Lucas Giolito is coming off a bounce back 2025 season with the Red Sox where he recorded a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts. (AP Photos)
Baseball’s free agent market continues to move along at a snail’s pace as veterans await working out deals with clubs ahead of the 2026 season.
Red Sox free agent pitcher Lucas Giolito is coming to the realization that his time in Boston might be coming to an end. During an appearance on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast, Giolito discussed his focus on training and working out and preparing to pitch somewhere in 2026.
“The thing is that I’m very focused on what I’m doing,” Giolito said on the ‘Baseball Isn’t Boring’ podcast. ‘I used to work out four or five days a week. I’m working out six days a week now. I have a lot of stuff on my plate. There is a lot of work to be done when it comes to my mechanics, my pitch mix. I’m trying to add another pitch. I’m putting a lot of work in.”
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That focus, he says, has replaced the anxiety that defined his previous stint on the open market.
Giolito added, “For me, the anxiety is lessened, and all that kind of nonsense, there is less of that when you’re focused on the present and what you’re doing each and every day, rather than being like, ‘Where am I going to sign? What’s happening? What’s going on?’ I have my agent, Ryan (Hamill), who does a wonderful job. Just let him do the work. I’m not interested in hearing, ‘This team is interested in you.’ I’m not interested in hearing anything until we get to the point where offers are coming across the table.
“You get better at anything with experience. I have been through this once. This will be my second go. I will probably have a third go when that’s done. You get used to things. This goes for anything in life. You do something for the first time, it’s going to be uncomfortable. You might make some mistakes. It might be weird. But when you do it for the second time it’s going to be easier.”
Giolito acknowledged how jarring his experience with free agency had been—coming off two down seasons that cratered his free agent market.
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“For example, my last free agency I was coming off a really bad couple of months,” he said. “My stats were horrible. I was stressing during free agency. I was like, ‘Wow, I went from a $100-plus-million pitcher to having two mediocre seasons that completely shattered my market. What’s going to happen? What kind of deal am I going to get? Where am I going to go? I would stress out about and I ended up finding a wonderful landing spot. I cherish my time with the Red Sox. But this time around it’s like, ‘OK, relax. It’s going to take care of itself.’ I have been with my agent for so long. He’s really great at his job. Let him do his job. Let me do my job. And we’ll go from there.”
Giolito signed a two-year, $38.5 million deal with the Sox in the final days of 2023, eventually earning his way to free agency by surpassing 140 innings in 2025. He finished that season with a 3.41 ERA across 26 starts before declining a mutual option.
Unfortunately, health derailed his opportunity to help the Red Sox in the postseason, as he suffered a right elbow injury towards the end of the regular season, prompting the Sox to shut him down for the playoffs.
The veteran righty would welcome a return to the Sox but understands that after the acquisitions of both Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo, that may not be in the cards for the 31-year-old.
For now, Giolito continues his offseason work at Cressey Sports Performance in Florida, waiting for the pitching market to truly move.
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“It’s different that around this time last free agency,” he explained. “I was already signed or about to be signed, where this time it’s crickets. Just go to wait until the January push … Plenty of touching base. Plenty of showing interest. But as far as getting into real negotiations and offers and all that, we’re not there yet.”
Giolito isn’t the only free agent hurler that is dealing with a slow market. Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez, Zac Gallen, Chris Bassitt, and Tatsuya Imai are still unsigned. Imai’s market may be heating up as he looks to ink a deal before the Jan. 2 deadline.
The 27-year-old ranks as the No. 20 overall player and the No. 8 starting pitcher on Ed Hand’s 2025 MLB Free Agent Tracker. Yahoo Japan also reports that the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies remain in the mix.