Doctor estimates possible return timelines for Ray, Hicks injuries

Doctor estimates possible return timelines for Ray, Hicks injuries originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants’ pitching staff took a major hit approaching the final month of the season, with Jordan Hicks and Robbie Ray each going on the 15-day IL on Tuesday.

Ray suffered a left hamstring strain, while Hicks is dealing with right shoulder inflammation.

September is almost here, so San Francisco needs its arms back as soon as possible to remain in the hunt for a wild-card spot.

NBC Sports Bay Area’s Tristi Rodriguez spoke to Dr. Seth Sherman, a sports medicine surgeon at Stanford, to learn more about these injuries.

Starting with Ray, Sherman drew connections to his return from Tommy John surgery last May.

“Everything influences each other. I think what we see in this sport and others, as we have ramp-up periods, we get these spurts of hamstring-type injuries,” Sherman said. “It’s in those spikes of times when you return from injuries, and there’s surgeries where you might be more vulnerable.”

Though the Giants haven’t provided much detail about the severity of Ray’s injury, Sherman doesn’t expect the former Cy Young Award winner to miss much time, particularly if it’s a lower-grade strain.

“Obviously, we all try to err on the side of being cautious, making sure you’re optimized so that we prevent that reoccurrence,” Sherman detailed. “From the very limited info that we have, ideally, this is … not something longer and/or more variable.”

As for Hicks, his IL stint comes shortly after having minor arm discomfort while warming up to enter Friday’s game in Seattle. He admitted to feeling “zingers” down his right arm.

The starter-turned-reliever recovered enough to pitch 2/3 of an inning on Saturday, but he appears to have suffered a setback. Sherman provided some insight into what those “zingers” could entail.

“When you hear zinger, you sometimes think about nerves and things of that nature,” Sherman explained. “But you can also have zingers from, let’s say, irritation tendonitis in the front of the shoulder. So, not every zinger is the same.

“There wasn’t one — to my knowledge — acute event. This is a lingering issue. That places it, without knowing much about it, more on the irritation/inflammation/tendonitis bucket, which is a more reassuring diagnosis.”

Hicks, who began the season in the starting rotation, was moved to the bullpen last month after showing some signs of fatigue as the season progressed. At 108.1 innings in 2024, Hicks has easily surpassed his previous career-high workload at the MLB level.

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