ST. LOUIS — Jordan Hicks is having a hard time transforming himself from one of baseball’s hardest-throwing relievers into a starting pitcher who can carry his team deep into games. His struggles with efficiency could force the team to confront the question of whether or not the makeover is worth it.
Hicks walked five batters before he got an out in the fourth inning of an 8-1 loss to the Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium, forcing yet another early hook from manager Oliver Marmol in what has become an early-season pattern of short starts for Hicks.
The loss snapped the Cardinals’ four-game winning streak.
“It’s a good question and one we’ll evaluate,” Marmol said, when asked how much longer the team will keep Hicks in a starting role. “At the end of the day, we want to feel like we’re competing and, when guys go out there, to think they have a shot. I think the combination of not commanding his pitches and just the overall pace made that difficult.”
Hicks, 25, still has plenty of raw weapons and talent most pitchers would envy. His fastball has dipped a couple of ticks off its average of around 101.1 mph from 2019, when he pitched exclusively in relief, to a still-intimidating 98.8 mph now that he has to try to navigate a lineup at least a couple of times. His high-spin slider remains devastatingly difficult to hit, with 3.5 inches of vertical movement per Statcast, a devilish pitch that breaks 70% more than the average Major League slider.
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