Time Has Come for San Francisco Giants To End the Failed Jordan Hicks Experiment

The San Francisco Giants made a bold decision when they signed Jordan Hicks to a four-year, $44 million deal ahead of the 2024 season.

For the first three seasons of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, he was used as a relief pitcher. Eight times in 2022, out of his 35 appearances, he took the mound as a starting pitcher.

The experiment was short lived as Hicks made 65 appearances out of the bullpen with the Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays in 2023 before hitting the free agent market.

When the Giants signed him, they decided that they were going to try the starting pitching experiment again.

Injuries played a part in him making 29 appearances, 20 of which were starts, in 2024. The results were certainly encouraging with Hicks having a 4.01 ERA across 20 starts and 98.2 innings with 90 strikeouts.

As a reliever, he had a 4.91 ERA in nine appearances and 11 innings.

It was enough for San Francisco to commit to him being a starting pitcher again in 2025. He was locked into a role heading into spring training and the team had a lot of optimism after he spent the offseason preparing his body for the rigors of being a starting pitcher.

Unfortunately, that experiment needs to come to an end because Hicks is struggling mightily.

Will Giants Move Jordan Hicks to the Bullpen?

It has been a positive development that he has stayed healthy, making an MLB-high tying nine starts, but the production has been lacking.

Hicks has a 1-5 record with a 6.55 ERA. A win hasn’t been recorded since his first start of the season on March 31. Since throwing six shutout innings that day against the Houston Astros, he has recorded one quality start out of eight chances.

At least three earned runs have been charged against him in seven out of eight of those starts and on four occasions, at least five runs were scored. He isn’t providing much length either, averaging 5.04 innings per outing.

His -0.8 bWAR is the worst on the pitching staff and manager Bob Melvin needs to consider making a change sooner rather than later.

Given his track record as a relief pitcher, which is strong with a 3.71 ERA in 228 innings with 33 saves and 236 strikeouts, the transition back to the bullpen would be easier for him to make than other players on the staff.

It was always a risk deploying Hicks as a starting pitcher, but it is time for a change to be made.

The Giants aren’t lacking options to replace him, either.

Hayden Birdsong and Kyle Harrison have both performed well this season and are deserving of a shot at a starting rotation spot.

Harrison is likely in a better spot to start Major League games right now because he was starting in the minor leagues before his promotion, but Birdsong has thrived in his multi-inning relief role in 2025. Ramping up and stretching out to be able to give 5+ innings and outing shouldn’t be too difficult for the young righty.

Some of the metrics for Hicks are solid, but he is performing as a league-average starting pitcher. San Francisco needs more than that to compete in the loaded National League West, with Harrison and Birdsong providing much more upside in the starting rotation.