White Sox ace Lucas Giolito was diagnosed with a mild lat strain after going for an MRI on Monday, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets. That type of injury normally takes three to four weeks to recover from, Fegan notes, so the right-handed Giolito’s year is over.
Season-ending injury aside, 2019 will go down as an enormous step forward for Giolito, who finally began to live up to the immense hype he garnered as a prospect. Giolito, whom the White Sox acquired from the Nationals in December 2016 as part of the teams’ Adam Eaton blockbuster, found himself among the majors’ worst starters as recently as a year ago. The 25-year-old turned the tables this season, though, as he fired 176 2/3 innings of 3.41 ERA/3.44 FIP ball with 11.62 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and 5.1 fWAR to reestablish himself as one of the league’s most coveted arms.
While Chicago’s way out of contention yet again as the playoffs near, its hope is Giolito will help lead it back to relevance a year from now. Giolito’s among a few highly talented starters who could help the White Sox accomplish that goal. Michael Kopech should be back from Tommy John surgery by then, and Carlos Rodon figures to return from his own TJ procedure. Meanwhile, the promising tandem of Dylan Cease and Reynaldo Lopez will be a year older and maybe a year wiser when it comes to retiring opposing hitters.
impressive he’ still only 25
In fantasy league I drafted Giolito in the 22nd round before the season. He really paid off when Glasnow went down. Slid right in and didnt miss a beat.
wow. so impressed.
Lol
Who cares
Without a doubt, next year should be huge for the Chisox. Could be the year they win 70 games. Daniel Palka, Covey and Collins will have another year under their belt. They will need to sign about 4 or 5 new relievers though. And an OF, 2B, DH and Abreu. They’ll be ok.
Nah, it’s time to cut ties with Covey. Maybe Palka too. Other than that, your post is all kinds of crooked.
Covey and Palka won’t be on the roster next year.
Megatron, this is just part of the Sox desperate attempt to continue tanking. A seven year year rebuild, at this point. That is why Covey and Palka were brought up.
Can Cub fans really not count to seven? You’d think they could count to 108.
Covey and Palka suck. The team needs a RF, a veteran starter, and some relievers. Resign Abreu if he comes cheap like a 2 year $22 million deal with a club option. But he hasn’t been good this year either plus his defense sucks.
You know Abreu is leading the league in RBIs, right?
Shh. They might read this. They don’t like Runs being Batted In.
You now that RBIS are garbage, right?
and we have stupid comment of the week, folks!
He could have NOT batted them in.
Do you seriously not understand why RBIs are overrated as a stat? Abreu has had an OPS below .800 for much of the season. For a power hitting, defensively poor first baseman, that’s not good. I appreciate his ability to be a positive influence on the young hispanic players but he’s not being paid for that. More to the point, Collins, Gavin Sheets, and Andrew Vaughn are all high draft picks who are going to play first base on the cheap as soon as next season. Why not play them and spend the money al would be spent on Abreu, by locking up players Moncada, Giolito, or other young players. Or spend on a RF?
“Overrated” yes.
The term above was “garbage.”
SABRmetric folks throw the baby out with the bath water when they say Wins, BA, RBIs, ERA, Fielding % are useless, have no value, meaningless etc.
No they are not the most complete and do not tell as much of the story but to use such absolute negative terms is inarguably silly.
But he does have an 800 OPS, and his OPS+ is 120, which is above average.
He’s put together an above average season in terms of advanced metrics, and is having a solid year as a run producer, on a team that is near the bottom of OBP and walks, no less.
What he is doing at the plate is pretty solid.
@ John Kappel
If you want to get technical about it, OPS is a flawed stat, or more specifically, a redundant stat. Basically you’re counting all types of hits twice in the stat. I would think it would be more appropriate to just incorporate BB and HBP into SLG % to get OPS. I’m surprised more people haven’t hit on this. Maybe it doesn’t make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, and I only bring it up because you rip a stat and use OPS as if it were the almighty stat.
And yes, you can’t necessarily take RBIs at face value, you do have to dig deeper. I acknowledge that. But to have 117 RBI (plus any more he gets in the last 12 games) in a mostly crappy lineup is pretty impressive.
I agree the Sox would do much better with locking up guys like Gio and Yoan than to keep Abreu. I’m assuming their plan is to do both, but if it came down to one or the other, I’d take extending the young guys. But it looks almost certain Abreu will be with the Sox at least the next couple years.
@ retire21
Amen! These stats that have been used as primary stats for well over 100 years are suddenly worthless stats. Yes, there’s more to the story than these primary stats show, but that’s where we learned to read between the lines in the past. I’m curious as to how many stats there are in baseball right now.
Is this supposed to be satire?
Dogbreath’s just jealous. He knows the White Sox have a brighter future than the cubs. Too bad the cubs can’t play the Pirates and Reds in the playoffs. Things are gonna get ugly when the cubs get demolished against a quality team… again.
yall took the bait way too easily
I’m a Hahn critic, but even I know that there is a good chance Palka and Covey are sent packing, and I’m not convinced they won’t send Collins down for another year to work as a catcher, because his value as a 1b/DH is pretty limited.
Would not shock me if all three are not on 2020 opening day roster.
@maximumvelocity
I agree with you on that. I think the only way Collins stays up is if he has a blistering Spring Training. If Palka and Covey are still on the team next year, it means the Sox completely whiffed this Winter. Even then, I can’t see them justifying a spot for either.
Dogbone enjoy your $120mm+ of has been SPs next year. Lester Darvish Quintana 4+ ERA. I’m sure it will get better but I’m sure Steve Adams approves of your trolling lol
Without a doubt this hurts the sox wc chances.
Uhh, there already eliminated
@Yankeedynasty
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that was sarcasm by citizen.
I know this is a fool’s errand, but I’m just in one of those moods. It’s not “there” already eliminated, it’s they’re already eliminated. THEY’RE, as in THEY ARE. The apostrophe is for the letter A. This is something you learned in the 2nd or 3rd grade, or maybe in your school, the 8th grade.
To everyone else, I’m normally not the grammar police. Usually I could care less. Normally if I can figure out what you’re saying, it’s good enough for me. My grammar is far from perfect. It’s more a reaction to his idiotic comment, which brings his idiotic comment total on this message board to 2.
Eaton trade must be the stupidest trade in major lague history. The prior trade deadline the nationals declined tp trade him to the yankees for chapman the cubs instead traded torres to the yankees they won it all finally and the nationals traded him for a CF injury prone wigh no power. What a stupid move yet again the signed werth for an insane amount and he was a flop.
Interesting comment. What language did you use to write it?
I would look this gramatically challenged individual on social media, but there is a 84% chance he misspelled his name too.
Yeah it was a head scratcher at the time and still is. I remember when that deal was made I was so mad that the Nats turned down Chapman but accepted Eaton. Would’ve loved to have Gio in the rotation and thought he was going to be a stud ace. This was before Gleyber was on the map really. But now having Gleyber and seeing what he does makes it all better :)
I think it was an overpay, but in fairness, this is the first year where it really looks as if WS won this deal, because it looks as if they have a legit No 1 out of deal.
Lopez is still suspect as a starter, and we will have to see what happens with Dunning after TJS.
Nats fans forget, the Nats didn’t just get Eaton from the Sox in the deal, they also got Eaton’s incessant injuries. In a few more years, the Eaton trade may make Brock for Broglio look like a fair trade.
JR makes more money by losing. And the players know that. I won’t be surprise if Abreu sign with a team, who wants to win. And nobody would blame him. This is year three of the rebuild and they.re still going to lose at least ninety games. But I still a fan (since 1958) and I hope JR sells the team to a owner, who value the fans over the dollars. I know it a business. But these going out of contention sales are getting old..
Yes, it is ONLY year 3. How many years do you think a rebuild should take? The Astros lost 106, 107 and 111 games during three successive years of their rebuild with another 92 after that. This one is going just fine.
The White Sox only have $14 million in committed contracts to only having to second or third players so the payroll should be around $35 to $40 after those guys are paid so they better be active in the offseason either via free agent signings or trades.