Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito exercises a $19 million option for 2025

Lucas Giolito officially exercised his $19 million player option for 2025 on Thursday, making official what he previously announced during the Red Sox’ final home game last month.

The right-hander, 30, was Boston’s top free-agent pitching acquisition last season. He suffered a UCL injury in his second spring training and underwent season-ending internal brace surgery on March 12.

It was a stunning turn of events for the Sox and Giolito, one of the game’s most durable starters of the past half-decade. Between 2018 and 2023, he made 167 regular-season starts, totaling 947 innings. Before signing with the Sox, he made at least 29 starts in each of the past five seasons (not including the shortened 2020 season). As a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Guardians in ’23, he had made an American League-leading 33 starts.

Giolito broke out with the White Sox in 2019, making the All-Star team for the only time and the first of three consecutive seasons in which he received American League Cy Young votes. He had a 3.47 ERA and 1.076 WHIP over 72 starts during that three-year span, but has struggled since with a 4.89 ERA and 1.370 WHIP in 63 starts from ’22-23.

Under new pitching coach Andrew Bailey and a revamped staff, several Red Sox starters took significant steps forward this year, including Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello, who became the first homegrown trio to each make 30 starts for the Red Sox since 1987. .

For Bailey and Co. it will be crucial to help Giolito limit the number of walks and establish weaker contact. Between the ’19 and ’21 seasons, his walk rate increased from 7.2% in ’21 to 8.7% and 9.2%. After holding their opponents to a .394 slugging percentage and 34.4% hard-hit percentage in ’21, they hit .455 and .482 against him with hard-hit percentages of 39% and 41.6% in the next two year. He gave up home runs at a rate of 5.2% in ’23, a significant increase from the 3.5% he had allowed over the previous five seasons.

By signing up, Giolito also activates a few potential options for next season. If he throws at least 140 innings in ’25, he unlocks a $19 million mutual option for ’26. Otherwise, the Red Sox have a $14 million club option or a $1.5 million buyout.

TELEVISION: After 42 seasons, Bob Costas is retiring from play-by-play baseball.

Costas had played games for MLB Network and TBS Sports in recent seasons. His final games were the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals.

Costas’ contract with TBS expired at the end of the season, but his plans to retire from baseball play-by-play had been in the works for more than a year.

Baseball has always been Costas’ favorite sport. He called games on NBC from 1982-89 and again from 1994-2000. He was one of the announcers for the 1995 World Series and then the lead play-by-play voice for the Fall Classic in 1997 and ’99.

PITCH CLOCK: Nine-inning games in the World Series averaged 3 hours and 19 minutes in the field clock’s second year, compared to 3:01 in 2023.

The Series average was 3:24 in 2022 and 3:38 in 2021, the last season before PitchCom’s electronic pitch-calling device. The 2023 average was the fastest since 1996.

The number of mid-inning pitchers increased from 3.8 in 2023 to 5.2 and in 2022 to 2.5. The number of runs per game in the World Series increased from 9.3 in 2023 to 10.0 and in 2022 to 5.8. The number of pitches increased from 298 to 315, the highest total since 2018.

The overall postseason match average remained at 3:02, compared to 3:23 in 2022 and 3:37 in 2021.

TRADE: The Los Angeles Angels acquired outfielder and design hitter Jorge Soler from the Atlanta Braves in a trade for right-hander Griffin Canning.

Soler has been a productive power hitter for five teams over the past eleven Major League seasons. The Cuban slugger was the MVP of the 2021 World Series with Atlanta and also won a ring with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.

METS: New York made its first move this offseason, agreeing to a one-year deal with 33-year-old right-hander Dylan Covey.

Covey went 0-2 with a 2.66 ERA, 19 strikeouts and nine walks over 20 1/3 innings in 18 games with Philadelphia’s Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Double-A Reading and Class A Clearwater Farm teams this year.

ATHLETICS: Owner John Fisher and his family will invest $1 billion to build a stadium in Las Vegas and US Bank and Goldman Sachs will offer a $300 million loan, club executive Sandy Dean said.

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