Rehabbing Red Sox starter throwing with 'plenty of zip' on the ball

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Red Sox righty Lucas Giolito is one of the many players already down at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers. He has been rehabbing back from undergoing internal brace surgery after injuring his elbow during spring training last March.

Giolito completed a sequencing drill on Saturday in front of pitching coach Andrew Bailey. The right-hander’s throws were “accurate” and had “plenty of zip,” according to The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham.

“I feel great,” Giolito said to Abraham. “I’ve been [pitching] off the mound for a few weeks now. Today was just part of getting my body ready.”

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Giolito is expecting to be part of the Red Sox starting rotation to open the season. He has been working hard on his pitching program and expects himself to be a full go moving forward.

"The throwing program, the progression, puts me right there for spring training and all of that,” Giolito said on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast back in December. “Build up during spring. Usually guys in this day and age, you’re not coming out and throwing eight or nine innings the first turn through the rotation, but it’s that five or six, and it’s kind of that gradual build-up. We'll see how it plays out."

If Giolito ends up in the Red Sox rotation, he will join Garrett Crochet, Walker Buehler, Brayan Bello, and Tanner Houck with additional depth to help support the starters, including Kutter Crawford, Richard Fitts, Cooper Criswell, Quinn Priester, Robert Stock, and Hunter Dobbins.

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"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. "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."

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Boston comes into spring training with more pitching depth than in recent years, and there will be strong competition for the final spot in the rotation. For now, Giolito is the leader in the clubhouse before the start of camp.

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