Despite declining his end of a mutual option for the 2026 season, right-hander Lucas Giolito was and is very open to returning to the Red Sox, the pitcher himself told WEEI’s Rob Bradford in a guest appearance on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast. However, Giolito also was realistic about the slim chances of that happening in the wake of Boston’s acquisition of Sonny Gray (and Johan Oviedo). Asked if the trades for Gray and Oviedo were a signal that the team plans to move on, Giolito replied, “That’s what I think,” adding that the “writing is on the wall” with regard to the fact that a reunion is unlikely.
Giolito delved further into his free agent experience a second time around, explaining that he’s more focused on what he can control this time around instead of stressing over the day-to-day of the process. He’s upped his workout regimen and is experimenting with reincorporating a sinker into his repertoire. He hasn’t thrown a two-seamer since the 2018 season but is working out at Cressey Performance Center this winter and working on an updated version of the pitch.
Though Giolito will likely be taking that new-look sinker to another club, the Red Sox don’t figure to be done on the pitching front. Tim Healey of the Boston Globe breaks down the team’s bullpen, highlighting the lack of established options beyond Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock and Greg Weissert while noting that at least one, if not two external additions could be in the cards for Breslow in the final few months of the offseason.
The Red Sox are paying Jordan Hicks $12MM in each of the next two seasons, so he’ll surely have a leash of some note, but he’s coming off a lost season in which he was rocked for a 6.59 ERA while posting a career-worst 18.5% strikeout rate. Manager Alex Cora talked up Jovani Moran as a potential left-handed option, but the 28-year-old has struggled through injury and poor performance since a promising rookie campaign with the Twins back in 2022.
While Boston is lacking in established southpaw options, much of the free agent market has thinned out considerably in recent weeks. A reunion with veteran Justin Wilson would make sense, speculatively speaking, but each of Steven Matz (Rays), Gregory Soto (Pirates), Hoby Milner (Cubs), Caleb Thielbar (Cubs), Caleb Ferguson (Reds), Drew Pomeranz (Angels) and Sean Newcomb (White Sox) has already signed this winter. Wilson, Danny Coulombe, Taylor Rogers, Andrew Chafin and Brent Suter are all still available. JoJo Romero is the most obvious name on the trade market, if the Red Sox want to circle back for what would be a third trade with the Cardinals.
White Sox should bring Giolito back to southside
I just don’t see that happening, though they should. There was a contract dispute over like $50k that one season
Bringing back Lucas Giolito to the White Sox might have made more sense if former pitching coach Ethan Katz would still be mentoring him. Katz was Giolito’s prep coach at Harvard-Westlake HS in Los Angeles and later at the MLB level with the White Sox from 2021-2023. Katz also mentored Jack Flaherty and Max Fried at Harvard-Westlake HS. All four remain good friends to this day. Katz is currently the assistant pitching coach for the Astros after being let go as White Sox pitching coach following this past season.
If Giolito is more intrigued about taking the ball as an opening day starter than being on a bona fide contender this coming season then the White Sox could still be a possible destination.
That possibility may also be evaporating if the latest rumor out of Japan comes to pass. According to a report from Yahoo Japan, the White Sox are “rapidly emerging as strong contenders” for Japanese ace Tatsuya Imai.:mlb.com/news/tatsuya-imai-kazuma-okamoto-meeting-m…
Aaron – Fantastic post, very informative …. thank you!
More on the Tatsuya Imai rumor straight from the “horses mouth”.:
sports.yahoo.com/articles/white-sox-legit-contende…
As a White Soc fan I’d definitely pick Imai over Giolito but keep Giolito on the phone.
I also believe Justin Ishbia is more financially involved as some might think. Could he be more in the financial decisions that most people think? Sure why not. He’s in the longterm future anyways.
If Imai falls in your lap, why not add Giolito (or another starter)? Can’t draft higher than 10th in 2027 so there’s no benefit in being terrible. Might as well try to be competitive.
Id pick Imai over Giolito but tell Giolito to keep the engine running and circle the block a few times just in case
Id pick Imai over Giolito but tell Giolito to hold on and he can wait on the balcony, shivering in the cold with the dogs while we finalize plans
Freddy Peralta & Trevor Megill & Blake Perkins to the Red Sox for:
Wilyer Abreu & Dorian Soto.
You must be high on your own supply.
Giolito is not a good choice for this team any more the Yoan Moncada
that is incorrect, Giolito is a good pitcher, if he is healthy and strong, he could have hia best season yet.
But the White Sox aren’t a good fit.
Coaching is important but veterans at Giolito’s age and tenure need a good situation more than the tuteledge.
Wow I didn’t realize Justin Wilson was still playing, good for him!
Really well too!
Bruh – He was fantastic in the first half, awful in the second half. I think conditioning had something to do with it in the second half, he reminded me of Guapo in terms of appearance.
Well Breslow is an established lefty. If Philip Rivers can do it…
Ivan – Breslow could never pitch for the Red Sox because he’s not a flamethrower, there’s no way Breslow would want a guy like Breslow on the team.
Breslow would take one look at Breslow’s upper-80’s fastball velo and tell him “See ya, I wouldn’t wanna be ya” …. even though Breslow is actually Breslow.
I cannot argue with this
Breslow isn’t interested in Breslow’s non-elite spin rate or mediocre extension.
Oh
Giolito needs to accept the fact he will probably have to prove he can stay healthy with a one year deal for no more than $15M.
Red Sox would not have picked up their end of the mutual option anyway, but it was still strange that he declined what would have been an additional $17.5M on his end of the mutual option. I’d be really surprised if he gets more than that in free agency.
The site prediction has him at 2 years and $32 million.
While he is unlikely to break that 17.5 over a single year, he can easily beat it over 2. Every team has their own level of risk aversion when it comes to injury prone players, but the Dodgers just won a World Series with a pitching staff comprised at least partly of guys who pitch half years.
Most players don’t seem to be as concerned about the AAV as they do the total guarantee. He just needs one team to offer a multi year contract and he’s better off than if he stayed. It’s hard to imagine that not even one team will offer him a 2 year deal.
$17.5 million is very reasonable for an upper-level #4 starter like Giolito anymore.
Canuck – You make some good points, but I’m certain if he landed a guaranteed 2-year deal he’d want an opt-out after the first year.
Right now his value is low because of the injury concerns, which means he’s better off with the option to become a free agent again after next season. If I were him I wouldn’t even consider a $10M AAV for 2 years, he would be selling low …. unless he knows another serious injury is coming soon, like he did 2 years ago.
Fever- I assume he was hoping someone would give him a bigger deal after declining the option. I assume he would have got it by now if he was, but you are probably correct in him looking for the best 1 year deal to showcase that he is healthy and can still win (assuming he is healthy which I assume he is after declining the option).
I assume things will pick up after the players from Japan get signed in the next few days.
Uncle – Well could be another situation where he knows an injury could happen soon and therefore wants a multi-year contract now.
On a sad note, I’m hearing chatter that Yaz passed away. Not publicly confirmed yet. So glad he had the opportunity to participate in the ’75 reunion, he was so happy being with all his teammates again.
Fever- I have not heard anything yet. Nothing on social media about Yaz passing so they must really be keeping it quiet. That would be a big loss, definitely one of my favorite players as a kid.
Uncle – Yeah I know they are an extremely private family, perhaps they don’t want to announce it until after the holiday. Or somebody misreported it. If there’s no official announcement by Friday, I’ll assume he’s still with us.
Agent talk. Ugh. I would’ve been happy with Gio around, but that’s me. I’m happy with Gray and ok with Oviedo. I kind of like the idea of a blue collar rotation behind Crochet. Solid enough innings eaters. That requires solid run scoring to work. So there’s more to do.
I love what White Sox got for Crochet, but damn I was a hard core Crochet fan. I also believe it’ll be a win win for both teams. Crochet is gonna be special from last year forward.
Why- assuming he is healthy I agree that I would have been fine with Gio since he showed he can handle the pressure. I am just not sure he is healthy and that is one thing you get from Gray. I did not understand the Oviedo deal, maybe they see something that needs to be tweaked and they think he can be better.
I guess Gio is not completely out of the question if he gets desperate but I would rather see someone younger like Imai. Not sure why there have not been any rumors linking the Red Sox to him, they are linked to everyone else.
Uncle – Chapman will be an excellent mentor for Oviedo, mark my words.
Yeah, come on back to the South Side! Settle in, in a place you know, get re-established and then they’ll flip you to a playoff-bound team.
Two things the red Sox won’t do anything about… What is Giolito and the bullpen, Alex?… Correct. We also would have accepted the rotation, the bench, 2nd and 3rd base.
And if they’re looking for a.leftie so bad, why did they trade the one they had?
coop – I know this one!!!
Because he didn’t throw hard enough or miss enough bats.
I actually think it was even dumber than that. They cleared 40 man space for guys that likely won’t even be better than who they gave up.
Another Stearns special…
If only he was an ex-Yankee…
What a bonus it would be if Hicks can consistently find the strike zone. It would be like finding a hundo in the pocket of a coat you haven’t worn since last year. He has such good stuff, but no one really knows where it’s going.
If the Athletics are looking to add another good rotation arm to contend, this would be ideal without sacrificing any prospects.
in that AAA stadium Giolito would be serving up home run derby contests for fans
I would love to see Boston sign Andrew Chafin. He would become a fan favorite if he pitches like he has the last 2-3 seasons. I don’t understand why he hasn’t signed already; there must be some ‘advanced metrics’ that paint him in a negative tone. Chafin just keeps getting the job done and that should be enough for Boston to sign him at a reasonable rate. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a reunion with Justin Wilson. He was excellent for them last season and shouldn’t cost much given his age.
Chafin has walked between 12.5% and 13.3% of batters the last three seasons. I don’t know if you call that an “advanced metric,” but it’s a red flag.
Dotty – Wilson was awful in the second half, and he will be both 39 and extremely overweight ….. not a good combo.
I’m grateful for his first half performance this year, he earned his salary.
FPG
39 and extremely overweight… Bad combo. That’s just funny. Lol
dorothy- signing Chafin would mean the Sox would actually have to spend money.
hard to say if they are willing to spend on anyone at this point.
Andrew Chafin in a Red Sox uniform is reminiscent visually of Rod Beck, and I’m all here for it.
He belongs on that idiots Red Sox team. Have him stand next to Trot Nixon.
His agent is looking for $18-20 million
Let me know.if he finds it. He may be looking for a while.
See ya Giolito.
He signed a $38.5M deal with Red Sox and was injured from day one. Then after returning, in late 2025, he was developing a sore elbow. Rather than rest, he pushed to reach his 140 Ip minimum to trigger an Opt Out in his contract. And because of the arm trouble, he wasnt able to pitch in playoffs.
Its a business, so he had ever right, but theres no way Red Sox will ever employ him again.
Reggie – correct. If he had rested the elbow even a start or two, he would he not made the 140 innings, but he would have probably had the $14 million option picked up by the Red Sox, and been able to pitch in the playoffs.
LH Payton Tolle should be in the pen in ‘26, I understand the desire to keep him stretched out in AAA or even given the opportunity to compete for a starting spot during the spring but I think for ‘26 the best place for him and for the team in ‘26 is for Tolle to be in Boston’s pen.
the best place for Tolle is to start the season in AAA and continue to work on his secondary pitches. that’s not going to happen if hes in the bullpen
Crochet appeared in 72 games before he made a start.
So you think Tolle could be the next Crochet….and you want to stick him in the bullpen for the next 3 years?
If the Red Sox need Tolle out of the pen, then can always do that in August/Sept.
Besides Crochet not pitching in the minors, AAA Charlotte isn’t a good place to build up a pitcher. White Sox tend to be very quick to promote their guys and let them figure out the bullpen. This strategy has been copied by the Red Sox before; however, they rarely implement it successfully.
If Tolle was on the White Sox it might make sense, however, he doesn’t have a build up issue. Tolle lacks the stuff to put guys out. This winter and spring tooling Tolle manages will direct where he goes. A strong breaking pitch will really help him quickly establish.
There are plenty of recent examples of pitchers who don’t have effective offspeed/breaking pitches (many of the Seattle studs) figure it out on the fly. The trick is establishing the heat and locating it well.
Tolle most certainly doesn’t lack the stuff get guys out. He has a plus plus fastball with elite extension and if you only watched the 16 innings he pitched in the big leagues you would erroneously come to that conclusion. It is an erroneous conclusion let’s not forget he started the season in High A Greenville and in his first professional season made it all the way to the bigs. His fastball is special and he commands it well. He actually throws throws three other pitches besides his Fastball/Slider combo he came into pro ball with. His kick change is especially intriguing and flashes as a plus pitch just naturally inconsistent since he learned it on the fly.
The point is he locates a plus plus fastball and has already shown a cutter, sweeper, and especially a kick change that has a lot of potential. It’s obvious when he came up it’s obvious he was told throw the fastball and the slider/cutter and nothing else. He still got a lot of swing and miss accept in the Arizona game where a really good offensive team took advantage of his two pitch mix and fouled off tough fastballs until they got the middle middle fastball and hammered it. They just took advantage of a young pitcher. Take that game out and his numbers look a lot better. One things for sure Tolle doesn’t lack the stuff to get hitters out and that will be seen next season probably around mid season. If you didnt watch him all year and the progression I can see why you come up with your erroneous conclusion.
Bruin1012 — I’m saying Tolle needs to work on his offspeed pitches. They don’t grade well and we’re exposed by MLB hitters. Why are you going into full backcourt defense over something so obvious to the establishment of this player?
Cleveland you said and I quote “ Tolle lacks the stuff to put guys out” and that just isn’t true his fastball punches guys out to the tune 10.5 per 9 in the bigs and even had a 30% whiff rate. He doesn’t lack the stuff that’s just not true. Even his secondaries though used very sparingly produce swing and misses those are facts.
What is true, due to big league hitters sitting on his fastball, he gave up a lot of hard contact that probably won’t happen when he comes back to the big leagues. His change was hit quite hard but actually grades potentially as a plus pitch with refinement same with his cutter. Those pitches when thrown produced a lot of swing and miss but due to be rudimentary especially the kick change he would telegraph it at times by slowing his arm speed and big league hitters hammered it when he did it.
If you wanted to say he needs to polish his secondaries in order to be a viable starter in the big leagues yea I could agree with that but saying he lacks the stuff I completely disagree with this statement and I think if you dig a little deeper into the numbers you will realize why.
Bruin1012 — I’m not trying to always be so long-winded. Sometimes it’s about giving other people credit to understand what you mean. In this case, it’s pretty clear everyone knows Tolle has great characteristic to his delivery, arm slot, and fastball. My statement has all that assumption unsaid to address where things falls apart.
I do appreciate what you mentioned about the change up and cutter and where it lacks. But I don’t need you correcting me for ticky-tacky stuff when I’m making broad strokes on points that we already agree.
Tolle is going to front the rotation in Worcester in a ridiculous AAA rotation.
As far as the lefties I think they will have Drohan and Moran out of the pen and possibly Harrison. There just aren’t enough triple rotation spots for either Harrison or Drohan. I think both can be very effective out of the pen after they fully transition. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sandoval out of the pen as well if they don’t trade him to move money. Breslow May add another lefty reliever via trade or free agent if he can fit someone into payroll but it’s possible he goes with what he has.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see one of Harrison or Drohan in the pen, but after trading away Dobbins and Fitts there should be a AAA rotation spot for at least one of them.
Good chance Crawford (or less likely Sandoval) ends up in the pen as well. He can pitch against lefties and righties.
Right now I think that the AAA rotation is going to be:
Tolle, Crawford, Bennett, Sandlin, and Uberstine. Possibly could be Harrison or Drohan and even Early as well in AAA but at this point I think Early wins the final rotation spot coming into the season and they start Crawford in AAA to shake off the rust he’s probably first man up if there’s an injury. I think they go internal for there lefty’s out of the pen.
That’s one possibility, but I doubt it comes to that.
They were converting Sandlin to relief at the end of last year. It’s possible they move him back to the rotation, but it didn’t appear to be a short-term plan.
Bennett only has 45.2 innings at AA. If he looks great in spring training then I can see it, but otherwise I expect him to start there.
Early may have a shot at starting in MLB, but with Sandoval and Crawford, he would have to really blow everyone away. So he’s likely in AAA to start.
Road – The Red Sox have plenty of left handed pitching. Drohan has better stuff than both Chis Murphy and Brendan Bernardino. They also have Harrison, Tolle, Early.
My guess is Drohan makes the Red Sox out of spring training and Haden Mullins is added by mid-season.
*in the bullpen
Totally agree with this I think Mullins could of got big league hitters out last year out of the pen.
Tolle reminds me of Papelbon. I expect him to emerge as a power closer by the end of 2026 and anchor the bullpen until 2030.
Tolle would make a good closer.
except they should focus on him being a starter. way too early to be thinking closer for Tolle.
Im not sold on 2 of the 3 outfield spots for Red Sox. I like Anthony way more than the other 2. But im just a White Sox fan & right now our OF reeks
And you only drank half a bottle of elderberry wine before you wrote that. Imagine what you would have come up with if you had drunk the whole bottle.
I didn’t realize Coors made Elderberry wine.
not noted in article but Boston does have Kyle Harrison as a lefty that they could use
I don’t see Giolito coming back with Gray and Oviedo in the fold. The starting pitching market has been mostly stalled since Toronto’s ridiculous overpay of Dylan Cease. Giolito will get signed eventually but he’s probably going to have to wait til Valdez, Suarez, and Imai finally sign
@RSox –
You are 100% correct on Dylan Cease being ridiculously overpaid. There are 2 standout things about Dylan Cease
1) Durability – Rarely injured and is usually a lock for 30-32 starts per season. That is rare in this day and age.
2) Strikeouts – He averages 10.9K/9 for his career.
Besides these two traits, what makes him a $210M pitcher? His career ERA is 3.88 and is coming off of a 4.55 ERA in 2025. While he may strikeout close to 30% of the batters he faces, what are the other 70% of the batters doing against him. He allows 1.1 HR/9 for his career and has a career WHIP of 1.265. He has two great seasons to his name: 2022 (best) and 2024, but other than that, he shows no signs of being a true ace like Crochet, Skubal, etc..but is getting close to ace money to pitch more like a durable #2 or even #3 starting pitcher depending on the year.
His contract has completely shut down the starting pitching markets for the remaining top pitchers as all their agents are comparing their clients’ stats to Cease and expect the same (or larger) deals for them. The Blue Jays overpaid him by close to $50M if you ask me.
His exceptional swing and miss comes at a cost. Batters lay off and rather than settling for easy outs by occasionally pitching to soft contact, hes notorious for running up his pitch count- rarely getting out of the 6th inning. In that respect, hes league average or below, in spite of his durability. Sure he averages 10.9/9, but rarely goes 6. Not what you want in an ace. Even worse in the playoffs where he’s struggled getting out of the 3rd. 4 career playoff starts, grand total of 10 IP
Dm
Agree with everything you said . Toronto must overpay for free agents. Nobody wants to go/live in Canada. I’m sure the exchange rate has something to do with it also. It’s to bad because it has been a great baseball city
cdc – The exchange rate favors non-Canadians, Toronto players get paid in USD so their salary buys them 37% more in Canada right now.
Hey I’m hearing Yaz passed away last night, not publicly confirmed yet though. He was so happy at the ’75 reunion this year, very glad he was there for it.
FPG.
Yaz. , just tried looking for information. I hope he is ok. Yaz is a legend. He was considered the best player in the league for a couple years. 1967 was the year I was born. What he did for the Sox that year is what made him legendary. The Captain. # 8 . God Bless
Planet a lonelier place without Yaz for Red sock fans and the Hawkeroo, his partner in crime in the dashing nehru suit
cdc – hi !
Yeah I hope it’s false too obviously. I did hear he was diagnosed with dementia not that long ago.
I was at his last game, have the date memorized … Oct 2, 1983 ….. Spillner went 3-0 in his final plate appearance, Yaz didn’t want to go out with a walk so he swung at ball 4 even though it was up around his eyes ….. the inevitable popup ….
Who replaced him in the field? Chico Walker.
cdc – It’s fake, I just came across a website that posted this around 9:30AM EST yesterday “VERY VERY SAD NEWS: One hour ago, the family of Hall of Fame legend Carl Yastrzemski announced heartbreaking news.”
It’s a lie because if the family announced it, the media would have tons of articles on it.
Absolutely disgusting to make up someone’s death, websites that do this sort of thing should be shut down.
Heartbreaking news, their goldfish micky tettleton is sick
Not to be mean, but you should know that not one word of that made sense.
Give me Andrew Chafin or give me death.
Tolle reminds me of Papelbon. I expect him to emerge as a power closer in 2026, and anchor the bullpen until 2030.
bcjd – Maybe after Chapman leaves, but not before then.
BTW – Tolle is a lot more like Joba.
Noooooooooooo
or they should continue to develop him as a starter and have another ace level lefty.
If you want to be a troll you’re going to have to do better than that.
I like Gio and wish he returns to Boston. I despise Hicks n I wish he was long gone never to be seen again. Breslow STUPIDLY accepted him in the Raffy trade, n now we hafta watch this horrible pitcher pitch in Boston because his contract is high? That makes me I’ll.