Lucas Giolito Undergoes Internal Brace Procedure

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March 13:  The Red Sox announced this morning that Giolito underwent an internal brace procedure to repair the UCL in his right elbow. That comes with a shorter recovery timetable than a full Tommy John surgery and will give the right-hander a chance to pitch the entire 2025 season if things go smoothly in his rehab. Hell likely still mi s the entire 2024 campaign, however.  March 11:  Red Sox right-hander  will undergo surgery on his right elbow tomorrow afternoon, per and . Its still unknown whether he will require a full Tommy John surgery or a brace procedure, but hes ticketed for an extended absence either way.  It was last week that Giolito has a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament in his right arm as well as a strain of his flexor tendon. A decision had not yet been made on the path forward, with  Trevor Ariza Jersey the club sending Giolito for a second opinion. After gathering further information, it now seems that it will be nece sary for him to go under the knife. Giolito previously underwent Tommy John surgery as a prospect back in 2012.  It seems that some of the details of the procedure will be worked out on the operating table, as the medical team will a se s the level of damage in his elbow once they get in there and then decide on the best path forward. Either way, Giolito seems slated to mi s the entirety of the 2024 season. A brace procedure is a relatively new alternative to Tommy John that can come with shorter recovery times, but even those rehab windows are in the ballpark of a year.  Its a devastating blow for both Giolito and the Red Sox. The righty posted excellent results from 2019 to 2021 with the White Sox, with a 3.47 earned run average in that time. He struggled in 2022, with his ERA bumping to 4.90, but seemed to be bouncing back in the first half of last year.  He had a 3.79 ERA through 21 starts as he approached the open market and seemed to be trending towards being one of the top free agents of the 2023-24 offseason. He was traded to the Angels but then saw his performance dip again. He had a 6.89 ERA in six starts for the Halos as that club fell out of contention and put him on waivers. The Guardians put in a claim but then Giolito had a 7.04 ERA in six starts for that club.  As recently as last summer, he seemed to be trending towards a nine-figure mega deal but instead limped into free agency with little momentum behind him. He settled for a , prove it deal with the Red Sox, netting a guarantee of $38.5MM. He also secured an opt-out in that deal so that he could return to free agency if he posted better results in 2024.  That now wont happen and Giolito will stay on Bostons books through 2025. The club came into this winter looking to bolster their rotation but ended up being fairly inactive in that department. They did sign Giolito but also flipped  to Atlanta for  , making it a sort of neutral set of moves for the rotation, depending on how the Sale/Giolito swapped was viewed.  With Giolito now set for an extended absence, the rotation is now the same as last year but without Sale. Its po sible that steps forward from their incumbent options of  ,  ,  ,  or  could make that up somewhat, but its nonethele s unideal for the clubs big offseason splash to mi s the entire season.  The club has been operating with a bit le s spending capacity than in the past. Club president Sam Kennedy that new chief baseball officer  has payroll parameters that he is operating under. pegs this years payroll at $180MM, whereas the data at shows the club has been as high as $236MM in the past. It appears the club doesnt look favorably on its chances of competing in a competitive American League East and isnt willing to spend gobs of money to chance a chance at contention that may be narrow.  Free agency still features big names like  and  . The Sox have been frequently connected to the latter but without anything seeming close, at least partially due to those apparent budgetary concerns. If the club has interest in a more affordable option for eating some innings, guys like  ,  and  remain unsigned.  For Giolito, he will be focused on his rehab for the foreseeable future. He will turn 30 years old in July and will turn 31 before his deal with the Sox expires and he returns to the open market after 2025.  Charles Barkley Jersey