For the second straight season Aaron Hicks was the Twins’ Opening Day center fielder only to hit terribly and lose the job. This time he’s been demoted to Double-A, where he played in 2012 before the Twins misguidedly decided that he was ready to make the jump to the big leagues as a 23-year-old.
Hicks has actually been on the MLB disabled list with shoulder problems, but if not for the injury he’d probably have been demoted to the minors a couple weeks ago. He’s hit just .194 through 129 career games in the majors.
Not so long ago Hicks was one of the best outfield prospects in baseball and he’s still just 24 years old, but he’s a mess right now. Last month he gave up switch-hitting, which he’d done all his life, and then less than a month later he decided to take it back up again. Hicks has been terrible, but Minnesota’s handling of Hicks has also been highly questionable throughout.