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After UCL surgery cost him the entire 2024 season, Lucas Giolito returned in 2025 to post solid results (3.41 ERA in 145 innings) in the Boston Red Sox rotation before the injury bug arose just prior to the start of Boston’s wild-card series with the New York Yankees. Right flexor irritation and a bone issue kept Giolito off the playoff roster and unable to do anything besides watch as the Sox were eliminated in three games. Adding to Giolito’s frustration was the fact that after getting the diagnosis and beginning some rehab work, “within three days, my elbow felt 100% fine again,” the right-hander told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford on the latest edition of the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast (partial transcript here). With no UCL damage discovered and the inflammation subsided, Giolito planned to quickly start a throwing program with the intention of returning later in the playoffs, except Boston’s run was cut short early. As the offseason and Giolito’s free agency now begins, he said that is now “fully healthy,” even though he understands the complications that bought on by his late flexor issue. He said he is “happy to prove that I’m fully healthy in any way possible” to any skeptical front offices, and that the injury is completely behind him. “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,” Giolito said. “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.” Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5M deal with the Red Sox during the 2023-24 offseason that broke down as an $18M salary for 2024 and then a player option for a $19M salary in 2025. Giolito’s internal brace procedure made it an easy call for him to exercise that $19M option and remain in his Sox contract, and remaining in the deal also added a club option for 2026 worth at least $14M. Since Giolito then tossed at least 140 innings in 2025, the club option was converted to a $19M mutual option with a $1.5M buyout, giving Giolito the right to test free agency again if he declined his end of the mutual option. That is exactly what happened earlier this week, and Giolito finds himself on the open market again. He doesn’t have the qualifying offer attached to his services since the Sox didn’t issue him the one-year, $22.025M offer. Giolito told Bradford that he didn’t expect the QO due to his injury: “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.” Sour ending notwithstanding, Giolito still viewed his 2025 campaign as “really, really positive” given his own success and Boston’s success in returning to the playoffs. He is also hoping for an encore performance at Fenway Park in 2026 and beyond. “I made it clear to everybody. I would love to come back here and continue to play for the Red Sox. It’s the most fun I have ever had having a season with a team in the big leagues,” Giolito said. “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.” MLBTR ranked Giolito 27th on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents, and projected the right-hander to land a two-year, $32M contract. There was a bit of flexibility within that projection since some teams may feel comfortable enough in Giolito’s health to add a club/vesting option for a third year, or perhaps even just a fully guaranteed third year.
