Lucas Giolito expects to be ready for Opening Day

Luca Giolito is entering what it hopes will be a year of recovery. His first season with the Red Sox was wiped out by a Spring Training elbow injury that required an internal brace procedure to repair his UCL.

The internal brace is generally a less invasive operation than a full Tommy John surgery. This can shave a few months off your expected recovery timeline. Giolito underwent surgery in mid-March. With the opening of Spring Training a year later, the Steed expects to be on the mound in the exhibition.

“I’ll be ready for a full Spring Training and a full season” Giolito told WEEI’s Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast.”I find it funny when I see things online that say I’ll be back in June. I don’t know where it came from. I have no idea. …Everything is going great. I look forward to a whole year.“

Giolito said he is near the end of his rehabilitation process at the team’s complex in Fort Myers. He indicated he expects to progress toward pitching a mound soon. Giolito added that teammate Garrett Whitlockwho underwent the same procedure in late May, is at a similar stage in his rehabilitation work.

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke to reporters this morning (including the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier). Breslow wasn’t as firm as Giolito had been about the pitcher being ready for the exhibition opener, but said the team actually expects to have both Giolito and Whitlock available for “the majority of 2025 if not all.” Breslow added that relief Liam Hendrikswho will be a year and a half removed from Tommy John surgery on Aug. 23, will be at full strength for Spring Training. That’s the expected outcome, as Hendriks had a chance to return late last season before a minor arm soreness led the Sox to shut him down in September.

Giolito admitted he may need to compete for a rotation spot on what’s shaping up to be a new-look pitching staff. The Sox added Garrett crochet AND Walker Buehler this off-season. They are likely to lose Nick Pivettawhich remains unsigned after declining a qualifying offer. Crochet and Buehler team up Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello AND Kutter Crawford in the expected starting lineup. If Boston prefers to open the year with a five-man rotation, Giolito (assuming he’s actually on track for Opening Day) could compete with Crawford for the No. 5 spot. Crawford has experience coaching out of the bullpen, but this year he played all 33 shifts in the rotation.

Regardless, the Sox will likely have to rely on all six pitchers to start games over the course of a 162-game schedule. Whitlock, who has yet to reach 80 MLB innings in a season, could be a candidate to return to the bullpen. Boston inserted Whitlock into the rotation to start the ’24 season, but he went on the injured list with a hamstring strain after four appearances. He injured his elbow during a minor league rehab assignment. Given durability issues, a return to relief for two or three innings may be appropriate.

Giolito will play next season with a $19 million player option. The Red Sox have a $14 million club option for the 2026 season. Giolito would convert it to a mutual option worth $19 million if he can log 140 innings next year. If he opens the year on the active roster, he would be a reasonable target even if he didn’t pitch last season. Durability was one of the biggest advantages of the steed that arrived this year. Giolito had made more than 29 starts in each of the previous five full schedules. He pitched a career-high 184 1/3 innings with a combined earned run average of 4.88 between the White Sox, Angels and Guardians in 2023.