Lucas Giolito

Lucas Frost Giolito (born July 14, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He attended Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, California, and was selected by the Washington Nationals in the first round in the 2012 MLB draft.He made his MLB debut with the Nationals in 2016. His fastball has been clocked as high as 100 miles per hour (160 km/h).

Giolito attended Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Los Angeles, California. He was part of a Harvard-Westlake baseball team that included Max Fried and Jack Flaherty, with Ethan Katz as their pitching coach. In March 2012, his senior year, Giolito sprained the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, sidelining him for the rest of his high school season. Giolito had verbally committed to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and play for the UCLA Bruins baseball team.

Although some thought he was good enough to be selected with the first overall choice of the 2012 MLB draft, concerns about his elbow caused him to fall to the 16th overall selection, where he was picked by the Washington Nationals.

Minor leagues

Giolito signed with the Nationals on July 13, 2012—thirty seconds before the deadline—to a minor league contract with a $2.925 million signing bonus. By the end of the month, the team had scheduled Tommy John surgery to repair his injured elbow ligament.

By the following summer, he made eight starts for the Gulf Coast Nationals of the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League in 2013 and posted a 2.78 earned run average (ERA). He was promoted to the Auburn Doubledays of the Class A-Short Season New York-Penn League, and allowed one earned run in the 16 innings he pitched. In 2014, Giolito played his first full season of professional baseball with the Hagerstown Suns of the Class A South Atlantic League. He went 10–2 with a 2.20 ERA and 110 strikeouts compared to 28 walks over 20 starts. He was selected as the 2014 South Atlantic League Most Valuable Pitcher and Top Minor League Prospect. He also appeared in the All-Star Futures Game.

Giolito began the 2015 season with the Potomac Nationals of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League, and received a midseason promotion to the Harrisburg Senators of the Class AA Eastern League. The Nationals assigned Giolito to Harrisburg to start the 2016 season. He received a promotion to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Class AAA International League in July.

Major leagues

Washington Nationals

On June 28, 2016, the Nationals added Giolito to their active roster and he made his major league debut that night against the New York Mets. In his debut, he pitched four shutout innings, allowing one hit and two walks, while getting one strikeout.

Chicago White Sox

On December 7, 2016, the Nationals traded Giolito, Reynaldo López, and Dane Dunning to the Chicago White Sox for Adam Eaton.Giolito began the 2017 season with the Charlotte Knights of the International League. On August 27, 2017, Giolito earned his first MLB victory in a 7–1 White Sox victory over the Detroit Tigers. Giolito threw seven scoreless innings yielding only three hits and striking out four Tigers. Giolito finished the season going 3-3 with a 2.38 ERA in 7 starts.

The following season, in 2018, he was part of the starting rotation, making 32 starts for the White Sox, going 10-13 with a 6.13 ERA. In ​173 ⁄₃ innings, he struck out 125 but led the American league in walks (90) and earned runs (118), and was 3rd in the league in hit by pitch (15), 4th in wild pitches (13), and 9th in home runs allowed (27). In 2018 he had the highest rate of bases on balls per 9 innings pitched in the majors (4.67), and had the highest WHIP among major league pitchers (1.48). He also had the worst left on base percentage of all qualifying major league pitchers, stranding only 63.5% of base runners.

In 2019, Giolito's third season and second in the White Sox starting rotation, he greatly improved from the previous year as he went on a nine game winning streak after starting the year with a 1-1 record. He pitched his first career shutout on May 23rd against the Houston Astros. He was also rewarded AL pitcher of the month for the month of May. His streak ended on June 19th when he gave up six runs against the Chicago Cubs, receiving only his second loss. On June 30, 2019, Giolito was named as one of the American League pitchers for the 2019 MLB All-Star Game, his first All-Star selection. On September 16, 2019, the White Sox shut down Giolito for the rest of the season due to a mild lat strain in his pitching arm. Giolito finished the season with a 14-9 record, a 3.41 ERA, 228 strikeouts and three complete games over ​176 ⁄₃ innings in 29 starts.

Giolito is the son of actress Lindsay Frost and producer Rick Giolito. His grandfather, Warren Frost, was an actor. His brother Casey is also an actor. His uncle, Mark Frost, is a novelist, television screenwriter, and producer, while his other uncle, Scott Frost, is a writer. In December of 2018, Giolito married his high school sweetheart, Ariana Dubelko.