Lucas Giolito

Lucas Frost Giolito (born July 14, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He has previously played in MLB for the Washington Nationals, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, and Cleveland Guardians.

Giolito was born at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, on July 14, 1994.

He grew up in Santa Monica, California.

Giolito began playing tee-ball at the age of 5, and he played Little League Baseball at Santa Monica Little League.

He threw his very first 90 mph pitch at the age of 14.

Giolito attended Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Los Angeles, California.

He was part of a Harvard-Westlake baseball team that included Max Fried and Jack Flaherty, with Ethan Katz as their pitching coach.

Giolito attended Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, California, and was selected by the Nationals in the first round in the 2012 MLB draft.

In March 2012, his senior year, Giolito sprained the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, sidelining him for the rest of his high school season.

Giolito had committed to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and play for the UCLA Bruins baseball team.

Although some thought he was good enough to be selected with the first overall choice of the 2012 MLB draft, concerns about his elbow caused him to fall to the 16th overall selection, where he was picked by the Washington Nationals.

Giolito signed with the Nationals on July 13, 2012—thirty seconds before the deadline—to a minor league contract with a $2.925 million signing bonus.

By the end of the month, the team had scheduled Tommy John surgery to repair his injured elbow ligament.

By the following summer, he made eight starts for the Gulf Coast Nationals of the rookie-level Gulf Coast League in 2013 and posted a 2.78 earned run average (ERA).

He was promoted to the Auburn Doubledays of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League, and allowed one earned run in the 16 innings he pitched.

In 2014, Giolito played his first full season of professional baseball with the Hagerstown Suns of the Class A South Atlantic League.

He went 10–2 with a 2.20 ERA and 110 strikeouts compared to 28 walks over 20 starts.

He was selected as the 2014 South Atlantic League Most Valuable Pitcher and Top Minor League Prospect.

He also appeared in the All-Star Futures Game.

Giolito began the 2015 season with the Potomac Nationals of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League, and received a midseason promotion to the Harrisburg Senators of the Class AA Eastern League.

He made his MLB debut with the Nationals in 2016.

His fastball has been clocked as high as 100 mph.

The Nationals assigned Giolito to Harrisburg to start the 2016 season.

He received a promotion to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Class AAA International League in July.

On June 28, 2016, the Nationals added Giolito to their active roster and he made his major league debut that night against the New York Mets.

In his debut, he pitched four shutout innings, allowing one hit and two walks, while getting one strikeout.

On December 7, 2016, the Nationals traded Giolito, Reynaldo López, and Dane Dunning to the Chicago White Sox for Adam Eaton.

Entering the 2017 season, Giolito was considered the 12th best prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB.com.

Giolito began the 2017 season with the Charlotte Knights of the International League.

On August 27, 2017, Giolito earned his first MLB victory in a 7–1 White Sox win over the Detroit Tigers.

Giolito threw seven scoreless innings yielding only three hits and striking out four Tigers.

Giolito finished the season going 3–3 with a 2.38 ERA in 7 starts.

In 173 1⁄3 innings, he struck out 125 but led the American League in walks (90) and earned runs (118), and was 3rd in the league in hit by pitch (15), 4th in wild pitches (13), and 9th in home runs allowed (27).

The following season, in 2018, he was part of the starting rotation, making 32 starts for the White Sox, going 10–13 with a 6.13 ERA.

In 2018 he had the highest rate of bases on balls per 9 innings pitched in the majors (4.67), and had the highest WHIP among major league pitchers (1.48).

He also had the worst left on base percentage of all qualifying major league pitchers, stranding only 63.5% of base runners.

In 2019, as a member of the White Sox, he was named to the MLB All-Star Game.

In 2019, Giolito's third season and second in the White Sox starting rotation, he greatly improved from the previous year as he went on a nine-game winning streak after starting the year with a 10–1 record.

On August 25, 2020, he threw a no-hitter in a 4–0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.