Red Sox reportedly sign pitcher Lucas Giolito

BOSTON -- The Red Sox have finally signed a starting pitcher this winter. Boston has reportedly inked right-hander Lucas Giolito to a two-year contract worth $38.5 million, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

It's certainly not the No. 1 starter that Red Sox fans have been clamoring for -- and the team desperately needs -- but it's ... something. Now new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and the Red Sox are hoping that Giolito can put a tough 2023 season behind him and regain the form that he showed from 2019-21.

Giolito pitched for three different teams and finished with a 4.88 ERA last season. The 29-year-old was also taken deep 41 times to lead the American League in homers allowed.

But he did eat up a lot of innings for the White Sox, Angels, and Guardians, starting 33 games across his three stops and tossing a career-high 184.1 innings. Giolito is a workhorse that consistently takes the ball when his turn in the rotation arrives, averaging 175 innings over the last three years. (Brayan Bello led all Boston starters with 157 innings last season.)

Giolito was actually pretty solid for Chicago last year, sporting a 3.79 ERA in his 121 innings, but things really fell off when he was acquired by the Angels at the trade deadline. He had a 6.89 ERA in his six starts for Los Angeles, and was even worse after being claimed off waivers by the Guardians with a 7.04 ERA over six starts.

After breaking into the big leagues with the Nationals in 2016, Giolito spent six-plus seasons with the White Sox. He led MLB with a 6.13 ERA in 2018, but bounced back well in 2019 when made his lone All-Star team and finished the season at 14-9 with a 3.41 ERA. He fanned a career-high 228 batters over 176.2 innings that year, and also pitched two shutouts while going the distance three times for Chicago. 

He received some Cy Young votes in both 2020 and 2021, with a 3.48 and 3.53 ERA those two seasons, respectively, and tossed a no-hitter in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

But he struggled to a 4.90 ERA in 2022, and finished 8-15 between his three stops last season. His walks have also crept up over the last two seasons, with Giolito issuing 73 free passes in 2023 and 61 in 2022. He was hit extremely hard down the stretch last season, coughing up 21 homers over his 12 starts for the Angels and Guardians, including five different games where he was taken deep three times.

Now the Red Sox will hope that a change of scenery and some help from new pitching coach Andrew Bailey will get Giolito back on track. If nothing else, he should give the team a lot of innings, which is something Alex Cora desperately needed from his rotation in 2023. 

While the annual salary is high for a middle-of-the-rotation arm, that's the price tag teams have to pay this winter. The deal also includes an opt-out after the first season, which essentially makes it a one-year pact with a player option for Giolito.

The Red Sox still need another arm for the rotation, so we'll see if the Giolito signing gets the ball rolling on the rest of the pitching market.