This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BOSTON -- For all the talk about the pitching acquisitions the Red Sox have made this winter -- from Garrett Crochet to Walker Buehler to Aroldis Chapman -- perhaps not enough attention is being paid to a couple of other quality pitchers who are on the comeback trail.
Lucas Giolito’s first season with the Red Sox was supposed to be last year. But he was reduced to spectator status after undergoing an internal bracing procedure on his right elbow in Spring Training.
Garrett Whitlock won a spot in the rotation last spring, only for his season to end after just four starts. Whitlock had to have that same internal bracing procedure on his right elbow as Giolito.
From adversity came a bond as the two right-handers became partners in rehab and playing catch.
And with Spring Training a little over two weeks away, both pitchers consider themselves back to full health.
Giolito gives Boston’s young rotation a key veteran voice. Whitlock will move back to a role he excelled at earlier in his career -- the bullpen. He should provide the staff with a multi-inning horse with the pitch mix of a starter.
As of two weeks ago, Giolito had already thrown four bullpen sessions.
Whitlock is on a similar pace.
“Should be a regular Spring Training,” Whitlock said. “They’ve got me built out, so I’ll just join right in with the group and just go from there.”
While rehabbing can be a lonely experience, Giolito and Whitlock have pushed each other for months.
“We're down in Fort Myers. We're catch partners. You don't have that lonely feeling,” said Giolito. “We have the same exact type of goals. We're hitting the same benchmarks day in, day out. We're able to motivate each other and connect and talk to each other. You know, if I'm going through something, I'm feeling a little something, I can talk to him about it. It's not like you're just talking to a trainer or something like that, you're going through it with somebody. And I think that makes for a better rehab experience, for sure.”
And they are seeing the benefits when they play catch.
“I really don't like playing catch with him,” quipped Giolito. “I don't like catching him because he can throw a four-seamer and a two-seamer, the ball is super heavy, late-breaking. Another thing too, with his extension, he gets out there -- it's like he's dropping the ball in your mitt. It's really special.”
“I definitely wouldn't want to hit off him,” Whitlock said. “It hurts my hand catching him. It’s a heavy ball, got a lot of ride to it and everything. Really good deception, even playing catch. And I know what's coming and it's hard to see the spin, hard to see what's coming out. I think guys kind of forget what he's got, and he was a Cy Young [contender in the past]. So I don't see any reason that he's slacked off from that at all.”