thinks he will be able to hit the 30-home run mark this season.
Hicks hit 27 in 2018 before a back injury limited him at the start of 2019 and the elbow slowed him at the end.
“It’s definitely going to rise,” Hicks said Thursday. “I definitely see myself hitting 30 plus. That’s what I want to do and that’s what I believe that I can do. If I get 500 plate appearances, I’m definitely going to hit my mark with those numbers.”
That’s the trick. Hicks’ eight years in the big leagues has just one season where he has reached 500 plate appearances. He has a long history of injuries that have stopped him from reaching his potential. In the third year of a seven-year, $70 million extension, the Yankees would like to see him play a full year.
“It’s definitely a goal of mine to get 500plus at-bats and really like see what I can do throughout a season, really see what kind of player I am,” Hicks said.
Landry Shamet never stopped trusting his work. As the bricks piled early in the season, with Shamet — a vaunted sharpshooter — shooting just 25% from three in December and 32.7% from three in January, the Nets’ reserve sniper stayed true to himself.
“I know I’m doing all the right things,” he said. “I can go to sleep at night knowing that, knowing that I’m giving everything I have to this game and this team and doing the right things for my teammates. So anything beyond that is outside of my control, and I’ve chosen to succumb to that and let go, and that’s where I’m at.”
That process-oriented approach, he said, is a gift and a curse, along with being his own biggest critic and being overly hard on himself. That approach has also helped him turn a corner, much like a Nets team that has won eight in a row, including seven without Kevin Durant.
Shamet is shooting 41.7% from three in the month of February, punctuated by a fiveof-nine three-point shooting performance in the Nets’ 129-92 win over the Orlando Magic on Thursday, Shamet’s best game of the season.
“You’re saying he’ll be over 50 percent in March,” Nets head coach Steve Nash joked. “Landry’s a really good shooter. We all know that. It’s just a new situation, new environment, new role trying to turn that corner and I think he’s started to have that confidence in what we’re doing and it’s great. He works hard and was very conscientious of his craft, and so proud of him for turning that corner and just sticking with it. It was great to see him make some shots, tonight, but in general he’s been playing better and better.”
For Shamet, and the other role players on a star-stacked Nets team, each night can be different. On some, maybe most nights, the stars will carry the load, and it’s the reserves’ job to support them on that quest. But on nights like Thursday against the Magic, the stars come out flat to start the game. That’s when it’s necessary for the second-unit scorers like Shamet to leave a mark.
Shamet gave reserve guard Tyler Johnson credit for impacting the game with his energy, defending the ball the full 94 feet of the floor while also hitting a pair of threes on his own. But the Nets outscored the Magic by a teamhigh 30 points in the 29 minutes Shamet played. He also recorded nine rebounds and brought a New York-style chutzpah to the defensive end.
“I think any bench player, especially on a team like this, has to embrace coming in and not really knowing fully what you’re gonna have to walk into,” he said. “It kind of changes from game to game, but you’ve just gotta be willing to come in with the right energy, have the right energy all the time, I think that’s No.1, and understand that every game might have a different role I guess you might say.”
Shamet is going to be key for a Nets team that lives and dies by the three ball, and the Nets gave up a first-round draft pick to pry him from the Clippers. So long as he continues to trust his work and live with the results, the shots should continue to fall.
“Trusting in what you do on the day-to-day, that you’re doing the right things, knowing what you have done in the past, what you’re capable of, and just trusting your process,” he said. “That’s kind of where I learned to trust in that and it’s been valuable.”