Hicks likely to start Sunday vs. Price

BOSTON -- Aaron Hicks is ready to return to action for the Yankees, just in time for the team's first regular-season look at David Price in a Red Sox uniform.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said on Friday that Hicks will be available at any point of this weekend's series at Fenway Park, and he is a likely candidate to start in the series finale against the left-handed Price on Sunday.
"Definitely a possibility," Girardi said.
Hicks has not started since injuring his left shoulder attempting a diving catch in an April 22 game against the Rays, though a cortisone injection has helped him avoid a stint on the disabled list. He appeared as a pinch-runner against the Rangers on Wednesday, and Girardi said that he could have started Hicks on Friday but decided against it for "strategic reasons."
"[Hicks' absence] didn't really affect us a whole lot, in a sense," Girardi said. "We were using him against right-handers when he didn't start for defense. We didn't have a whole lot of leads in the last four days since he got hurt. That didn't affect us.
"You worry because there are times that you'd have him start; maybe you give someone a day off and they need a day off. His presence will become really important after we get through this stretch after we have the day off Monday. I think we've got 20 days in a row. So he's going to be in there."

Hicks, 26, is hitting just .091 (2-for-22) in early duty with the Yankees, but he had made his presence felt on defense, including airing out the hardest throw recorded to date by Statcast™, a one-hop rocket to home plate on April 20 that was clocked at 105.5 mph.