Astros right-hander James Hicks brought the kitchen sink with him to throw at Arizona Fall League hitters, and, boy, did it work.
The organization’s No. 26 prospect may not have any plus pitches, but he used all of them to earn Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Year honors after tossing 14 scoreless innings for the Scottsdale Scorpions.
Some pitchers have a full arsenal. Hicks’ is bursting at the seams. The 13th-round pick in the 2023 Draft out of South Carolina has as many as six pitches at his disposal. A low-90s two-seamer with sink is his primary fastball, but he’ll now add in a slightly harder four-seamer. His mid-80s changeup is his best secondary offering, and elicited a 56-percent miss rate in the AFL, according to Synergy. From the breaking-ball menu, he can choose from a low-80s sweeper, a more traditional low-80s slider and an upper-70s curve.
Hicks uses all of them, and they all play up because of his ability to sequence and set up hitters. His overall miss rate of 34 percent this fall led to 19 strikeouts over those 14 innings. He gave up just six hits and walked only two, a number that really stands out compared to the league-wide walk rate of 6.5 per nine this fall.
“James has done a tremendous job over the last year plus of continuing to develop quality secondary pitches,” Astros assistant general manager Gavin Dickey said. “His baseline ability to throw strikes and pitchability have always been present, but now he’s started to increase the swing and miss both in and out of the zone. Given his competitiveness, feel to pitch and added bat-missing weapons, he is on track to becoming a viable starting pitcher option for us at the Major League level.”
Said Hicks: “Throughout my career – going back to me in high school throwing 82 – I couldn’t afford to walk anybody, so I had to learn to be in the zone and compete with everything.”
It hasn’t been the straightest path for the 24-year-old Hicks. Because of that lack of velocity and strength, he wasn’t recruited out of college, but ran with an opportunity at the junior college level at Crowder College in Missouri. After two strong seasons there, Hicks transferred to South Carolina, but Tommy John surgery ruined his 2022 season, though the Orioles still took him in Round 15 that summer.
Hicks came back to the Gamecocks in 2023, pitching well enough as a starter and reliever for the Astros to take him on Day 3 that July. He had a solid first full season, moving quickly from Single-A Fayetteville to High-A Asheville and then up to Double-A Corpus Christi to finish off 2024, topping 100 innings and using his feel for pitching and command to post a 3.97 K/BB ratio. He was once again a swingman, making 12 starts and coming out of the ‘pen 10 times.
But Hicks’ chance to build off of that in Double-A in 2025 was derailed for three months when he suffered a right forearm fracture from a comebacker in April. He did show glimpses upon his return, most notably a six-inning, one-hit, 12-strikeout masterpiece in early September.
“It was definitely a tough time just being down in Florida for three months, and there were a lot of lows during that time,” Hicks said earlier this AFL season. “But it just made it so much sweeter once I got back healthy. And now I get to be out here, which is great. So looking back on it, it turned out to be a good thing.
“It’s been a good year. Not what I had on the Bingo card, but I’m enjoying it.”
Much like in 2023 at South Carolina and during his first year as a pro, Hicks both started and relieved with Scottsdale in a piggyback kind of system. He never allowed more than two hits in any outing and allowed just a single walk in two appearances. It’s clear he doesn’t mind the swingman role at all.
“I try to keep the same kind of mentality going into it,” said Hicks. “I think it’s good to get experience in all different aspects of pitching. In college, I was closing for a little, [worked in] long relief, so I had some experience with it — it wasn’t too foreign for me.”
He also learned how to attack hitters this fall without the same kind of preparation he’s used to. While he’s not going to turn down advance work in the future, he learned a lot about just going out and reacting to the situation in-game.
“During the season, I usually get a scouting report, and the night before I can go through and have a good game plan,” said Hicks. “Out here, it’s kind of just going back to when I was younger and just showing up and playing. So now it’s been more about reading swings, less about the game planning part, which I think I like a lot more.”
