Lucas Giolito is ready to talk
When 4:30 p.m. rolled around Thursday, Lucas Giolito was a bit concerned as he sat in his rented South Florida home.
Putting a bow on getting a car shipped down from Boston had been somewhat anxiety-inducing.
As for the other news in Giolito's life on this early November afternoon, whether or not he would be receiving the $22.025 million qualifying offer for the 2026 season, that hadn't added any stress to his day. Talking on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast, the pitcher explained he was already pretty certain of the outcome.
"I wasn’t banking on it," said Giolito just moments after learning he wasn't receiving the one-year QO. "I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get it."
Why was he so certain?
"Because I ended the year injured," Giolito said, matter-of-factly. "That’s how it works, man. You end of the year hurt, you’re not in a good spot to command a qualifying offer or whatever. So, yeah, moving on.
"Yeah. I thought it was obvious. I went into this offseason knowing full well I would be a free agent. You end of the year hurt, it puts a bad taste in the team’s mouth. It is what it is. Now, the fortunate side is that it was like the most benign, weird, freak injury that went away after a few days. So, now I’m like, great. I’m having a fully healthy, amazing offseason. That kind of stuff happens. It’s just how it goes."
By not getting the qualifying offer, Giolito can sign with another team without that club having to surrender a draft pick. There were 13 players who were attached to a QO: Kyle Tucker, Kyle Schwarber, Bo Bichette, Framber Valdez, Dylan Cease, Ranger Suarez, Edwin Diaz, Zac Gallen, Shota Imanaga, Michael King, Trent Grisham, Gleyber Torres, and Brandon Woodruff.
For Giolito, he had been confident for a while now that his qualifying offer fate was sealed. That was because of the "freak injury" that he experienced just before the start of the postseason involving his pitching elbow.
The frustration regarding those few days of discomfort still wears on Giolito because of what might have been if the ill-timed ailment hadn't cropped up. He was supposed to be pitching Game 3 of the Red Sox's wild card game at Yankee Stadium. And there was also the plan of heading into free agency with momentum born from a season in which he pitched to a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts over 145 innings.
All of that took a turn thanks to those final days of the regular season.
"I’m used to bad luck stuff happening in my career, so I’m not surprised at all," Giolito quipped.
"I went and saw the doctor. That was right before the series started. So I came back and started doing rehab work in New York. Within three days, my elbow felt 100 percent fine again. That was when I was like, ‘Yo, let’s start a throwing program so I can build up and be ready to pitch as soon as humanly possible. Whether that’s the end of the divisional series, or, if we made it that far, the championship series. Let’s start building up.’ But then we lost the game, and the season is over. That’s that."
Does he think he could have pitched in the postseason if the Red Sox had advanced to the later rounds?
"Yeah, but I didn’t that’s the end of the story," said Giolito, who threw last month at Fenway Park before moving south to start his training at Cressey Sports Performance.
"Like I’m telling you, there’s no injury, or whatever injury there was is gone. It was a weird, freak thing that popped up at the worst possible time, not only for the Red Sox but for myself and in general. Just the worst possible time. It makes my free agency harder. It prevented me from pitching in the playoffs where I had been a part of the rotation pretty much the entire year. It was just a very, very tough one to swallow. I still don’t like thinking about it."
What Giolito does like thinking about are the possibilities that await.
While he would welcome a return to the Red Sox, the 31-year-old understands the realities that come with turning over rosters and team building. Giolito also grasps the uncertainty that comes with free agency, having experienced it two years ago.
"I made it clear to you. I made it clear to everybody. I would love to come back here and continue to play for the Red Sox," he said. "It’s the most fun I have ever had having a season with a team in the big leagues. I felt like the way it ended left such a bad taste in my mouth, and the rest of the team, particularly me not being able to pitch in that playoff series. It really sucked. I was like I really hope I can come back, and it goes better for us next time. It has got to be a mutual thing. Going into free agency … For me, I’m not going into free agency hurt. But for front offices, they might view it that way, and I’m happy to prove that I’m fully healthy in any way possible. Obviously, when you sign with a team, you have to pass a physical. So, there you go.
"I’m fully confident that next year and the year after are going to be better. Last year, I feel like there were some very good highs. Again, just being out there and giving the team an opportunity to win games, it was like, ‘Thank God I’m back to doing something like this.’ This is what I love to do. This is what I really take away from it. Being back out there, I felt like there were a lot of times where it was like, ‘Damn, I have to remember how this (expletive) goes again.’ A lot of ups and downs for me personally and the team as a whole, but overall, really, really positive. I look forward to next year next continuing to build off of that. Get back to my way of pitching. Get the strikeout numbers back up and all the stuff I know I’m good at that I didn’t have firing at the highest level last year, just coming back. I look forward to piecing all that stuff back together now that I’m fully healthy. I’m not grinding through stuff anymore. I’m going to have a healthy offseason."