5 things to know about new Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito
The righty has had some really strong highs, but some bad lows, on the mound over the last couple seasons. You also might recognize his grandfather.
The Red Sox finally made a notable free-agency move on Friday, reportedly coming to terms with Lucas Giolito on a two-year deal worth $38.5 million.
Giolito, 29, joins Boston as it looks to bolster its starting rotation after a relative lack of production from its starters in 2023. The 2019 All-Star could have the highest upside in the Red Sox’ rotation in 2024, but has hit some bumps recently, causing him to sign a short-term deal with multiple options in the prime of his career.
Here are five things to know about the newest Red Sox pitcher.
He was one of the best pitchers in the American League from 2019-21.
Giolito, who came up in the Nationals’ farm system before being traded to the White Sox a few months after his MLB debut in 2016, started to finally reach his potential as one of the game’s prospects in 2019.
Following a rough 2018 season, in which Giolito went 10-13 with a 6.13 ERA, the righty had a career year. He went 14-9 over 29 starts, posting a 3.41 ERA with 228 strikeouts and a 1.064 WHIP in 176 2/3 innings pitched. He ranked in the top five in the AL in ERA (fifth), WHIP (fourth), hits per nine innings (third), and strikeouts per nine innings (third) while posting league highs in complete games (three) and shutouts (two) pitched that season. All of that helped Giolito earn his first All-Star nod and finish sixth in AL Cy Young voting that year.
Giolito continued to post efficient numbers in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, recording 4-3 with a 3.48 ERA in 12 starts. He had 97 strikeouts and a 1.037 WHIP in 72 1/3 innings pitched, finishing in the top five in the AL in hits per nine innings (third), strikeouts per nine innings (second), strikeouts (second), and innings pitched (fifth). The apex of Giolito’s season came when he threw a no-hitter against the Pirates, allowing just one walk in the 101-pitch shutout. He finished seventh in AL Cy Young voting that year.
Proving to be a legitimate ace by the start of the 2021 season, Giolito continued to pitch at a high level. He went 11-9 with a 3.53 ERA over 31 starts that year, recording 201 strikeouts and a 1.103 WHIP over a then-career-best 178 2/3 innings pitched. Once again, Gioltio ranked in the top five in the AL in WHIP (fourth), hits per nine innings (third), and strikeouts per nine innings (fifth), helping finish 11th in AL Cy Young voting.
In the three-year aggregate of what’s been the peak of Giolito’s career to this point, he posted a 3.47 ERA and a 1.076 WHIP to go with 11.1 strikeouts, 6.8 hits, and 2.9 walks per nine innings pitched. All of those numbers, outside of walks per nine innings, would’ve been in the top 10 in the American League last season. Additionally, he threw 202 innings over his 162-game average during that three-year span.
But he’s had a rough last couple of seasons.
There’s a reason why the Red Sox are only signing Giolito to a two-year deal worth fewer than $40 million in total money despite his strong stretch between 2019-21.
Giolito just hasn’t been very good over the last two years. He went 11-9 with a 4.90 ERA over 30 starts in 2022, striking out 177 hitters but had a major drop in WHIP (1.435) over 161 2/3 innings that season.
Things arguably got worse for Giolito in 2023. He spent the year with three teams, being traded from the White Sox to the Angels ahead of the trade deadline before the Guardians claimed him off waivers at the end of August as Los Angeles attempted to get under the luxury tax threshold. He went 8-15 with a 4.88 ERA over 33 starts between the three teams, giving up a league-leading 41 home runs to go with a 1.313 WHIP. In fact, his season was so bad that he became the first pitcher since 1899 to allow eight-plus runs in a game with three different teams in the same year.
Now, there could be some things that occurred in 2023 that could make you think that last season was just a blip for Giolito. His first half of the season was more in line with his three-year peak than it was with his 2022 season, going 6-5 with a 3.45 ERA, 117 strikeouts, and a 1.140 WHIP in 112 1/3 innings pitched over 19 starts.
Giolito’s season blew up though in July, when he and his wife filed for divorce during the All-Star break. He struggled in his first start following the break before seeing his numbers go from bad to even worse between his moves to the Angels and Guardians. He went 2-9 with a 6.96 ERA over his 12 starts with both teams, giving up more than half his season home run total (21) during that stretch as well.
Still, Giolito ended the season as one of the more durable pitchers in baseball. He finished with a career-high 184 1/3 innings pitched, ranking 11th in the American League. He also had 204 strikeouts over the course of the season to help give him 9.960 strikeouts per nine innings pitched, which was the fifth-best mark in the American League. He would’ve led the Red Sox in all three stats last season among qualified pitchers.
His repertoire mostly consists of three pitches.
Giolito has largely pitched fastballs, changeups, and sliders over the last few seasons. He does pitch an occasional curveball, but he only pitched it 49 times last season and has only used in fewer than three percent of his pitches in three of the last four seasons.
While Giolito’s fastball has never been exceptionally fast, it was really effective over his three-year peak. As his fastball traveled around 94 mph during those three years, he was able to strikeout 224 hitters with the pitch between 2019-21, with opposing hitters only having a .203 batting average or worse against his fastball in two of those three seasons.
However, there is some speculation that MLB’s crackdown over the usage of sticky stuff among pitchers in May 2021 could be the reason for Giolito’s struggles over the last two seasons. The spin rate on his fastball is over 150 RPMs fewer over the last two seasons than it was over his three-year peak. His velocity on his fastball has taken a dip over the last two years, averaging 92.6 mph fastball in 2022 and a 93.1 mph fastball in 2023, per Statcast. Opposing hitters have also found more success against Giolio’s fastball, posting a .283 batting average against the pitch in 2022 and a .262 batting average against it last season.
Of course, the banning of the sticky stuff and Giolito’s production dropping off could just be a coincidence. He pitched much stronger in the second half of the 2021 season than he did in the first half after MLB’s crackdown and still pitched well in the first half of last season.
He has several family members that are or were in showbusiness.
A native of Santa Monica, California, Giolito’s family is certainly accustomed to the Hollywood experience.
Giolito has at least three family members who were or are actors. The most notable of the bunch is his grandfather, Warren Frost, who was actually born in Newburyport. The most memorable roles of Frost’s career didn’t come until much later in his life, starring as Dr. Will Hayward in all 30 episodes in the first iteration of “Twin Peaks,” which Giolito’s uncle, Mark Frost, co-created. Later in the 1990s, Frost had a notable role on “Seinfeld,” playing the father of George Costanza’s fiancée, Susan.
Giolito’s mother, Lindsay Frost, had a recurring role in the soap opera “As the World Turns” in the 1980s. She also appeared in a handful of episodes in “Fraiser” to go along with making appearances in “Lost,” “CSI,” and “Boston Legal.” Giolito’s brother, Casey, is also an actor.
In addition to creating “Twin Peaks,” Mark Frost also helped produce “Hill Street Blues” and wrote novels on the 1913 U.S. Open, which was played at Brookline Country Club (“The Greatest Game Ever Played”) and Game 6 of the 1975 World Series (“Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series”).
On his father’s side of the family, Giolito’s dad, Rick, has worked as a video game producer while his grandfather, Silvio, was a two-time Olympian in fencing.
He’s a self-described nerd as he went to high school with other notable MLB players.
In a Q&A with the Chicago Sun-Times in 2019, Giolito said he was “nerd cool” as a kid. He said he “kind of dabbled in Dungeons & Dragons for a while there” growing up while also reading a lot. He mostly read sci-fi books, finding interest in H.G. Wells’ and Orson Scott Card’s books.
Giolito also said in the interview that he enjoys anime a lot and played the video game “Rocket League” a lot. He actually streamed himself playing the game on Twitch though he hasn’t done a stream in over three years.
Giolito seemed to be a bit of a successful student, though. He got a 30 on his ACT, just six points shy of a perfect score as he attended the prestigious Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles.
While he was at Harvard-Westlake, Giolito was teammates with fellow MLB starting pitchers Max Fried of the Braves and Jack Flaherty of the Tigers. The self-described nerd didn’t leave much of an athletic impression on Fried.
“Outside of pitching, Lucas was very clumsy,” Fried told the Chicago Sun-Times. “He’s the guy who will trip over nothing. He’s kind of one of those cases. It was a miracle that he looked like he knew what he was doing on the mound.”
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