SF Giants must decide if hard-throwing pitcher will rejoin rotation in 2025

The SF Giants conducted an experiment in 2024 by letting Jordan Hicks be in the starting rotation. The results after year one of this strategy were inconclusive which sets up a big decision for 2025.

The beginning of this experiment made it look like a masterstroke by the Giants front office. Hicks pitched great in the first month of the season and was arguably their best starter. He had an ERA of 1.49 at the end of April and went 5 innings or more in every start that month.

Will SF Giants let Jordan Hicks rejoin the rotation in 2025

However, as the season dragged on his numbers got worse and worse. His ERA ballooned to 4.11 by the end of July and his starts got shorter and shorter. His velocity began to dip and it was clear during the dog days of summer that he was feeling fatigued and that his arm was getting worn out. 

That is why the Giants made the move to put Hicks back in the bullpen around the middle of the season. Prior to 2024 he had spent basically his entire big league career in the bullpen so it was a role he was familiar with. He was used as a long reliever on some occasions and was used in leverage spots as well. He did alright out of the bullpen, allowing just one earned run out of the pen in August and regained some of the velocity he had lost when he was starting games.

He finished the season on the injured list which may have been for the best so he could rest his arm after a season in which it was very taxed, totaling 109 and 2/3 innings pitched which was the most of his big-league career by far. 

His middling results in 2024 set up an interesting decision for the Giants in 2025. They may decide to give him another go in the rotation, but there is the chance that fatigue could prevent him from being effective throughout the entire year just like in 2024.

The new Buster Posey-led front office could also decide that Hicks is better suited for the bullpen and have him start the season there which would make him an expensive reliever at $12.5 million per year the next several years, but they may decide that is where they can get the most value out of him without wearing him out and potentially injuring him.

Hicks certainly proved he has the potential to be an effective big-league starter in 2024. The question is whether he has the stamina to endure a long season which will force the new front office to make a decision about how he is used.