The Chicago White Sox came into the 2022 season hoping that their pitching staff would be World Series-worthy. Lucas Giolito was the ace of the staff coming into the season in the eyes of Tony La Russa as he was the Opening Day starter.
That was one TLR decision that actually made sense because of the fact that Giolito had the best body of work over the three proceeding years. This season did not go according to plan for anyone but nobody felt it worse than Lucas Giolito.
He put on some muscle the last offseason and that clearly hurt his release point, mechanics, and everything else that made him great. There are people that will blame the sticky stuff but he was actually better in the second half of 2021 (post-sticky stuff ban) than the first half where it was allowed.
Giolito got a little bit better as the 2022 season went along but still wasn't the ace that we know he can be. He was clearly making some adjustments on the fly and it was causing a slight bit of improvement but adjusting like that mid-season is so hard.
He finished the year with a 4.90 ERA and a 1.435 WHIP which are pretty bad. He did have 177 strikeouts in 161.2 innings which is really nice. At the very least, he had some good stuff that could cause swings and misses. If he can clean up everything else, he could bounce back in 2023.
Final Grade: D
There are so many pitchers in the league that were worse than Lucas Giolito in 2023 but the perception of him is so much worse than it should be. Expectations are the reason for that but he wasn't even close to the worst pitcher in baseball. He gets a D instead of an F.
For some reason, he was above .500 this season as he went 11-9. This kind of shows that pitcher records are a bad stat but it speaks to the team's ability to win when he is on the mound as well.
Giolito also made 30 starts out of 32 which is nice because he was available for most of the year. That is important. If he can make the necessary improvements over the winter and come back to make 30 starts again, the White Sox will be thrilled.
There are rumors that he could be traded this winter which would make a little bit of sense as they can get rid of him now before 2023.
However, if they traded him and he bounces back they would look really foolish. We can only hope that keeping him means that he bounces back strong and helps them win.