Lucas Giolito 'building on goals' this spring as he works back from elbow surgery
Lucas Giolito has remained adamant since the offseason that he’s ready for a full spring training and will be ready for Opening Day.
The plan for Giolito is to throw his first bullpen next week, incorporating his full arsenal of pitches, his four-seam fastball, changeup, slider, and curveball.
Giolito wants to have consistency with his pitch mix as he navigates through camp.
“It’s all about for me just solidifying and getting really consistent with what I have,” Giolito said to reporters down at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, including MassLive’s Chris Smith.
Giolito is likely going to feature his changeup more, referring to that as his “go-to” secondary pitch out of all his additional weapons.
“For me, it’s kind of building on the goals that were set last spring training and even before—like in my pitch meeting with the Red Sox before I signed," Giolito said. “We were looking at some data, metrics, and all that stuff we do nowadays. And there were certain goals, especially with the slider. Getting the velocity higher and the movement profile. So just stick with that and getting all those pitches to a good place.”
He is also working on a new goal for his slider, trying to increase the velocity to 85 mph plus.
“In that range. It’s been that in the bullpens, which is almost like, ‘Woah.’ I don’t throw game speed in the bullpen, but to see sliders 84 and 85 in the pen, it’s like, ‘All right. We’ll see.' I don’t know how hard I’m going to be throwing yet—88, 89. We’ll see."
Giolito missed all of last season after undergoing internal brace surgery on the UCL in his pitching arm. After rehabbing in Boston and pitching down in Fort Myers during the winter, he’s excited to get back on the mound and help his teammates win.
"We’ve added pieces. We’ve added pieces to the rotation. The young guys are doing great. If I’m in a position where I need to compete for a rotation spot, I’m ready to do so. That’s not something I have had to do for a few years. I have been very lucky," Giolito said on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast with Rob Bradford at the end of December. "But considering the talent that we have in the rotation, if I’m competing for the fifth spot or the sixth spot or however they want to do it, alright, great. But I will be ready for that. So all the noise online is pretty funny. It doesn’t make a difference at the end of the day. Once we all get out to spring training, we’re all working toward the same goal."
Giolito being healthy for the start of the season will be important for the rotation with Brayan Bello behind the other starters due to his shoulder issue at the start of camp. The Red Sox are unsure as to Kutter Crawford’s status because of a knee injury. Giolito is a full go; he should be one of the starters when camp breaks and the team heads to Texas.
