ST. LOUIS - Jordan Hicks is slated to take the mound for the first time as a starting pitcher in the big leagues on Tuesday, April 12th in the series opener against the Kansas City Royals.
St. Louis Cardinals Manager Oli Marmol made the announcement of Hicks' promotion as the club's fifth starter on Tuesday, April 6th. The 25 year old, triple-digit-thrower was a major talking point in Friday night's airing of Sports Open Line with Kevin Wheeler:
“He’s gonna come in and start the game, and they’ll evaluate it inning by inning," Wheeler explains. "[He’s] not what you would think of technically as an opener, which is a guy who comes in, pitches to the top of the order, and then comes out of the game.” You can listen to the full segment on Jordan Hicks in the audio clip at the top of this page.
In this revised starting pitcher role, President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak makes clear that Hicks' innings will be monitored and any outings that rack up his pitch count could prompt a pitching change.
"Let's say Hicks has a 30 pitch first inning. He's probably not going back out there," Wheeler explains as he paraphrases Mozeliak's comments from KMOX's Kegs and Eggs Opening Day celebration. "If he goes out and has a 15 pitch first inning, he probably is going to go back out there. And then you assess it again. Those heavy workload innings are the problem that you want to stay away from for a guy like Hicks."
While the idea of choosing a starting pitcher with zero major league starts isn't ideal, it gives the bullpen more opportunities to work and allows manager Oli Marmol to think outside the box while waiting on a healthy status report from Jack Flaherty. "I don't love the idea of an opener as a game plan, but I like the idea of being creative, however you need to be, when you're dealing with covering for injuries," Wheeler says.
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The regular use of Hicks may help keep him healthy, too. With the schedule being the starter every five games, this allows Hicks to fall into a routine- drastically different than the life of a reliever, where you can be thrust into the game with little notice. "Maybe you get more out of him using him for 2 or 3 innings on one day, as opposed to 2 or 3 outings during the course of a five day stretch," Wheeler states. "You're probably going to get at least the same number of innings out of him. You're getting him at the beginning instead of the end, but you're controlling the workload. You're controlling the ability for him to come out there and warm up properly, and not have to do the quick 'get-up-and-get-hot-thing.'"
Jordan Hicks has the first pitch against the Royals next Tuesday at 6:45pm CT. The opposing Kansas City pitcher has yet to be announced. KMOX will have all the action on 1120AM and 98.7FM, with the pregame show beginning at 5:50pm.