Jordan Hicks has quietly found his way back to the role that fits him best, and the White Sox just got a front-row seat to it in the AL Wild Card Series.
Chicago leaned on Hicks in both games of its sweep of the Houston Astros, and he delivered exactly the kind of power relief the Giants never fully got from him after signing him to a four-year, $44 million deal. In Game 1, he worked four outs without giving up a run. In Game 2, he followed with two scoreless innings and three strikeouts as the White Sox punched their ticket to the ALDS.
That kind of outing serves as a sharp reminder of how San Francisco tried to use Hicks. The Giants spent 2024 and 2025 trying to turn him into a starter, but the plan never really matched who he had been for most of his big league career.
Hicks had spent almost all of his time in the majors as a hard-throwing reliever, and while the experiment looked promising at first, it didn’t hold up. He was excellent in his first month in the rotation, but the season wore on, his velocity slipped, and by the summer he was back in the bullpen.
San Francisco gave the starting role another shot in 2025, but Hicks struggled badly and eventually lost his rotation spot to Hayden Birdsong before being traded to Boston. The stint with the Red Sox went even worse. In 21 appearances, he posted an 8.20 ERA before Boston moved him to Chicago in the offseason.
With the White Sox, Hicks has settled back into a more familiar groove. After a rough beginning to the season, a midseason adjustment helped unlock him again, and he finished the regular season with a 3.94 ERA in 48 innings. He struck out 64 batters, and his fastball was again sitting at more than 99 miles per hour on average.
The Giants’ choice to try Hicks as a starter was always a gamble, even if it was the reason he signed there in the first place. But the postseason version Chicago just used against Houston looked a lot more like the pitcher he was meant to be.
In the end, San Francisco still landed the bigger prize in Rafael Devers in the deal that sent Hicks, Kyle Harrison, James Tibbs, and Jose Bello to Boston. Even so, Hicks’ run with the White Sox is a clean reminder that the starter plan was never the right fit.
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Giants Face A Tough Offseason Roster Call They Cant Dodge
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There is at least a little flexibility in the margins, since San Francisco does not have a long list of looming free agents to sort through. Backup catcher Knizner and pitcher Brubaker could both make sense on low-cost returns, while the club also has a decision on Wicks 2027 option as his injury situation remains part of the equation. For the Giants, the challenge is less about chasing splash and more about clearing space without backing themselves into a corner. [Read more 🡒]
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For San Francisco, the bigger issue is that the trade only sharpened an old concern instead of solving it. The Giants have spent recent seasons searching for reliable rotation answers, and moving Ray was part of that ongoing attempt to sort out the pitching depth chart. Even if the decision made sense at the time, his postseason appearance only adds another layer to the question of whether the Giants have done enough to stabilize a staff that has too often been forced to piece things together. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Still Have A Core Worth Believing In After 2026
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Rafael Devers is the piece that keeps the whole picture interesting. He had 37 homers before being shut down for core surgery, and the expectation is that he should be ready for 2027, which matters because his impact in San Francisco has already been unmistakable. Through his first 222 games with the Giants, he reached 48 home runs, putting himself alongside franchise legends and giving the organization a cornerstone hitter around whom the next version of the roster can still be built. [Read more 🡒]