Lucas Giolito on why he chose to sign with Boston: ‘I really was sold on the Red Sox philosophy’
The Red Sox announced the signing of right-handed pitcher Lucas Giolito on Wednesday night. Boston and Giolito agreed to a one-year, $19 million deal, with a player option for 2025.
After a down year in 2023, where Giolito posted a 4.88 ERA split between three teams, the White Sox, Angels and Guardians. He also owned a 5.27 FIP across 184 1/3 innings with those three clubs.
Because of his struggles last season, Giolito acknowledged his market wasn’t very strong this winter.
“It wasn’t very many (teams interested),” Giolito said to reporters on Zoom. “I’ll say that. It wasn’t crazy. For me, I really was sold on the Red Sox philosophy, talking with (manager Alex Cora), talking with (pitching coach) Andrew Bailey, talking with (chief baseball officer) Craig (Breslow). That initial meeting really got me excited. A lot of my free agency process was tailored to working towards getting something done here.”
The 29-year-old chose the Red Sox because he felt that Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey’s pitching philosophies could help get him back on track. Boston being one of the first teams to reach out to him when free agency began helped, too.
“That obviously meant a lot to me,” he said. “It’s my first time going through free agency. Obviously, there’s a lot of unknown coming off of last season. We had a really interesting, amazing Zoom call, like a pitch meeting, where I got to get a feel for the organization, got to meet some of the staff and I really liked everything I heard.”
When Bailey was announced as pitching coach, he expressed what his philosophy was while in San Francisco and how he plans to use it with the Red Sox.
“Strikes are everything,” said Bailey. “Stuff in (the) zone plays. Limiting walks. Being aggressive and ahead in counts. Obviously, there’s been a been a big change in stuff and swing-and-miss and (velocity) and all that. There’s a handful of things, but identifying the the KPIs (key performance indicators) that we can hold our ourselves accountable (to) is really a priority. And making sure that each player knows himself best.
“‘What makes you an outlier? What makes you a big leaguer?’ There’s generally one or two specific things that you can point to and making sure there’s an education piece around this as well. And doubling down on strengths and making sure guys know what makes them major leaguers (who) hopefully (have) the ability to play for a long time.”
Giolito will benefit from Bailey and Breslow’s philosophies to help him rebound before hitting the open market again.
Giolito’s deal was first reported to be a two-year pact, but in-fact it’s just a one-year deal that will allow him to test the open market if he has a strong 2024 season.
The righty will earn an $18 million base salary in 2024, then have a $19 million player option or $1 million buyout for 2025.
The deal, which also includes $1 million in performance bonuses based on workload in each of the next two years (a $250,000 at every 10-inning interval from 150 to 180 innings). It also has some built in protection for the Red Sox in the form of a conditional option for 2026. If Giolito throws 140-plus innings in 2025 with the Boston, there’s a $14 million club option or $1.5 million buyout for 2026.
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