Wednesday night is a crucial night for the Boston Red Sox as a group, but it’s also a major moment for Lucas Giolito as an individual.
Giolito is slated to take the ball for the Red Sox in game two of their series against the Athletics, coming off a gut-punch loss on Tuesday night. Boston leads the Cleveland Guardians by just 2 1/2 games for the final American League wild card spot, and only has 11 more games to play.
The 31-year-old Giolito is looking for a win, first and foremost. But by pitching just four innings, he can also secure himself a lot of money moving forward.
Giolito’s two-year, $38.5 million contract with the Red Sox included a provision to protect the club if he missed significant time due to injury in year two. Boston would hold a $14 million club option for Giolito next season if he pitched less than 140 innings, but when he does hit that milestone, he converts that to a $19 million mutual option.
Giolito is at 136 innings entering play on Wednesday, so if he finishes the fourth inning, he will have earned the right to pursue free agency, if he so chooses. And it seems almost guaranteed that he’ll do exactly that.
After stumbling out of the gates this year (both by suffering an injury on his first batter in spring training and pitching to a 6.42 ERA in his first seven regular-season starts), Giolito has been on fire since June.
With a 2.29 ERA in his last 17 starts, spanning a stretch of 102 1/3 innings, Giolito is a huge reason the Red Sox are in any sort of position to make the playoffs. It’s probably his best chance to cash in on a multi-year free-agent deal of a decent size, as the last time he went to the open market, he was coming off a disastrous second half.
The Red Sox have a decent stable of options to replace Giolito if he departs as a free agent. It will be intriguing to see if there’s mutual interest in a reunion, but on Wednesday, the story is the big righty securing himself the right to test the open market.
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