Three weeks ago when Aaron Hicks had a three-homer game against the Phillies it seemed all but certain that he’d be the Opening Day center fielder in Minnesota and now the Twins have made it official.
Hicks, who ranked among Baseball America‘s top 100 prospects this year for the fourth time, will be making the jump from Double-A to the big leagues at age 23 after the Twins traded both Denard Span and Ben Revere for young pitching help this offseason. He has very good range and an exceptional arm, and the switch-hitter batted .286 with 13 homers, 79 walks, and an .844 OPS in 129 games at Double-A last season.
By starting Hicks on Opening Day the Twins are not taking service time considerations into account in order to delay his eventual free agency, but if that was ever a part of their decision-making process with the former first-round pick it became tougher and tougher to justify a short, season-opening stint at Triple-A as he hit .350 in 18 spring training games.