Finally back on the mound, Lucas Giolito is making his mark on the Red Sox's rotation: 'I can be myself again. I can be a true, real teammate'

BOSTON — It has become an all-too-common narrative arc, though it remains an uplifting and exciting scene: a talented and accomplished pitcher making his first appearance in the big leagues after a year-plus away while rehabbing from elbow surgery.

On Wednesday in Toronto, the latest such instance was Red Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito’s return to the mound, accompanied by the usual remarks from the broadcast about how many days it had been since he pitched in the major leagues.

For Giolito, that number was 577.

Any pitcher who makes it back after such a lengthy layoff is worthy of thorough commendation. But for Giolito, the ill-fated timing of his surgery and the unusual circumstances under which he completed his rehab — in the background of a big-market team for which he had yet to throw a pitch — made his return all the more meaningful.

After establishing himself as one of the more durable and dependable starting pitchers in the American League, Giolito struggled down the stretch in the final year of his contract in 2023 — a poorly timed swoon entering free agency. Nonetheless, Boston believed in him as a bounce-back candidate and signed him to a two-year, $37 million contract shortly after the calendar flipped to 2024. Giolito then arrived in Fort Myers, Florida, eager to reestablish his credentials as a frontline starter and ready to make a strong first impression on a Boston fan base starved for some stability in the rotation.

And then he blew out.

Elbow discomfort during a Grapefruit League outing turned out to be more than just a temporary nuisance. Giolito underwent internal brace repair surgery on March 13 and was ruled out for the 2024 season. Before he could make a regular-season start in his new threads, he was on the shelf for the year.

And this wasn’t Giolito’s first rodeo. He’d undergone Tommy John surgery mere months after being drafted by the Washington Nationals in the first round in 2012, so he was familiar with the rehab process. At the same time, Giolito was a teenager then, still in the earliest stages of his career, naïve about what it meant to be pulled away from competing at the highest level.

This time around, with more than a decade of pro experience and more than 1,000 major-league innings to his name, grappling with being physically unable to contribute was a much taller task for Giolito. And that feeling was exacerbated as he worked to fit in with a team he had only just joined.

Giolito tried to stay engaged with his new teammates as the season progressed, but it often felt hollow.

“Last year, you know, Netflix was here, all this stuff’s going on, and I’d be around, and it’s like, ’I’m on the team’ … but I’m not. I haven’t done s***,” he told Yahoo Sports.

“I like watching the game and learning and analyzing pitching and all the fun stuff like that. But being away from it and not being able to compete, it felt like a piece of me was missing. There were times where it felt a little lonely, or it’s like, ‘What can I do to be helpful?’

“Not really anything.”

As if waiting an entire year weren’t enough, Giolito’s Red Sox debut was delayed further by a left hamstring strain suffered during spring training, putting him on the injured list to start this season. And across five minor-league rehab starts in April, his numbers — a 5.19 ERA with 18 hits and 13 walks allowed in 17 ⅓ innings — did not hint at a smooth transition back to the big leagues. But Giolito wasn’t concerned about his statline, remaining confident that the work he was putting in would pay off.

“I’ve made plenty of starts in the big leagues — that’s my comfort zone, right? The rehab games were not my comfort zone,” he recalled. “Pitching in Double-A and Triple-A, driving all over the place, not really having a good routine — I was treating those games like rehab games. I was working on the mechanics. I was doing things that were a little bit uncomfortable, but I was really trying to hammer in some stuff we’ve been working on.

“And so the results were very poor in those, but I had confidence in myself that once I got into my comfort zone — which is competing at the big-league level, being in a stadium with that extra deck and kind of feeling that environment — I was gonna feel comfortable again.”

Sure enough, Giolito cruised through most of his outing Wednesday against the Blue Jays, wiping away any concern that his shoddy form from rehab outings would carry into his big-league return. He needed just 66 pitches to complete five scoreless innings, with seven strikeouts, one walk and three hits allowed, before the Blue Jays got to him in the sixth.

“We had a very good game plan going in,” he said. “It was commanding the fastball to both sides and up and down. When it was evident the slider wasn’t working the way that we wanted to, it became more of, ‘OK, let’s utilize that heater to kind of open up spots for the changeup to work,’ and then I was able to command the changeup to both sides … I was pleased with the first five innings. I felt right back at home.

“Unfortunately, the sixth inning is when I kind of lost it … hung a couple and paid for it,” he said of his final frame, in which his command wavered and he surrendered homers to Daulton Varsho and Alejandro Kirk. The Red Sox ended up losing 7-6 in the 10th inning.

For the most part, though, it looked like the Giolito of old. His fastball averaged 93.3 mph but touched as high as 96, and he leaned heavily on the changeup that was a key weapon before his injury, throwing it 36% of the time. His slider (6%) was less prominent, a reflection of how the pitch was playing and the feedback he received from his catcher, Carlos Narváez.

“The slider wasn’t really there. The first few sliders I threw, I was really kind of pushing, getting under it on the side, and then when I made an adjustment to getting it in the strike zone, it was getting hit,” Giolito said. “That’s credit to Narvey — he’s fantastic, by the way — kind of recognizing that.”

Although it barely featured in his return outing, the slider is a pitch worth monitoring for Giolito as he continues to craft his arsenal with the Red Sox. Adjusting his grip on the pitch to get more horizontal movement was a priority for him in his first spring training with Boston, and he thought he was making positive strides with the offering before his injury. While the fastball and changeup have long been Giolito’s bread-and-butter, a more whiff-centric slider could unlock another gear.

“I know he’s working on the slider,” Narváez said. “I don’t think it needs to be elite because the fastball and changeup are elite … but if he adds a decent slider going down and away to righties and sometimes back-foot to lefties, I think it’s gonna be huge [for him].”

Giolito is the latest Red Sox pitcher to praise the 26-year-old rookie for his work behind the plate this season. Acquired via trade from the Yankees in December, Narváez reported to Fort Myers in January intent on getting to know the Red Sox pitchers, on and off the field, as soon as possible. His preparation and commitment to developing those relationships have been felt in the clubhouse and are now manifesting in games, even when he’s working with a pitcher such as Giolito, for whom he caught only a couple of bullpens in the spring.

“In the meeting before the game, he let me talk about their lineup,” Narváez said of the battery’s preparation ahead of what was the catcher’s 25th big-league start behind the plate and Giolito’s 179th on the mound. “So that gave me confidence since it was my first time catching him.”

Narváez has also worked closely with the Red Sox’s coaching staff, including longtime Boston backstop Jason Varitek, to construct and execute game plans for his pitchers, and he has demonstrated an ability to adjust based on how a game is unfolding. With last year’s primary starting catcher, Connor Wong, recently returned from the injured list, manager Alex Cora said Wong and Narváez will split time behind the plate moving forward. But Narváez has clearly proven his value as a rookie and will remain a sounding board for Giolito.

No matter the catcher or the exact pitch mix, Giolito is simply thrilled to be back doing what he knows best: taking the ball every fifth-or-so day for a major-league team and giving it his all. His first year-plus as a quasi-member of the Red Sox was valuable time spent rehabbing and preparing for his highly anticipated return, but now it’s back to basics — in the best way possible.

“I feel like I can be myself again, like I’m actually contributing,” Giolito said. “I’m on the team. I can be a true, real teammate.”

Giolito’s next scheduled start is Tuesday against the Rangers, marking a home debut in front of the Fenway Park faithful that was more than a year in the making. But he’s quick to downplay any sort of elevated circumstances for his next outing.

“I think the Red Sox debut, coming back from surgery, not pitching for 18 months, that was a bit more of a thing,” he said. “Whereas now, it’s like, ‘OK, cool. I’m just in my groove.’”

Giolito’s first start back from injury understandably centered on his arduous journey to get to this point, but now it’s about what’s in front of him.

“I just want to keep improving.”

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