After missing out on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Mets still need to sign multiple starters before the start of next season. Lucas Giolito could be one of those guys.
According to The Post‘s Mike Puma, the Mets have “strong interest” in the 29-year-old.
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Giolito spent most of his career with the White Sox before being traded at the deadline to the Los Angeles Angels. After they quickly fell out of playoff contention (partly due to Giolito’s poor pitching), they placed Giolito and others on waivers. He was claimed by the Cleveland Guardians and allowed 24 earned runs in 30.2 innings.
His poor play after being traded left him with a 4.88 ERA (5.27 FIP) across the season after starting the year with a 3.79 ERA over his first 21 starts.
MMO editor Allison Waxman wrote last week that Giolito would be a decent signing on a short-term deal–a low-risk, high-reward-type player. If the Mets could unlock anything from his stretch from 2019 to 2021, where he notched a 3.47 ERA over 427 innings and earned three Top 11 Cy Young finishes, he could help the 2024 team. Or, if the Mets fall out of contention at some point next year, be used as trade bait again. In any case, Giolito is an innings eater, pitching nearly 950 innings over 167 starts since 2018.
He’s not quite the reclamation project that Luis Severino is, but he needs work–largely on the effectiveness of his fastball and once-solid changeup.
The hot stove has barely crept above a “keep warm” setting for the first two months of free agency. Perhaps the new year will get things heating up–especially in Mets land.
