After almost two months of curiosity and never a lot else, the Red Sox lastly made a splash on Friday night.
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 opt-out after the primary season. There’s an extra million in incentives for annually, and may the right-hander decide out, he’ll obtain $19 million and mentioned efficiency bonuses.
Giolito, 29, debuted with the Washington Nationals in 2016, however spent nearly his whole Major League profession in a Chicago White Sox uniform. Since his first full season within the Majors in 2018, he owns a 4.48 ERA, 4.34 FIP, and 1.257 WHIP throughout 167 begins totaling 947 innings. He was an All-Star in ’19, his first of three consecutive seasons through which he acquired AL Cy Young votes. He’s been sturdy, averaging simply over 174 innings per season during the last 5 162-game campaigns, and the Red Sox want sturdiness of their rotation.
A tumultuous ’23 season noticed Giolito traded from Chicago to Anaheim, then to Cleveland after six begins, because the Angels started dumping salaries like British tea in Boston Harbor. He and his ex-wife additionally filed for divorce throughout the All-Star break. Despite the chaos, he handle to make an American League-leading 33 begins, and pitch 184 1/3 innings, each new profession highs.
Giolito primarily depends on his four-seam fastball, but in addition started using a changeup and slider extra in latest seasons. He nearly by no means goes to his curveball anymore, a pitch he used extra closely within the first few years of his profession.
He’ll be an fascinating mission for Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey. Though Breslow is now the Red Sox chief baseball officer, he additionally spent a few years within the Boston bullpen earlier than getting on the chief observe and overhauling the Cubs’ pitching growth. Bailey, one other former Red Sox reliever and their new pitching coach, turned the San Francisco Giants pitching employees right into a well-oiled machine throughout his 4 years in the identical function. He helped pitchers comparable to Kevin Gausman and Carlos Rodon obtain success that led to profitable contracts. Bailey should assist the righty decrease his hard-hit price, which elevated from 24.4% to 41.6% over the previous three seasons. He went from putting out 32.7% of batters between ’19-20 to solely 25.5% over the previous two seasons, and his stroll price climbed from 7.2% in ’21 to 9.2% this 12 months.
Yet Giolito also needs to be extremely motivated to get again on observe. A two-year contract comparable to this screams “Prove it!” and at solely 29 years previous, if he can just do that, he can parlay his success right into a long-term deal.
It’s removed from the sort of long-term blockbuster signing everybody anticipated when Red Sox chairman Tom Werner promised a “full throttle” method this offseason, nevertheless it’s a major step in a promising path.
Source: www.bostonherald.com