Jordan Hicks wasn’t but reaching triple digits when our 2017 St. Louis Cardinals Prime Prospects record was printed in January of that 12 months. Ranked 14th within the system on the time, the 2015 third-round select of Texas’s Cyprus Creek Excessive College was throwing — per Eric Longenhagen — a comparably modest 96 mph. That quickly modified. The high-octane right-hander went on to eclipse the 100 mark that summer time, and early the subsequent season he was clocked at 105 whereas pitching within the huge leagues in opposition to the Philadelphia Phillies.
He’s since ridden a little bit of a rollercoaster. Hicks adopted a stable 2018 rookie marketing campaign by logging 14 saves and a 3.14 ERA over two-plus months in 2019, however he blew out his elbow in June and underwent Tommy John surgical procedure. As a Sort-1 diabetic, he sat out all the 2020 pandemic marketing campaign. Extra elbow woes cropped up in 2021, limiting him to only 10 huge league innings.
Adjustments of deal with have been notable in Hicks’ subsequent seasons, as have his job descriptions. The righty remained a reliever all through 2023 — a 12 months that noticed him dealt from the Cardinals to the Toronto Blue Jays on the commerce deadline — however he was then transformed to a starter after signing as a free agent with the San Francisco Giants previous to final season. His success in that function having been a combined bag, Hicks now finds himself again within the bullpen — with one more group. Acquired by the Boston Crimson Sox as a part of final month’s Rafael Devers commerce, he has gone on to make 9 appearances and register a pair of saves whereas permitting 4 earned runs over seven 1.3 innings. His fastball velocity has topped out at 101.5 mph.
What did his 2017 FanGraphs scouting report seem like? Furthermore, what does he give it some thought all these years later? Wanting to seek out out, I shared a few of what Eric wrote and requested Hicks to reply to it.
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“A comparatively undercooked prep arm from the 2015 draft.”
“Undercooked? I assume when you’re cooking a steak and also you need it medium, I used to be uncommon,” Hicks mentioned of that quote. “I didn’t have numerous innings. At that time I had solely thrown round 50 innings, and one other 50 in highschool. So, it was perhaps 50 varsity innings and 50 professional innings. I believe that’s most likely what he meant by that.”
“His fastball sits 90-94, will contact 96, and is available in at an odd angle with some late sink.”
“That sounds proper,” replied Hicks. “I used to be most likely hitting 98 by then, to be truthful, however I used to be sitting between 90 and 96. As for the odd angle, I assume that may have been my arm slot being slightly decrease — means decrease than it’s now. Not sidearm, however low. And positively not constant.
“The sink is one thing that’s at all times been there,” he added. “Even from the outfield — I performed outfield in highschool — I’d be throwing guys out with a sinker. I picked that grip up, and it performed with sink.”
“He has some nascent really feel for a mean energy curveball within the 78-83 mph vary that can flash 55/60 on the dimensions.”
“Yeah, I used to be throwing a curveball again then,” mentioned Hicks. “I used to be simply looking for one thing that may break. I didn’t actually know what I used to be doing, to be trustworthy. I used to be nonetheless studying.
“I believe the final time I threw the curveball was in Excessive-A, or perhaps within the Fall League of 2017. The subsequent 12 months I began working with a slider — now we’d name it a sweeper — and now I’m again to a slider. It’s been a backwards and forwards between slider and sweeper since then.”
“His command wavered on account of some fairly heavy release-point variation…”
“There you go,” Hicks interjected. “That’s what I used to be simply saying; my arm slot wasn’t constant again then.”
“… however he’s a stable athlete with a great physique and the command ought to include time.”
“I’m higher than [a] stable athlete,” Hicks mentioned smiling. “However I admire it.”
“It doesn’t sound like there’s a lot changeup really feel right here proper now, and you must challenge on it fairly closely to examine Hicks as something greater than a league-average starter.”
“The changeup wasn’t nice again then,” he acknowledged. “There wasn’t a lot really feel. I’ve thrown extra of a splitter within the huge leagues. I don’t know if I’ve even… I assume I threw a changeup for one 12 months. It was OK. However I’ve thrown principally splitters.
“I began throwing a splitter in 2019, or the top of 2018. In 2018, I used to be actually simply sinker-slider and was principally centered on throwing actually onerous. That’s all I used to be actually making an attempt to do again then — getting as much as 105 and sitting 100.
“I topped out at 98 in Johnson Metropolis, which was superior rookie ball,” Hicks mentioned when requested to elaborate on his velocity timeline. “It slowly creeped up yearly, each season. I made a giant soar, going from 98 to hitting 101 in Low-A, hitting 102 within the Fall League, after which within the huge leagues 105. It was a mixture of all the things, however numerous it was getting a really feel for my mechanics. I bear in mind the day it clicked. It was within the Low-A All-Star Sport. I used to be throwing 100, feeling one thing I actually preferred, and didn’t need to lose it. I form of simply ran with it.”
“He’s an amazing distance from the majors, however I’ve him tentatively projected as a high-risk no. 4 starter and think about him probably the most attention-grabbing home draftee pitcher within the system.”
“For positive,” Hicks mentioned. “I imply, I used to be positively a excessive prospect. I began off decrease, however as I progressed within the minors I jumped fairly quick. And I used to be a starter. It’s gone backwards and forwards, however general I believe I might nonetheless do it; I might begin. I simply had a troublesome 12 months this 12 months.
“However yeah, the report was fairly correct,” Hicks added. “I’ve come a great distance since then. It has been years, but it surely appears like yesterday, to be trustworthy. The minor leagues had been actually enjoyable for me. It was a brief stint, however I actually loved enjoying in these small cities.”
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Earlier “Previous Scouting Stories Revisited” interviews will be discovered by these hyperlinks: Shane Baz, Cody Bellinger, Matthew Boyd, Dylan Stop, Matt Chapman, Erick Fedde, Kyle Freeland, Max Fried, Lucas Giolito, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, Jeff Hoffman, Tanner Houck, Matthew Liberatore, Tyler Mahle, Sean Newcomb, Bailey Ober, Matt Olson, Austin Riley, Joe Ryan, Max Scherzer, Marcus Semien.
