Nearly a year and a half after he signed with the Boston Red Sox, Lucas Giolito is finally approaching his debut.
Giolito, a 2019 All-Star and three-time Cy Young Award vote recipient, posted two rough seasons in 2023-23. He signed with the Red Sox in 2024 to rebuild his career as the ace of a desperate rotation, but UCL troubles and season-ending surgery derailed his plans.
Giolito entered spring training hoping to pitch a full season for Boston, but a pulled hamstring in his first Grapefruit League appearance put him back on the sidelines. The Red Sox have been careful, slow-playing Giolito, and his final rehab start will be April 25. He's expected to join the Red Sox's rotation next week against the Blue Jays.
Giolito is excited to return to playing baseball and reinvigorating his career, but he struggled emotionally during his recovery. The righty previously had a short injury history and was known for being a workhorse on the mound — he posted 173 innings or more in all but one full season from 2019-23. He explained his feelings to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.
Lucas Giolito opens up about season-ending injury that killed his first year with the Red Sox
“That’s one of the worst feelings, the feeling of stealing money,” Giolito said. “When I signed here, one of the things I talked to them about big-time was: ‘I’m coming over here, I love the pitching side, I love the ideas you guys have for me and I’d like to be more consistent and regain form. But one thing I will give you is that I’ll take the ball every five days and give you 100, 120 pitches, I don’t care, every five days.’ And then I blew out. It was a horrible feeling because it was the one thing I was really good at, staying healthy and staying on the field.
Rehabbing @RedSox RHP Lucas Giolito fans 4 in 5 IP in his latest start with the @PortlandSeaDogs. pic.twitter.com/qhFsM9iG6Q
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) April 20, 2025
The Red Sox were quite desperate when Giolito had to be removed from the rotation. Boston named then 24-year-old Brayan Bello as its Opening Day starter and used little-known former Rays pitcher Cooper Criswell in the rotation. Luckily, Tanner Houck had a breakout season to keep the rotation on the rails, but Giolito's injury certainly changed the outlook of the pitching staff.
Players shouldn't be held at fault for the vast majority of injuries and Giolito's elbow was bound to give out eventually based on his workload, but the timing was especially poor. The Red Sox were willing to take a chance on Giolito and it immediately backfired, which isn't a great look for someone hoping to kick-start their rebound.
Giolito's honesty about his contract is admirable. Losing the first year of a prove-it deal to an injury is possibly the worst way to start anew, but he's now had plenty of time to recover and fall into his 2019 ways again with the resources Boston gave him over the past season.