Jordan Hicks deal with Giants
\n\n”, “providerName”: “Twitter”, “providerUrl”: “https://twitter.com”, “thumbnail_url”:null, “type”: “oembed”, “width”:550, “contentType ::rich Put him at the unfortunate risk of a second operation. That's something his new team likely took into account when he signed his new contract. Despite the usual pitcher risks, Hicks seems to have found the right combination of pure matter and knowing how to get the best results from it -hicks-deal-with-giants”,”contentType”:”news”,”subHeadline” :null,”summary”:”The Giants have agreed to a four-year, $44 million contract with right-hander Jordan Hicks, a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand on Friday. The deal includes performance bonuses of $2 million per year based on innings pitched, according to a source. Hicks is expected to join San Francisco's rotation after his deployment.”,”tagline({\”formatString\”:\”none\”})”:null,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”storytype-article”,”title”:”Article”,”type”:”article”},{“__typename”:”TeamTag”,”slug”:”teamid-137″,”title”:”San Francisco Giants”,”team”:{“__ref”:”Team:137″},”type”:”team”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-663855″,”title”:”Jordan Hicks”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:663855″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”rumors”,”title”:”rumors”,”type”:”taxonomy”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”apple-news”,”title”:”Apple News”,”type”:”taxonomy”},{“__typename”:”ContributorTag”,”slug”:”maria-guardado”,”title”:”Maria Guardado”,”type”:”contributor”},{“__typename”:”ContributorTag”,”slug”:”brent-maguire”,”title”:”Brent Maguire”,”type”:”contributor”}],”type”: “story”, “thumbnail”: “https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/{formatInstructions}/mlb/yus2lakho0zd6rm5w7tr”, “title”: “Jordan Hicks dealings. “ Giants”}},”Team:141″:{“__typename”:”Team”,”id”:141},”Person:663855″:{“__typename”:”Person”,”id”:663855}, ” Team:137″:{“__typename”:”Team”, “id”:137}}} window.adobeAnalytics = {“reportingSuiteId”: “mlbglobal08, mlbcom08”, “linkInternalFilters”: “mlb”} window.globalState = { “tracking_title”: “Major League Baseball”, “lang”: “en”} window.appId = '' /*–>*/
January 12, 2024
The Giants have agreed to a four-year, $44 million contract with right-hander Jordan Hicks, a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand on Friday. The deal includes performance bonuses of $2 million per year based on innings pitched, according to a source. According to a report from ESPN's Jeff Passan, Hicks is expected to be added to San Francisco's rotation after being used primarily as a backup in his career.
The club has not confirmed the deal, which includes performance bonuses of $2 million per year based on innings pitched.
Hicks is the Giants' second major pitching acquisition of this offseason, joining left-hander Robbie Ray, who was acquired from the Mariners last week for Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani.
With Ray (Tommy John surgery) and fellow veteran Alex Cobb (left hip surgery) expected to miss the start of the season due to injuries, the Giants had attempted to sign other pitchers, joining Logan Webb, Kyle Harrison and Keaton Winn could join, Ross Stripling and Tristan Beck as rotation options at the start of the year.
“We need to have at least a few rotation spots where we have flexibility, whether it's young pitchers that are available to choose from or guys that can move back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen,” President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi said last week. “It will be crucial for us to have some flexibility there to be able to use those people again. It doesn't preclude adding a free agent starting player who has been in the rotation since Opening Day and is a guy we'd like to get 30 starts from, but it changes the equation a bit. It places great value on a certain degree of flexibility.”
Given its premium quality, Hicks is certainly an interesting option. The 27-year-old is one of the hardest pitchers we've ever seen – he owns two of the fastest throws (over 105 mph) in the pitch tracking era (2008-present). What's more exciting is that he has his best season as a top player behind him. After a brief experiment as a starter in a few games in 2022, Hicks threw tough pitching out of the bullpen in 2023 and hit big in 65 appearances.
Hicks reached 50 innings for the third time in 2023. In those three seasons, Hicks posted career-best marks in ERA (3.29), expected ERA (3.30), FIP (3.23), strikeout rate (28.4%) and whiff rate ( 28.2). %). For the first time in his career, Hicks was able to use his otherworldly skills to make hitters miss while his normally high ground ball rate still remained just under 60%.
The biggest change the right-hander made was joining the ever-popular sweeping movement. With the new sweeper, Hicks now has a breaking ball that reaches about 87 mph and breaks a foot in terms of horizontal break. Paired with his 100 mph sinker that travels nearly 16 inches in the other direction, Hicks has an awkward combination of two pitches moving in opposite directions. Hicks' sweeper produced a 59.5% whiff rate – the third highest among any pitch type with at least 50 strikes against it.
If there's any cause for concern, it's the fact that Hicks has already undergone Tommy John surgery once in 2019 and is exhibiting strange things that could make him the unfortunate risk of a second surgery. That's something his new team likely took into account when he signed his new contract. Despite the usual pitcher risks, Hicks seems to have found the right combination of pure matter and knowing how to get the best results from it.