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Melvin shares Giants’ starting pitchers for opening series vs. Padres originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Giants have their three starting pitchers lined up for the season-opening series against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.
And none of them are Blake Snell.
Giants manager Bob Melvin joined KNBR 680’s “Murph & Markus” on Friday, where he was asked about Snell’s ramp-up process and how quickly he can join the starting rotation. Melvin didn’t provide a timeline for Snell’s Giants debut, but did reveal his three starters for the first series of the 2024 MLB season.
“There are a bunch of different scenarios and it depends how soon he gets into a game, whether it’s this weekend at some point, whether it’s in Sacramento, whether it’s the Giants, whether he needs a more simulated-type scenario. We’re not really sure yet,” Melvin said of Snell.
“What I do know is Logan Webb’s going to pitch the first game, Kyle Harrison’s going to pitch the second game and Jordan Hicks is going to pitch the third game. So that’s basically where we are right now and we’ll try to figure out the rest.”
Gone are the days of Giants starting-pitching matchups listed as “TBD.”
Snell told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic after his introductory press conference on Wednesday that he will not be ready for Opening Day and will take his time ramping up before officially joining the Giants’ rotation.
Meanwhile, Hicks, another addition to the Giants’ rotation, will make his first start with San Francisco in San Diego after an impressive spring training as a newly transitioned starting pitcher.
“It’s been great, I mean the stuff is electric,” Melvin said of Hicks. “He’s a lot of fun to watch pitch, upwards of 100 miles per hour, his two-seamer was sinking like crazy, the ground ball rates he gets, the strikeout rates. His mindset is ‘Look, I’m no longer a reliever, I’m a starter.’ He’s throwing his breaking ball a little bit more, some split-fingers as well to try to add a pitch as a starter. And his last time out, walked a couple guys to start the game and got out of it with a double play and then pitched fantastic the rest of the outing and we got his pitch count up into the 80s.
“I was a little bit unsure where we’d go with him, being a reliever, but it’s been a testament to his mindset that ‘Hey I’m a starter now, I don’t want to talk about pitch counts, I don’t want to talk about innings. I’m a starter and that’s the way we’re going to go about our business.”
With their first three pitchers lined up, the Giants can start looking ahead to Opening Day as the 26-man roster continues to round into shape.
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