NEW YORK – As the Red Sox battled to maintain their hold on a Wild Card in the waning weeks of the regular season, one of their most key pitchers was quietly fighting what ultimately proved to be a losing battle.
“I probably started feeling it around my start against the A’s. Yeah, it started off mild and obviously got progressively worse,” said right-hander Lucas Giolito, whom the Red Sox left off the Wild Card roster after manager Alex Cora made the stunning announcement about the injury on Monday. “It started off mild and obviously got progressively worse.”
Knowing what was at stake for the team, Giolito was determined to persevere. He also initially thought the issue was simply the usual toll of a long season of work.
“There was no other thought in my mind than to grind through and be available to throw as many quality innings as possible,” he said. “Once it got to a point where it really started affecting throwing, that’s when we had to address it… I’ve been doing this for so long that you get used to things. I wouldn’t say I was necessarily feeling any particular pain, I just felt like I was grinding. And then it kind of got worse later.”
The breaking point was his bullpen session before potentially pitching in the final game of the regular season.
The club flew Triple-A righty José De Leon back from Puerto Rico to start Sunday’s Game 162, and Giolito flew to Alabama to see Dr. Jeffrey Dugas, the surgeon who performed his March ‘24 elbow surgery. Then, having won their final game of the regular season, the Red Sox flew to New York to face the Yankees without one of the team leaders who made this October run possible.
Meanwhile, Giolito was receiving what he described as a “pretty interesting” diagnosis. He did not have another UCL injury, a pitcher’s “worst fear.” The issue is “not affecting” his UCL, but it’s “around that area” where Dugas secured the internal brace last year.
“I think I kind of got lucky in that aspect,” Giolito said.
Still, pitching was out of the question.
“The good news is that structurally everything was checked out and good, which was, I guess, a small relief in a very unfortunate situation,” he said. “But as it was described to me – I’m not a doctor – in layman’s terms, my flexor is very irritated. And there’s like – at this point it’s hard for me to describe, it’s like weird stuff going on with my bone. So yeah, I mean, it’s one of those things where I was told, you know, you got to stop throwing and let it calm down… (No UCL injury) was a big relief, but it doesn’t really make up for where we’re at right now.”
Giolito will now step back into a role that became painfully familiar to him last year, that of the supportive teammate stuck on the sidelines. He spent all of last season, his first of a two-year contract with the Red Sox, playing that part after his surgery, but it will be different this time around. After completing a tremendous comeback in the regular season and playing such a significant role in the Red Sox making the postseason for the first time since ‘21, he cannot help them play through it.
“I feel like I haven’t really processed it, it’s happened very fast,” Giolito said. “It’s obviously been devastating. Going through what happened last year, grinding back and then being able to help this team be in the position that we’re in here now, like I said, there was no other thought in my mind than to continue to do what I was doing, in the postseason. So to have that kind of ripped away from you, it’s a tough one to deal with.”
Then, the consummate teammate was back.
“It’s not about me,” said Giolito. “This is about the Red Sox. This is about our postseason run. This is about us coming together, and going after the ultimate goal. So I appreciate being able to be here with the team, and my role is a little different now than it was during the season. I’m going to embrace that, and just be here for these guys. It’s been a really fun year, and we want to continue that.”
