SCOTTSDALE — Major League Baseball is based on tradition and “old school” play. The San Francisco Giants may have created one of the most “old-school” style starting rotations heading into 2025.
During the offseason, the Giants added starting pitcher Justin Verlander — one of the most accomplished players since the turn of the millennium. Verlander, 42, is a nine-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young Award winner, Most Valuable Player and two-time World Series champion.
Most importantly, Verlander wants the ball in his hands every five days.
Verlander, who has tossed over 3,400 innings in his illustrious 19-year career, joins a starting rotation that struggled to throw innings during the 2024 season. The team racked up 778.2 innings pitched from the starting rotation in 2024 — seventh-fewest in all of MLB.
While Verlander threw 90.1 innings with the Houston Astros, veteran starting pitcher Robbie Ray made only seven starts with the Giants and Jordan Hicks made the transition from relief pitcher to starting pitcher during San Francisco’s campaign last season.
One of the Giants’ 2025 goals is for the starting rotation to throw more innings and take more stress off the relief pitchers.
“Last year, we covered a lot of innings in the bullpen, and we feel like we’re on our way to taking a little bit off of those guys with guys like Robbie, who is fully healthy now, JV, who is healthier now (and) has pitched deep into games,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “Now, we’ll see how it goes, especially early in the season, but it feels like we’ll be able to cover more innings out of the rotation.”
The Giants have a strong possibility of doing that if the rotation remains fully healthy. Verlander, Ray and ace Logan Webb each have experience throwing significant innings in key moments. Verlander is the active leader in innings pitched with 3,415 2/3 — nearly 600 innings more than his former teammate, Max Scherzer, who is second. Verlander has led MLB in innings pitched in four different seasons (2009, 2011, 2012 and 2019).
Ray put together the best season of his career in 2021 with the Toronto Blue Jays. He won the Cy Young Award and led the American League with 193 1/3 innings pitched.
Webb has thrown at least 190 innings in each of the last three seasons, including 200-plus innings in each of the last two. Webb led the majors in innings pitched in 2023 and tossed the most by any National League player in 2024. He has placed among the top 11 pitchers in NL Cy Young voting in each of the past three seasons.
Webb is the only pitcher to throw 200 innings in each of the last two seasons and became the first Giants pitcher to do so since Jeff Samardzija in 2016-17.
“I think the goal is 200 innings every year,” Webb said. “It’s always been a goal of mine. I came up with a lot of great pitchers that threw 200 innings every year – Johnny Cueto, Madison Bumgarner, Jeff Samardzija – so I just kind of grew up that way or came up through the game watching these guys do it.
“It’s always just a goal of mine is to throw 200 innings and being available is important to myself. I’m just trying to go out there and give the team the best chance we have to win that day.”
Three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander brings his wealth of experience to the San Francisco Giants’ starting rotation for the 2025 season. (Photo by (Photo by Giuliano Moller/Cronkite News)
The 1-2-3 starting pitcher combination represents a more “old school” mentality. Melvin says that his job as a manager is easy when the pitchers have runners on base. Verlander, Webb and Ray all can get out of jams in different ways.
Melvin also believes Webb is a unique pitcher to the prototypical 2025 starter.
“It’s early-count contact, lower pitch counts is one of the reasons (Melvin) can stay in the game,” Melvin said. “He’s not chasing a strikeout all the time, which starters tend to do a little bit more so, and that’s one of the reasons they come out of the games early is they’re just throwing more pitches.”
The final two pitchers in the starting rotation, Jordan Hicks and Landen Roupp, have virtually no experience as starting pitchers in MLB. The pair have started a combined 32 games as big leaguers.
Hicks transitioned to a starting pitcher last season after mostly being a relief pitcher in his five previous seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays. Webb has liked what he has seen.
“You’ve got a guy like Hicksy (who has) gained 15 pounds and really kind of bought into the starting routine,” Webb said. “He’s a guy who is super motivated, and he wants to throw 200 innings. Now, I don’t know if the team will necessarily let him throw 200 innings, but I know that’s a big motivation for him.”
Roupp’s spot in the starting rotation wasn’t a given when spring training began. Roupp made 23 appearances during his 2024 rookie campaign, with only four of them as the starting pitcher. He beat out fellow 2024 rookie Hayden Birdsong, who made 16 starts last season, for the No. 5 role.
Roupp had success in his four Cactus League starts. He pitched to a 3.75 ERA and only walked one batter in 12 innings. Verlander, Ray and Webb also had dominating appearances in spring training. If the rotation can stay healthy and pitch to potential, the Giants could be a team to look out for in the star-studded National League West.
“We have, like I said, a good young core group that you never know what could happen in a long season,” Hicks said. “If something were to happen with injuries, just next man up. We got a good group of guys to come help us.
“I’m just really excited. We have the best bullpen in the league, I think. Overall, the whole pitching core is pretty elite, probably the best I’ve ever been a part of.”
