Reports: SF Giants, hard-throwing right-hander agree to four-year, $44 million deal

The San Francisco Giants reportedly made a move to bolster their pitching staff Friday, coming to terms with free agent right-hander Jordan Hicks on a four-year contract worth $44 million.

Hicks, 27, has spent almost his entire five-year MLB career — including last season with the St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays — as a reliever. But the Houston native could get a chance to start games for San Francisco.

Hicks’ four-year deal is the most years Farhan Zaidi’s Giants front office has committed to a free-agent pitcher. Logan Webb’s five-year contract extension is the biggest contract overall Zaidi has completed with a pitcher.

Hicks’ deal, which will not become official until he passes a physical, comes a day after another Giants free agent pitching target — Marcus Stroman — reached a two-year, $37 deal with the Yankees.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who noted that Hicks is expected to work as a starter, was the first to report the news.

Signing Hicks is a bet that the Giants can bottle up the best of Hicks and repackage it in a new form.

After getting traded from St. Louis to Toronto last year, Hicks posted a 2.63 ERA in 25 games as a full-time reliever for the Blue Jays. He allowed only four home runs in 65.2 innings through the entire 2023 campaign, featuring an arsenal that includes both a four-seam fastball and sinker that can both reach over 100 mph and a sweeper that pairs off them.

Hicks’ fastball has been registered as high as 105 mph in 2018 — the fastest on record by any pitcher other than Aroldis Chapman. Last season, only the Twins’ Jhoan Duran threw a faster pitch than Hicks’ 104.3 fastball against the Nationals in mid-June.

But Hicks never threw more than two innings in a game last year. He hasn’t started a game since 2022, the only season he wasn’t used exclusively out of the bullpen. That year, he went 0-5 with a 5.47 ERA in eight starts. He topped out at a career-high five innings on May 13, 2022, when he limited the Giants to three runs.

The Giants will be tasked with getting the most out of Hicks without much of the infrastructure that helped maximize pitchers like Kevin Gausman, Alex Cobb, and others.

Brian Bannister, San Francisco’s former director of pitching, joined the White Sox this winter and pitching coach Andrew Bailey is now with the Red Sox. Hicks’ development could be a test for new pitching coach Bryan Price and bullpen coach Garvin Alston, who has earned praise in the organization by working with Giants prospects at Triple-A.

If Hicks can stick in the rotation, the Giants at full strength will have him, Webb, Alex Cobb, Robbie Ray, Kyle Harrison, Tristan Beck, Keaton Winn, and Ross Stripling. That on-paper depth will be tested in the front half of the season, as Cobb and Ray will be recovering from injuries.