New York Mets Linked to Former White Sox Pitcher in Free Agency

The New York Mets will be in the market for starting pitching in free agency, thanks in part of several factors.

First, there were the trades of Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander at the deadline. Next, there was Carlos Carrasco hitting free agency. Now, David Peterson’s surgery means he won’t be ready for Opening Day.

Even with the return of Rookie of the Year finalist Kodai Senga, along with a group of young arms, the Mets could use at least one veteran arm to give their staff some ballast.

Recently, Sports Illustrated ranked the Top 50 free agents on the offseason market. Within those rankings the site attached one starting pitcher to the Mets, predicting that this right-hander would make his way to Citi Field in 2024.

That prediction has Lucas Giolito signing with the Mets. SI’s logic is built around his track record and not an unexpected step back in 2023 when he played for the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Angels and the Cleveland Guardians:

From 2019 to ’21, Giolito posted a 3.47 ERA with three top-11 finishes in the Cy Young Award voting. In two years since, the righthander has lost his way. Home runs have long been an issue for Giolito, but last season he saw his home run rate balloon to 2.0 per nine innings. As a result, he was let go by the Angels just weeks after arriving in a deadline trade. Giolito is durable, won’t turn 30 until July and is not far removed from being one of the best young pitchers in the game. Finding a team that can help him make the necessary adjustments to return to that level will be paramount this winter.

Indeed, Giolito had a rough 2023. The White Sox dealt him to the Angels at the deadline as the Halos sought to make a playoff run. When it was clear the playoffs weren’t in their future, they released him and he landed with Cleveland for the rest of the season.

He ended up 8-15 with a 4.88 ERA in 33 starts (so, as noted, durable), but he went a combined 2-9 with the Angels and Guardians.

From 2018-22, Giolito had at least 10 wins in each of the four 162-game seasons in that span and went 4-3 in the COVID-shortened 2020. The closest he got to a Cy Young was in 2019, when he finished sixth in voting after going 14-9 with a 3.41 ERA, which included three complete games and two shutouts.