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As currently constructed, San Francisco's rotation to begin the 2024 season stands to be comprised of ace Logan Webb, recently-signed Jordan Hicks and a handful of young arms aiming to build off promising debuts.

When the Giants made Hicks' four-year contract official last Thursday, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi laid out the team's tentative rotation, with Kyle Harrison and Keaton Winn set to join Webb and Hicks. The fifth spot appears to be less certain and could be between veteran Ross Stripling and Tristan Beck.

Harrison (MLB Pipeline's No. 20 overall prospect), Winn (the Giants' No. 16 prospect) and Beck were all entrusted with valuable innings in 2023 as the team's rotation endured a wave of midseason injuries. This upcoming season, the young trio should get an extended chance to prove itself, especially with Alex Cobb (left hip surgery) and Robbie Ray (Tommy John surgery) out for the beginning of the year.

"I have all the confidence in the world in those guys," Webb said last Saturday at the FanFest tour in Sacramento, Calif. "I think they're going to be very special pitchers for a long time."

Webb, the runner-up for the 2023 National League Cy Young Award, anchored the rotation last season, making a team-high 33 starts and pitching a Major League-leading 216 innings. The only other pitcher other than Webb to make more than 18 starts was Cobb, who made 28 starts and pitched 151 1/3 innings. The Giants had 13 pitchers start at least one game, many of them doing so as openers.

With Zaidi recently saying the rotation needs to be a "driver of stability" in 2024, something has to change. That change begins with giving Harrison, Winn and Beck more permanent roles than they had in '23.

"I know we look back and [last year] wasn't a successful season," Cobb said last Saturday at FanFest. "But we were desperate in those times to stay in the race, and we weren't very far out. So to trust those guys in those situations should only help their confidence."

Of the three, Harrison, 22, is the only one who has not pitched in relief as a professional. Harrison made seven starts for the Giants down the stretch, including an electric Oracle Park debut against the Reds in which he struck out 11 batters across 6 1/3 innings. Recently named MLB Pipeline's top left-handed pitching prospect, Harrison wrapped his first taste of the Majors with a 4.15 ERA and 35 strikeouts against 11 walks.

Winn, who turns 26 in February, appeared in nine games (five starts) for San Francisco last year, going at least three innings in each. He allowed three runs or fewer in all but one appearance, posting a 4.68 ERA across 42 1/3 frames. Like Harrison, his rookie status remains intact going into 2024.

Beck, 27, spent extended time with the Giants last season and recorded a 3.92 ERA in 33 appearances (three starts). His 111 innings (85 with San Francisco, 26 with Triple-A Sacramento) were a hair shy of his single-season professional career high (111 1/3 Minor League innings in 2022). Primarily a starter in the Minors, Beck pitched more than one inning in all but a handful of his outings.

"You look at all of that," Cobb said, referring to how all three performed in 2023, "and then with Robbie coming back, myself coming back, Webby just being an anchor at the top of the rotation, you can totally understand and see the vision that the org and Farhan has."

With a more concrete five-man group established -- and depth behind it in the upper Minors -- the Giants' intention is to leave the opener strategy behind and allow their younger starters to navigate the highs and lows of life in a big league rotation.

"With those younger guys, the routine is … starting a game," manager Bob Melvin said. "Those are guys you don't want to open. We feel like we've got the guys now, at least at this point in time, that that dynamic may go away for a little bit."