What caused Jordan Hicks’s fall from rotation revelation to relief liability is no great mystery. In fact it was anticipated from the very beginning. The transition from reliever to starter wasn’t going to be like flipping a switch. The arm would have to be stretched out, the legs steadied, the workload managed, new pitches learned — it would be a whole season affair of trial and error.
Then Hicks made himself indispensable. Through April he was the best starter on the Giants and one of the best in the league. By the end of May he boasted a 2.