Also today - Jordan Hicks pitched 4.2 innings in a game. Seems like they are following through on stretching him out to be a starter. He's played 4 games this spring and pitched 12 innings, which would be more of an opener type situation, but he is getting longer. I'm not 100% sure he has the pitch variety to be a strong starter, but he's still striking out 1.5 batters per inning pitched so maybe throwing a 100 mph fastball is enough.
Even if he's only a reliable 4 inning opener for the back of the rotation (replacing Ryu basically), I'd way rather have spent the money on him than IKF. Potential downside is you have an expensive but great setup man and a backup closer, which is great if say Romano was injured to start the year... IKF downside is you have a defensive specialist utility infielder sitting on your bench not playing.
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