Garrett Crochet Says it's 'Insane' Free Agent Lucas Giolito Still Without A Job

Lucas Giolito had a tremendous bounce-back season last year for the Boston Red Sox after sitting out 2024 following Tommy John surgery. An 18-start stretch from late May to the end of August saw him go 9-1 with a 2.66 ERA. The 31-year-old is a former All-Star, and now he's another year removed from elbow surgery.

Yet, there he still sits on the free agent market, well into the start of Spring Training for teams around the majors. Why doesn't he have a job yet? His All-Star, Cy Young-contending teammate from 2025, Garrett Crochet, thinks it's "insane", as he told Chris Cotillo of MassLive.

It’s insane. Very insane. It just doesn’t make a ton of sense.

For teams who are married to analytics, it might make a little sense, as Giolito's Baseball Savant page — i.e. looking under the hood of his surface numbers — is largely ice-cold blue for 2025. That's the opposite of red-hot. He ranked in only the 12th percentile in xERA, the 22nd percentile in Average Exit Velo, and the 28th percentile in strikeout %.

Yet, when all the dust cleared on the 2025 season, he finished with a 3.41 ERA, a 10-4 record, and held batters to a .239 average. In other words, he passed "the eye test," according to Crochet.

“I think that you can get lost (in the numbers),” Crochet said. “It’s tough because that has become so much of what the game is... When you look at depth, you’re looking at guys who are experienced and have done it, not guys that can do it. That’s not depth. That’s just another prospect."

As much as Crochet stumps for his buddy from last year's rotation, it is not likely to wind up in a return to Boston for Giolito, as the team went out and bolstered their rotation this offseason with a trade for Sonny Gray, and a big free agent signing of top starter Ranger Suarez.

The 31-year-old Giolito was an All-Star for the Chicago White Sox in 2019, and that started a run of three straight seasons atop the Pale Hose rotation, with ERAs in the 3.00s. He stumbled a bit in '22 and '23, then sat out 2024.

So for now, he continues to keep in shape (Crochet says he's seen video clips of the veteran throwing), just waiting for his phone to ring.

It will come, as injuries start to hit pitching staffs around the majors.