Lucas Giolito Has Turned Into A Liability For The White Sox

Lucas Giolito entered the season as the White Sox ace. Midway through August, he has turned into the biggest liability in the starting rotation.

Thursday afternoon was the latest installment of Lucas Giolito’s brutal 2022 campaign. He started the game by throwing a scoreless inning with two strikeouts.

Three innings later, he was sitting in the dugout with seven runs next to his name on the box score. In three-plus innings, the Astros lit up the 2019 All-Star for eight hits, a walk, and a home run. All of Giolito’s seven runs allowed were earned. It matched the shortest start of the season for Giolito.

His assessment of his performance was blunt and accurate.

“Obviously, I didn’t do my job. It was pretty terrible,” Giolito said after the game.

In two starts, he has now allowed 15 runs on 15 hits to the Astros this season. Giolito has been very bad this season during day games, which he admittedly doesn’t like. In nine-day games this year, he’s posted a 5.44 ERA.

It would be one thing if this trend was happening just during day games, but his overall numbers haven’t been much better. In 116.1 innings, Giolito has a 116.1 ERA and a 1.53 WHIP. Opponents are hitting .291 off of him. His fastball spin is down to the bottom 30th percentile in Major League Baseball.

Giolito suffered an early injury setback on Opening Day, which may have contributed to some of his early struggles upon his return. But as the season has worn along, things have gone from bad to worse. He was placed on the COVID IL on May 13th and hasn’t looked like the same pitcher since. In his last 15 starts, he owns a 6.64 ERA.

These numbers are reminiscent of his 2018 season when he was famously dubbed the “worst pitcher in baseball.”

But Giolito had a remarkable turnaround that has made him a fan favorite in Chicago. He was named the Opening Day Starter for the third year in a row after his three consecutive standout seasons, including an All-Star appearance in 2019. In 2021 he became just the sixth White Sox pitcher to record multiple 200-plus strikeout seasons. He also finished seventh in the Cy Young voting in 2020 and 2019. It’s obvious the talent is there.

So what is wrong with Lucas Giolito?

Location has been an issue for Giolito all season. His fastball velocity and spin rate are also down. When he missed his location with the fastball, opponents are killing him to the tune of a .284 batting average.

But if you ask the 28-year-old right-hander, the issues go beyond location.

“I didn’t think my stuff was very good either, but I missed locations, and they hit it hard. That’s generally the story of how it went,” Giolito said following Thursday’s outing. “You have to locate, and I didn’t do that. A lot of fastballs trying to go in and missing middle, stuff like that.”

Another issue is that Giolito tends to give up a lot of runs early and get stronger as the game wears along. We saw an example of this on August 13th when Giolito allowed four runs through three innings, then proceeded to bounce back and throw four scoreless.

Pitching is made much easier when you have a lead and not trying to battle back from an early hole. Opponents are hitting well over .300 on Giolito’s first 25 pitches of the game to this point of the season.

It hasn’t been an easy season mentally for the 6-6 California native either. Last season he wanted a contract extension, but the White Sox failed to get a deal done. He then narrowly avoided arbitration after filing for $7.5 million, while the Sox filed at $7.3 million. He called the lack of an agreement before the deadline “very frustrating” and ” disheartening.”

Going into the season knowing the team doesn’t have enough confidence to invest in you long-term can’t be easy. Giolito is pitching for a division title and an extension. That’s a tremendous amount of pressure and can take a toll on you mentally. Struggling to perform only adds to those frustrations.

Lucas Giolito’s past three seasons have earned him some leeway to try and right the ship. Unfortunately, the White Sox haven’t afforded themselves much room for error as the season comes to a close. Now it’s crunch time, and Giolito should be on a very short leash.