San Francisco Giants Rotation Faces Key Decision This Weekend

The San Francisco Giants will cram four games into three days at home against the Colorado Rockies, thanks to a doubleheader on Saturday.

With that, the Giants face a decision at the back end of that four-game series, according to reporting from NBC Sports Bay Area.

The first three starters are set, but Sunday’s game will likely be “Jordan Hicks’ last start or Alex Cobb’s first,” per the outlet.

Cobb is nearly ready to return from his injury rehab and after a strong start to the season while Hicks has trailed off in terms of performance, putting manager Bob Melvin in a bit of a spot.

Hicks has been a reliever most of his Major League career, but when the Giants signed him in the offseason they said they would convert him into a starter, something he wanted.

The early returns were promising.

He went 2-0 in his first six starts and kept his ERA under 2.00. Cobb and Robbie Ray started the season on the injured list. Blake Snell hit the IL after the season’s first three weeks. So Hicks’ performance was a great lift.

But the quality of those starts has gradually dropped. He went 2-2 with a 3.99 ERA in May, followed by an 0-2 June in which he had an ERA of 5.24. His three starts in July have been terrible — an 0-3 record and a 8.31 ERA.

NBC Sports Bay Area reported that the Giants would give Hicks one more start before a discussion about his role. But his last start on Tuesday — in which he gave up four earned runs and was unable to get out of the fourth inning — may have given them cause to reconsider.

Whether Hicks starts on Sunday may depend entirely upon Cobb’s readiness.

San Francisco had hoped Cobb would return earlier than this. He had offseason hip surgery and was expected to miss a portion of the regular season. But while doing rehab work for the hip he felt mild shoulder irritation before throwing a bullpen session on April 16. That landed him on the 60-day injured list four days later and took him out of the mix until at least late May.

He wasn’t ready to make a rehab start until June 30.

In his last rehab start this past weekend he was sharp, tossing five innings and not allowing a run. More importantly, he threw 60 pitches.

A return to the rotation would give the Giants another veteran arm as they try to stay in the playoff race and allow them to move Hicks to the bullpen.

As for the rest of the series, the Giants will start Kyle Harrison on Friday, followed by Blake Snell in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader and rookie Hayden Birdsong in Game 2.