FORT MYERS, Fla. — Former White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito has an idea for a documentary — an ESPN “30 for 30,” perhaps — on the recent rise and fall of the team for which he went 59-52 with a 4.20 ERA in 162 starts over six-plus years.
Given how richly the entertainment industry flows in the guy’s blood — he hails from serious acting stock, fans should remember — we probably ought to write this one down.
Title: “What the Hell Happened?”
Tagline: “Stuff just didn’t come together.”
On a rainy Sunday at Red Sox camp, Giolito laughed at his sudden brainstorm, which, truth be told, included a different S-word than “stuff.”
The 29-year-old right-hander has had a Sox change, having signed a two-year, $38.5 million contract that includes a
$19 million player option for 2025. In between, he pitched for the Angels and Guardians after being traded from the South Side with fellow starter Reynaldo Lopez for prospects just before the 2023 deadline. In all three new clubhouses, players have greeted him in the same fashion.
First, “Nice to meet you.”
Then, “What happened to you guys in Chicago?”
“It’s the thing I hear all the time, whether it’s players or just people wherever I go,” Giolito said. “Everyone wants to know, ‘Man, what happened? You guys were so good on paper.’ And it’s like, I’m just so frustrated to hear it — because it’s true.”
There were notorious clubhouse issues.
“We definitely didn’t mesh together the way we should have,” he confirmed.
There were lots of injuries.
“But every team deals with that,” he said.
And Giolito was among many players who ultimately failed to live up to expectations individually. From 2019 to 2021, he was one of the American League Central’s better starting pitchers. After that, though, he came in under his own bar. He wishes he’d given the team more.
“I put a lot of blame on myself,” he said.
After the Sox traded him, he went into what he calls a “two-month downward spiral.” Despite going a not-bad-at-all 6-6 with a 3.79 ERA in 21 pre-trade starts last season, he finished with overall marks of 8-15 and 4.88 and allowed a staggering total of 41 home runs, second-most in the majors.
Still, there was one start within that mess — against the World Series-bound Rangers in mid-September — that has given him hope ever since. Giolito was magnificent, throwing seven shutout innings while striking out 12.
“It was like, ‘OK, it’s still in there. Let’s pull it out more often,’ ” he said. “That’s what my work has been dedicated to.”
Mechanically, he has gone back to things he was doing as he ramped up to his big-league peak. He’s throwing harder than he did this time the last couple of years. He’s a fan of Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey and the structure of the team’s pitching programs.
“It’s been a very refreshing change,” he said.
It’s too late to revive what he once had in Chicago — the 2019 All-Star Game, the 2020 no-hitter, the beautiful music he made with catcher James McCann throughout both of those seasons. And there’s no reason to pin any of his struggles since then on Sox catching post-McCann, Giolito maintains.
“It’s like, let’s just all move on,” he said. “We all have our own careers, and tomorrow’s a new day.”
Giolito will turn 30 two days before the All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas, and isn’t afraid to make it known that he believes he can be there representing the Red Sox.
“Oh, yeah, of course,” he said. “I know it’s in [me].”
Meantime, what else he’d like to do is use his experience with the White Sox — the good and the bad — and help make sure a young Red Sox team doesn’t take a turn toward dysfunction.
“I’d like to have more of a veteran presence and help steer these guys in the right direction if they want that,” he said. “Building a good culture, building a lot of camaraderie, getting the guys close, that’s what I’m looking forward to doing. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
It’s the way it once was with the White Sox, or at least the way Giolito thought it was. As much as anyone the last several years, he tried to be a good teammate.
Ah, well. They’re just about all gone now. Even Dylan Cease, a pitcher Giolito took under his wing, is likely to go.
What the hell happened?
“Baseball and life, I guess,” Giolito said. “I think baseball is a great reflection of life in the form of sport. There’s a lot of failure and there’s a lot of rough times. You try to celebrate the good times. We had a few
moments, but they were fleeting.”
