Jordan Hicks is starting to look like the kind of reliever the White Sox hoped they were getting, and the turnaround is showing up at exactly the right time for a bullpen that could use the help.
For much of this season, the numbers told a messier story. Hicks was walking more batters than he was striking out, his ERA climbed above 5.00, and a lat strain eventually sent him to the injured list. But inside the White Sox bullpen, Sean Newcomb never lost faith.
"I've been excited since spring to see how that would go, getting back to his old role," Newcomb said. "There's not many guys in the game with that kind of electric stuff.
Obviously when he was in San Francisco he was in a different role. Now he's had a year to lock into just one inning, two innings of just pure, nasty stuff.
It's been cool to watch."
Since returning from the IL, Hicks has looked far more like himself. In nine innings across his first stretch back, he allowed three hits, one walk and no runs while striking out 15, and his hardest pitch reached 101.7 mph.
The White Sox have eased him back in, with his first outing off the injured list coming in a 10th-inning jam in Detroit that was already beyond saving. Even so, the stuff has been obvious.
"He’s been great," said Will Venable. "Really good use of the four-seam fastball and the two-seam in the zone.
That’s the most important thing, that he’s throwing hard. The sweeper has been really good.
The story for him is that he’s got his good stuff and throwing a lot of strikes. When he does that, he’s really hard to handle."
Hicks said the biggest thing is simple: he feels better, he’s getting more swing-and-miss and more ground balls, and he wants hitters to get themselves out early.
"It's hard to talk about, I'm more of a do it person," Hicks said. "I feel good and I like getting swing-and-miss or ground balls.
If you want to swing at it early and put it on the ground, that's ideal. Less pitches, lower pitch count.
But if I get to two strikes, I'm trying to strike you out. That's the mindset right now."
The key change has been mechanical. Early in the season, the White Sox asked Hicks to lower his arm slot, believing it would fit his body better.
Hicks bought in, and part of his optimism was tied to the idea that he could get back to touching 102 mph with that new look. It didn’t play out that way.
By the end of May, Hicks had a 5.60 ERA, 17 walks and 15 strikeouts in 17⅔ innings, and his sinker was averaging 98.4 mph before the lat strain sidelined him for a month. The reset after that injury brought a different answer: his arm slot has come back up.
"We felt at times the slot was getting too low, kind of scoopy in execution, but he also had brought it up right when he went on the IL," said pitching coach Zach Bove. "I just have this view of anything: Obviously, we're going to use all the information.
We're going to be objective, we're going to see how it is. But also it's a trial-and-error process.
He self-reports that maybe the lower slot feels natural, but what are the results? What are the hitters telling you?
The command wasn't good. Maybe the shape on a movement plot was good, but hitters maybe barrel it.
But his problem was the walks."
Hicks said the higher slot has helped his four-seam fastball play better, especially out of the bullpen.
"I've always -- well, not always -- but I felt like like it's a good spot for me to be in right now, especially out of bullpen," Hicks said. "Going onto the IL, I knew I wanted to work on the arm slot and then work on throwing more four-seams.
My four-seam is metrically better from that slot too. I was trying to use it, but it just didn't have the same effect early on.
This has been better. The slot definitely helps with getting more ride on the four-seam."
That change has altered the shape of his arsenal. Bove said the sinker has lost some of its sinking action with the higher slot, but the White Sox believe the tradeoff is worth it because hitters now have to respect a legitimate four-seam fastball instead of sitting on pitches that all look like they’re headed down. Hicks’ strike-zone rate has stayed nearly the same before and after the injury, at 48 percent and 47.2 percent, but hitters are chasing much more often now, with his O-swing rate jumping from 20.2 to 41.8.
"They can't just be like, 'I'm gonna see this guy down because he's got sinker and sweeper'," Bove said "'I gotta see up too.' You put him in this conundrum, so to speak, and it's just gonna give him more options and we're gonna take those odds."
Hicks said the goal is to keep things simple and let the work show up on the mound.
"I'm less rotational with everything, I'm just through the mound and through the catcher," Hicks said. "I try not to overthink it.
Just go out there, be confident myself, and let the work that you put in take over. I can't be out there thinking about like all the little things I just worked on during rehab to get back here.
But when you're out there practicing, you're hoping that it turns into muscle memory."
There’s also a bigger bullpen picture here. With Seranthony Domínguez struggling and the White Sox still looking for late-inning answers ahead of the deadline, Hicks’ resurgence gives them a real option if they want to lean on him in higher-leverage spots again. He has never thrown a bat-missing four-seam fastball as often as he has since coming off the IL, using it 22.8 percent of the time, which suggests this might be more than a short-term fix.
Bove said the trust is there, and Hicks has earned it.
"He's been around, he's done it, he's pitched obviously in extremely high leverage, so that definitely is a benefit," said Bove. "There's the trust that we have in him, but really he has it himself.
It's like, 'Yeah, I don't care.' It could be a one-run ball game, middle of the lineup, it's 'All right, Hicksy, go get 'em.'"
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