SF Giants starter has bulked up to avoid a repeat of 2024 season

If the SF Giants are going to have any success in 2025, they are going to need a strong starting rotation. Jordan Hicks showed promise as a starter in 2024, but he has bulked up to avoid his endurance issues in 2025.

The Giants signed Hicks last offseason with the intention of converting him from a reliever into a starter. It was an interesting experiment on paper given Hicks' velocity, and it garnered some very promising results early on. Through the first month of the season in 2024, Hicks sported an ERA of 1.59 and was able to pitch deep into games.

However, as the season wore on it was clear that things began to catch up with him. It was clear that he was struggling through starts and was regularly fighting to just make it through five innings by the summer. The unforgiving heat of June, July, and August surely did not help matters.

SF Giants starter Jordan Hicks taking steps to avoid repeat of 2025

By the end of July, with his ERA at 4.01, Hicks returned to the bullpen. He finished the season on the IL, but he is now entering 2025 with the goal of staying in the rotation for the entire season. That is why he has added roughly 14 pounds of weight, per Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle, in order to better manage the rigors of starting every fifth day at the big league level. Our own Jeff Young has already noted how Hicks' goal is to make 30 starts in 2025 which would be a marked improvement over the 20 starts he made in 2024.

President of baseball operations Buster Posey has already given Hicks a vote of confidence, saying he believes he will bounce back as a starting pitcher. The Giants are in a bit of an awkward spot with Hicks where, making $11 million per season, he could either be an affordable starter or he could be an overpriced reliever. That is why the Giants are incentivized to let him try and figure things out in the rotation.

The 28-year-old Texan should be the beneficiary of having Justin Verlander on the team, though. As Hicks is still trying to find his footing as a starter, there are not many better mentors to have than the 41-year-old Verlander who is one of the best pitchers of his generation.

We will see how Hicks fares in his second season as a starter, but the fact he is bulking up in preaparation for the season shows that he knows he needs more endurance. Let's hope he can hit his goal of making 30 starts.