Red Sox Lose 31-Year-Old Free Agent to NL West Power
Lucas Giolito ended his free agency suspense.
He needed more time than the 2025-26 offseason allowed.
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The right-handed pitcher, the best unsigned free agent pitcher, agreed to terms on a new contract with the San Diego Padres, who announced a one-year contract with a mutual option for 2027 on April 22.
Giolito is represented by agent Ryan Hamill of Creative Artists Agency.
Giolito went 10-4 with a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts for the Boston Red Sox last year. He’s 71-66 with a 4.30 ERA in 206 games (204 starts) in nine MLB seasons.
The Padres are 16-7, and looking to make it back to the National League playoff field for the fifth time in the last seven seasons.
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San Diego recently lost starting pitcher Nick Pivetta to a right elbow injury, leaving an obvious void in their rotation for Giolito to fill.
The Chicago Cubs were also in the hunt for Giolito, according to sources cited by Patrick Mooney, Ken Rosenthal, Dennis Lin and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic.
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Giolito’s lone season in Boston was also his first full season back from an internal brace procedure on his right elbow. Free agents can’t sign without passing a physical, and the league might have proceeded with extreme caution in assessing Giolito’s value with the potential for another injury in mind.
Pivetta became the Padres’ de facto ace in the first year of a four-year, $55 million contract a year ago. He went 13-5 with a 2.87 ERA in 31 starts in 2025 and started a Wild Card series game against the Chicago Cubs.
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Pivetta was 1-2 with a 4.50 ERA in four starts before hurting his elbow earlier this month.
Besides filling an obvious hole in the Padres’ 2026 rotation, there’s an outside chance he will return in 2027. Mutual options are rarely picked up, however, because they require both the team and the player to agree on the dollar value of the contract.
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This story was originally published April 22, 2026 at 1:57 PM.