Lucas Giolito Wants To Stay With The White Sox

The White Sox have a lot of decisions to make by the trade deadline. They need to figure out what direction this team is headed and make moves toward that. One of the more interesting dilemmas the White Sox have is what to do with Lucas Giolito, who is headed to free agency at the end of the year.

The White Sox Have A Decision To Make

Reports earlier in the season said that the White Sox would trade Lucas Giolito by the trade deadline. Many people figured this would be the case, as he is an impending free agent and if he leaves, then you get nothing for him.

But, after a recent interview, it seems that Lucas wants to stay with the Sox, as they gave him many opportunities to find success in the big leagues, and he is very appreciative of that.

This adds a wrinkle to the White Sox plans unless they were already aware of what Giolito wanted. Regardless if they knew or not, now that the report that Lucas wants to stay is out, fans will be upset if they let him go, especially considering the state of the rotation in 2024.

What Will The Sox Do?

Giolito has had a very nice bounce-back season to this point, as he is 5-4 with a 3.54 ERA, his best season since 2020-21. He has looked much more confident out there and has been one of, if not the most consistent pitcher all year for the White Sox. This makes the decision much more difficult.

Considering the uncertain status of the rotation next year, if the White Sox are still trying to win, it should be a no-brainer to bring back Gio. Lynn will most likely be gone, Clevinger is an uncertainty, and Davis Martin won't be back until the middle of the season. The Sox will need starting pitching.

As long as Giolito pitches like this, a long-term deal would be great for both sides. After being one of the worst pitchers in all of baseball, Gio was one of the best from 2019-2021 until a rough year last year. It seems like he has figured out what went wrong, as his stats are much closer to those great years.

He could command somewhere in the realm of 5/100 million for the contract, which would be right around market value, maybe even lower. If he would take a deal for 16-20 million a year, the Sox need to get on that if they are trying to compete.

But, if the Sox have no intentions of competing at a high level, then they, unfortunately, need to trade him and see what they can get at the deadline. Teams are always looking for starting pitching and he could get them a top-100 prospect. Maybe they could even do what the Yankees did with Aroldis Champman and resign him after the season.

Regardless, you need 5 starting pitchers on your team. Even if they are retooling they should keep Gio around. He wants to be here and you want those types of players on your team. Hopefully, they can work something out and he is a White Sox for the foreseeable future.