He says he has more in the tank if he needs it. But, more importantly, former closer is healthy for the first time in a long time.
www.stltoday.com
JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals pitching coach Mike Maddux has programmed reliever Jordan Hicks for three more spring outings after his initial appearance against Houston on Monday. If those generally rival what Maddux and manager Oliver Marmol saw on Monday, Hicks would be a viable candidate to come north with the club a little more than a week from now.
The righthander, who scarcely has pitched since 2019 because of various elbow issues, hit 100 mph on 13 of his 20 pitches and fanned two batters in a scoreless sixth inning. He walked one and induced a weak grounder to third as he also had a good slider.
“It was fun to watch, man,” offered Maddux after the Cardinals’ 2-1 loss. “The guy really hasn’t pitched really for a couple of years. We’ve seen the work he’s put in.”
Maddux was referring to Hicks’ bullpen sessions and his batting practice outings.
“We just want that to translate to the game and it was even better in the game than what we’d seen,” Maddux said. Hicks isn’t throwing 104 or 105 anymore, not that he couldn’t approach that again if he felt he needed something extra “in hairier situations — if you’ve got men on first and third with one out, no outs,” Hicks said. “They might need to see something they haven’t seen in a while. I think I still have that in me.
