The first big move.
After a fair amount of speculation and calls from the fans, the San Francisco Giants are officially shaking up their rotation. The Giants have had their same five-man rotation all season, but on Saturday, manager Bob Melvin announced that things will be changing this week. On Tuesday, when the Giants host the Kansas City Royal, 23-year old flamethrower Hayden Birdsong will take the mound for his first start of the year. In turn, struggling righty Jordan Hicks will move to the bullpen, where he has spent the bulk of his career.
This started to feel like a very real possibility after Hicks barely made it through two innings on Wednesday, giving up seven hits, one walk, and five runs in a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Hicks’ season has been a disaster by many metrics: he has a 6.55 ERA, a 1.52 WHIP, is allowing 10.5 hits per nine innings, and has one of the lowest chase rates of any pitcher in baseball. At the same time, he has a sky-high groundball rate, has been touching triple-digits even late in games, and has, by the advanced metrics, gotten very unlucky. His expected ERA (3.75) paints him as a quality pitcher, while his FIP (3.48) is second-best among Giants starters, trailing only ace Logan Webb.
Still and all, there’s only so long you can trot out a pitcher with an ERA in the 7s, especially when the Giants have two top-100 prospects waiting in the bullpen, and a third dominating in AAA. And so Hicks returns to the bullpen and Birdsong, who has been so impressive this year, takes his place.
Birdsong shockingly made the roster as a reliever, because the Giants were so enamored with his pitching that they didn’t want him wasting away in AAA. In 23.1 innings out of the bullpen, Birdsong has been the antithesis of Hicks, with an elite whiff rate, a low groundball rate, a great ERA (2.31), and a poor FIP (4.74).
Still just 23 years old, Birdsong — along with Kyle Harrison, who is now the next man up — is viewed as the future of the Giants rotation, and now they get to get started seeing how good that future can be.
As for Hicks, he’ll presumably slide into Birdsong’s role as a long reliever who can jump back into the rotation if necessary. According to manager Bob Melvin, Hicks took the news very well, and is ready to contribute in a new way.
Hayden Birdsong will start Tuesday. Jordan Hicks is moving to bullpen. Bob Melvin said Hicks was “great about it.” Melvin: “He said I want to do what I can to help the team win.”
The Giants have the best bullpen ERA in the Majors, but are just 18th in rotation ERA. We’ll see if this exciting change can help solidify both groups.