Red Sox finally spend, sign Lucas Giolito to 2-year deal
After nearly two months of interest and not much else, the Red Sox finally made a splash on Friday evening.
As first reported by ESPN’S Jeff Passan, the Red Sox are signing Lucas Giolito to a two-year, $38.5 million contract with an optout after the first season. There’s an additional million in incentives for each year, and should the righthander opt out, he’ll receive $19 million and said performance bonuses.
Giolito, 29, debuted with the Washington Nationals in 2016, but spent almost his entire Major League career in a Chicago White Sox uniform. Since his first full season in the Majors in 2018, he owns a 4.48 ERA, 4.34 FIP, and 1.257 WHIP across 167 starts totaling 947 innings. He was an All- Star in ’ 19, his first of three consecutive seasons in which he received AL Cy Young votes. He’s been durable, averaging just over 174 innings per season over the last five 162-game campaigns, and the Red Sox need durability in their rotation.
A tumultuous ’23 season saw Giolito traded from Chicago to Anaheim, then to Cleveland after six starts, as the Angels began dumping salaries like British tea in Boston Harbor. He and his ex-wife also filed for divorce during the All- Star break. Despite the chaos, he managed to make an
American League-leading 33 starts, and pitch 184 1/3 innings, both new career highs.
Giolito mainly relies on his four- seam fastball, but also began utilizing a changeup and slider more in recent seasons. He almost never goes to his curveball anymore, a pitch he used more heavily in the first few years of his career.
He’ll be an interesting project for Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey.
Though Breslow is now the Red Sox chief baseball officer, he also spent many years in the Boston bullpen before getting on the executive track and overhauling the Cubs’ pitching development. Bailey, another former Red Sox reliever and their new pitching coach, turned the San Francisco Giants pitching staff into a well- oiled machine during his four years in the same role. He helped pitchers such as Kevin Gausman
and Carlos Rodon achieve success that led to lucrative contracts. Bailey will have to help the righty lower his hard-hit rate, which increased from 24.4% to 41.6% over the past three seasons. He went from striking out 32.7% of batters between ’19-20 to only 25.5% over the past two seasons, and his walk rate climbed from 7.2% in ’21 to 9.2% this year.
Yet Giolito should also be highly motivated to
get back on track. A twoyear contract such as this screams “Prove it!” and at only 29 years old, if he can do just that, he can parlay his success into a long-term deal.
It’s far from the kind of long-term blockbuster signing everyone expected when Red Sox chairman Tom Werner promised a “full throttle” approach this offseason, but it’s a significant step in a promising direction.