How Giants’ 2025 rotation stacks up heading into spring training

How Giants’ 2025 rotation stacks up heading into spring training originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Before he was formally introduced as the new shortstop for the Giants last month, Willy Adames went down to the field to take pictures. As he walked behind the plate, Adames yelled to two players working out down the right field line. He was trying to get the attention of Jordan Hicks, a longtime opponent in the National League Central.

It was no surprise to anyone in the front office that Hicks was playing catch on that chilly December morning. He has been in San Francisco all offseason, preparing for his second full season as a starting pitcher.

“Every morning I walk in there and Jordan Hicks is working,” general manager Zack Minasian said last week. “I think he’s just trying to get himself in the best shape possible to continue to throw more innings. I think all of us saw early in the season (last year) how good he can be in that role, so him extending that deeper into the season, I think that would be the best thing for the club.”

Minasian and new president of baseball operations Buster Posey have kept some cards close this winter, but they have been adamant that Hicks, a longtime reliever, is in their rotation plans, even with Justin Verlander now in the fold. Posey said he wants a competitive camp, and while Logan Webb, Verlander and Robbie Ray have firmer grips on rotation spots, Hicks should enter camp in a few weeks as the favorite to be the No. 4 or No. 5 starter.

Kyle Harrison would seem to be the frontrunner for the other spot, but Posey mentions often that he wants his young starters to compete. Hayden Birdsong and Landen Roupp will get an opportunity, too.

“There’s going to be competition,” Posey said after Verlander’s deal became official last week. “There’s going to be competition for these final couple of spots and we feel good about the depth that we have in starting pitching right now and some of the flexibility that’s potentially going to give us.”

In a way, Hicks is emblematic of what the Giants have in every spot other than the one occupied by Webb, who might be the most reliable starting pitcher in the big leagues right now. After Webb takes the ball on Opening Day on March 27 in Cincinnati, every other spot will come with upside, but also question marks.

Verlander will be three seasons removed from his third Cy Young Award and he posted a 3.22 ERA with the New York Mets and Houston Astros in 2023. He’s also about to turn 42 and his ERA jumped to 5.48 during an injury-plagued 2024 season.

Ray won the AL Cy Young a year before Verlander and showed that his repertoire remains elite when he returned from Tommy John surgery last July and struck out eight Los Angeles Dodgers in five no-hit innings. But he had a 5.26 ERA the rest of his first season in San Francisco and missed the final month with an injury.

Hicks had a 2.82 ERA through 15 starts and was consistently giving the Giants five innings in his first real shot as a starting pitcher. But he hit the wall physically and also ran into an innings limit; he was in the bullpen by the end of July and finished the season with a 4.10 ERA.

Harrison has a 4.47 ERA in 31 big league starts, but he’s just 23 years old and the Giants chalk up a lot of last season’s struggles to the lefty pitching through an injury at a time when the rotation couldn’t afford to have another starter go down. Nobody at Oracle Park has forgotten how electric he was in his home debut in 2023, and if his fastball velocity returns, the Giants are confident he’ll take off.

Birdsong’s rookie season included a 12-strikeout gem at Coors Field and 11 strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings in his final start of the year. If he can show better command as a sophomore, he could be the one who entrenches himself in the rotation. Roupp made just four starts last year, but he showed enough to put himself in the mix when the Giants report to Scottsdale in a few weeks.

Overall, it’s a fascinating mix, one that likely will decide whether the Giants are NL wild-card contenders in Posey’s first season or continue to hang out in fourth place.

If you want to be optimistic, you can point out that the National League’s most durable starter will be followed by two former Cy Young Award winners, a veteran who might sit in the upper nineties in his second year as a starter, and a collection of exciting young arms. If you prefer pessimism, you can note that Webb is the only sure thing in the rotation and that the Giants will regret not pairing him with a much safer bet like Corbin Burnes or bringing back Blake Snell to be the co-ace.

The Giants, of course, are being optimistic. They believe that Verlander will bounce back physically, and the hope is that Hicks, Harrison, Birdsong, Roupp and others benefit from simply being around a future Hall of Famer.

“I’m just really excited for our young guys to watch the way this guy works,” Posey said. “I know that when you’re a guy that’s driven like Justin is, your number one priority is coming in and taking care of your business each and every day and if you have time to wrap your arm around another guy, you do that. But if he comes in and just takes care of his business, for them to be able to watch him and see the way that a 20-year-vet goes about it day in and day out, that in itself is going to be more than enough for them to grow in their own career.”

There’s no doubt that the young starters will benefit in some way, and not just the ones competing for back-end rotation spots in Scottsdale. Mason Black, Keaton Winn, Tristan Beck and Carson Whisenhunt are among the group that will spend six weeks soaking up the sun but also all that they can from a man chasing 300 wins.

The Giants will need them all to be quick learners. As he talked about the rotation last week, Minasian said he’s looking at the season “as a marathon.” The competition at the back of the rotation will get plenty of attention this spring, but ultimately the Giants will need everyone who is involved, and probably a few more guys, too.

“It’s probably going to take all of them to get to where we want to go,” Minasian said.

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