Orioles rub Aaron Hicks salt in Yankees' wound with Tuesday night tweet

The Orioles think being 18 games over .500 and in second place in a loaded East gives them bragging rights over the vaunted Yankees, huh?

Well, they're ... they're, uh, right. They're kind of right about that.

The O's took two out of three from the Bombers the last time the two teams linked up, but, perhaps more importantly, also took Aaron Hicks with them after the outfielder was shockingly DFA'd during a weekend series in Cincinnati.

After Hicks cleared waivers, the Orioles grabbed him and footed the Yankees with the entirety of the nearly-$30 million bill still owed to the left fielder ... who's now a center fielder, by the way.

Because not only did he rediscover his swing in Baltimore seemingly seconds after landing -- crediting his hitting spree to a simple tweak made by the Orioles' coaches -- but he's also spry and fit as a fiddle now after years of staring at fair balls in the Bronx and refusing to move. What is happening?

Hicks went yard -- again -- in the midst of Baltimore's 11-6 romp over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night, giving the Orioles' social media team good reason to make a simple statement of fact.

Do Yankees miss Aaron Hicks? Orioles rub it in.

Couldn't be me! Well, actually, it could be me, but the Yankees instead decided to cut bait on their down-in-the-dumps ex-teammate after his first good week in years, leading directly to his resurgence in Maryland.

Or, again, it was probably the Orioles coaches spotting something that Dillon Lawson either missed or willfully ignored.

The mystery of Hicks' short-term success might clear itself up once he's got a larger sample size of at-bats in a different uniform to make judgments on. The facts are the facts, though, and so far, the facts say he's hitting .364 with a 1.155 OPS in an Orioles uniform (and with a beard).

The defensive juggernaut he's become is easily the most perplexing part. Can "getting your mojo back" really remove all hesitancy and make your routes crisp again? You don't have to sell me very hard on the Yankees' hitting coaches acting foolishly and turning a blind eye to quick fixes. The fact that Hicks is a quality center fielder again casts doubt on whether he was giving all-out effort during his final years in the Bronx.

You know what? Not my place to dwell. The Orioles have every right to hand me this L.