San Francisco Giants dealt another injury blow to their already reduced pitching team

The San Francisco Giants placed left-hander Robbie Ray on the injured list on Tuesday after he left a start with a hamstring strain. They also placed starter/reliever Jordan Hicks on the injured list shortly afterward.

Hicks was placed on the 15-day IL with shoulder soreness, and the Giants brought back reliever Austin Warren to replace him.

San Francisco signed the 27-year-old for four years and $44 million during a busy offseason. He was inserted into the rotation at the start of the season in an experiment of sorts. He started 20 games with a 4.01 ERA and struck out 90 batters in 98.2 innings.

After he surpassed his career high in innings, the Giants sent him back to the bullpen to rest his arm.

In eight games as a bullpen, Hicks has thrown 9.2 innings, allowing three runs, five walks, five strikeouts and one save.

Even though he's not the closer, it's still a blow to San Francisco's bullpen, as they have a hard-throwing reliever.

According to manager Bob Melvin, the right-hander has been struggling with “shoulder discomfort” for some time. In his last outing, he allowed two walks and one run, and the velocity of his fastball dropped to 93 mph.

Being placed on the injured list will give him some rest and time to recover after surpassing the 100-inning mark for the first time in his major league career.

The corresponding move was to call up reliever Austin Warren, who was signed by the Giants in February after being released by the Los Angeles Angels.

The 28-year-old spent most of his season at Triple-A Sacramento, but didn't start pitching until June while undergoing Tommy John rehabilitation.

In 25 total games, Warren threw 24 innings, allowed 27 strikeouts and just six walks. His ERA was 4.88, but in a hitters' league like the Pacific Coast League, pitching numbers are always inflated.

While Warren won't necessarily replace Hicks in the specialized role of late-inning reliever, he still adds great depth to a solid bullpen.

San Francisco also announced that catcher Jackson Reetz has passed the waivers list and been directly promoted to Triple-A.

Jordan Hicks has been extremely versatile for the Giants all season, pitching well in every role he's been given. After getting a multi-year deal and moving into the rotation, something like that was possible because he'd never thrown that many innings in a season. Now he needs to get healthy and possibly help in a final stretch, but there's no timetable for his return yet.