Chicago White Sox: Giolito and Grandal will be great

Lucas Giolito and Yasmani Grandal need to be great together in 2021.

James McCann is not going to be a member of the Chicago White Sox in 2021. He is going to be with the New York Mets and has earned every penny that he is getting. In turn, the Sox are no longer going to be able to pair up Lucas Giolito with James McCann. Giolito became a superstar during McCann’s White Sox tenure and McCann was a huge part of the turnaround. With that said, Giolito needs to play well with Yasmani Grandal now.

If Giolito wants to maintain that status as one of the league’s top pitchers, he can’t only be good with one catcher. There is a common misconception that Giolito was only good with McCann in 2020. McCann caught Giolito’s no-hitter and it was great chemistry that allowed that to happen so smoothly but Grandal is capable of doing similar things.

There is a reason that Grandal was given such a big contract by the White Sox. He is considered by many to be one of the three best catchers in all of baseball. Yes, Giolito got off to a rough start in 2020 with Grandal but he did have a few nice starts with him as the season went on.

They are going to have a full spring training to get to know each other’s styles more. This is going to be a year for the White Sox to compete for the World Series and both of these players are so important to that success. Grandal is an elite pitch framer so Giolito needs to get comfortable throwing to him. Now that McCann is gone, Giolito will come into Spring Training with the mindset that he is throwing to Grandal instead.

There is some great potential between these two players. We know that Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn are going to throw to Grandal just fine. Giolito is the only wild card in the eyes of the public because of the fact that he was so successful with McCann. We can say with a good amount of confidence that they will figure it out and be so great together.