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Why hasn’t Lucas Giolito signed with a team? Ex-Red Sox starter provides update
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- Why hasn’t Lucas Giolito signed with a team? Ex-Red Sox starter provides update
Baseball season opened two weeks ago, but Lucas Giolito still doesn’t have a team.
The 31-year-old right-hander delivered a strong 2025 with the Red Sox , going 10-4 with a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts, but was unavailable for the playoffs due to an elbow issue. Giolito said he was fully healthy by November and there was no UCL damage.
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So why hasn’t the veteran starter signed anywhere yet?
Giolito declined a $19 million option from the Red Sox, so he certainly thought he’d have a more robust market in free agency. On the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast , he said it’s been odd negotiating with teams. Ultimately, Giolito just wants to get paid what he feels he deserves.
“The last few months has been very strange to where talks seem like they’re heating up and then it’s like ‘Oh OK never mind.’ I just want to play for close to what my value is,” Giolito told Rob Bradford. “Everything is based on these models now, right? Everyone uses projection and models and things like that to determine and my agency does the same thing. So it’s like, ‘All right, cool, give me something that’s relatively close to that and let’s go and get it.’”
Giolito is staying ready for whenever that call comes.
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The veteran is throwing live bullpen sessions where his pitch count sits around 75, so he’d be ready for a quick Triple-A tuneup before getting back to the big leagues.
In spring training, Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet said it was “insane” that Giolito hadn’t found a new team yet.
“You look at teams across the league that aren’t trying to win — I won’t name the teams, but OK, it makes sense they’re not gonna target a guy like that,“ Crochet said. ”But it’s at the point where it’s like, ‘What even is his price range?’ Because for the value he’s providing, I would say he outplayed his (Red Sox contract). If you look at the two years, OK, I get it, he blew out. But if you just look at the one year for $18 (million), I’d say he outplayed that. Then, look at what top-end pitchers (like Framber Valdez ) are getting, too.
“When you’re looking at the ceiling and the floor, there’s not a huge difference there. There’s a lot of pedigree and a lot of recent success.”
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