If there’s one thing Lucas Giolito has always been able to hang his hat on, it’s his durability. Between 2018 and 2023 the right-hander made at least 29 starts and threw more than 160 innings in every 162-game season, and when he signed with the Red Sox last offseason the hope was he could provide stability for an unproven starting rotation that had struggled over the prior two years.
Then, just weeks into spring training, he went down with what turned out to be a season-ending elbow injury.
“It was a huge punch in the gut,” Giolito said prior to Sunday’s season finale. “One thing I always took pride in was my availability, staying healthy, taking the ball, never being scared to compete, and I wasn’t able to do that at all this year. So it’s been a terrible feeling, considering I was literally signed here to do that.”
Giolito underwent internal brace surgery, a less intensive alternative to Tommy John surgery, and has spent the entire season rehabbing and working his way back to full health. Now the 30-year-old is in the home stretch of his recovery and expects to be ready for a normal spring training come February.
“Recovery has been great, right now progressing well with the throwing program, I’m out to 100-110 feet, just continuing on this upward trajectory. My elbow feels really good,” Giolito said. “On track for a full season next year. I’m looking forward to that and getting back to competing again.”
Though Giolito technically has the ability to hit free agency this offseason — he has a $19 million player option for 2025 — he indicated he plans to return to the Red Sox and live up to his end of the deal he signed last winter.
While the expectation is he should be all systems go when pitchers and catchers report, Giolito’s offseason road map will look slightly different than usual.
“The offseason is different because I’m literally throwing now. I’m throwing every other day. If this were a regular offseason for me then I would be kind of shutting down right now, but I’m actually on the ramp up, so it’s a little bit different,” Giolito said. “I’m throwing at increasing load and getting my body used to that again. I’m going to be throwing to live hitters in like November or early December, I’ve never done that before.”
Missing so much time also provided Giolito a rare opportunity for a full-body reset.
“I hate it, it’s been miserable, but at the same time I’ve been able to revamp a lot of physical parts of my body, like getting my shoulder in a good position, obviously rehabbing the elbow, hips, knees, really taking the time to go through all these things,” Giolito said. “When you’re healthy every year and pitching you don’t have the time and resources to be able to address everything in your body, you just have to maintain and keep going and competing.”
Barring any setbacks, Giolito should slot in alongside Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford to give Boston four proven starters to build around heading into the new year. While its unclear what version of Giolito we’ll see in 2025 — the workhorse who received Cy Young votes in three straight years between 2019-21 or the guy who allowed an MLB-worst 41 home runs in 2023 — Giolito is excited for the opportunity to get his career back on track and to channel all the adversity he’s faced into better results next year.
“Obviously it was taking a lot of those feelings and trying to funnel them into focusing on my work, focusing on getting ready so I can have a really good season next year for this team that signed me here, took this chance on me,” Giolito said. “So I’m looking forward to finally being able to do that. It’s been weird not being able to compete and do what I love to do.”
Extra innings
During Monday’s year-end press conference, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow indicated he plans to dedicate more time on hiring a new general manager to serve as his No. 2 in the front office, but he has no timetable on when any hire could occur. Breslow and manager Alex Cora are also still discussing possible changes to the coaching staff, though no decisions have been finalized on that front either. … The Red Sox do not expect any offseason surgeries for players outside of possibly Masataka Yoshida, who was scheduled to undergo an MRI on his right shoulder Tuesday. … Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy confirmed that ticket prices increased by 1.7% on average from 2023 to 2024. Because the club uses dynamic pricing, with ticket prices rising and falling depending on demand, he says he can’t be sure whether prices will increase again next year, but that the cost of some season tickets may go up. … Former Red Sox ace Chris Sale, who is the favorite to win the National League Cy Young Award after becoming the first to win the NL’s pitching triple crown since 2011, will not pitch in the Atlanta Braves’ Wild Card series due to back spasms. Sale was scratched from Monday’s doubleheader against the New York Mets and is not on Atlanta’s playoff roster for the Wild Card round. … Former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has been designated as the heir apparent to take over as St. Louis Cardinals president following next season. Bloom spent this past year with St. Louis as a special advisor and will spend the coming season focused on resetting the organization’s player development system before taking over for current president of baseball operations John Mozeliak.
