The Nationals will promote right-hander Lucas Giolito to make tomorrow’s start against the division-rival Mets, manager Dusty Baker told reporters, including Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post (Twitter link). The promotion of the 21-year-old Giolito, who entered the season rated as the game’s No. 5 overall prospect according to Baseball America and currently rates as the No. 1 prospect in baseball according to updated prospect lists from MLB.com and ESPN, means that injured ace Stephen Strasburg will be replaced, for the time being, by arguably the most interesting arm in all of minor league baseball.
MASNsports.com’s Pete Kerzel wrote about the possibility of a Giolito promotion earlier today, noting that it was likely to be either him or Triple-A righty Austin Voth replacing Strasburg for now. Giolito, who had Tommy John surgery the year he was drafted, is on an innings limit after throwing just 117 innings last year as his workload is slowly ramped up. Per Kerzel in his morning piece on Giolito and Voth, the Nats typically try to keep year-to-year innings increases to 20, so Giolito may not be allowed to go more than 140 or so innings this season. He’s already pitched 71 frames this year, working to a 3.17 ERA with 9.1 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9. And, as the Nats have demonstrated in the past with Strasburg, they’re not afraid to adhere to strict innings limits even in amid the spotlight of a postseason race.
As for how Giolito currently fits into the Nationals’ plans, the organization itself remains a bit unclear on that front. MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman tweets that Baker told the media it’s “impossible” to know how long Giolito will remain in the rotation, and the decision will be handled on a start-by-start basis. Certainly, one would imagine that the health of Strasburg plays into the decision. That piece of information remains an unknown, though, as Baker informed reporters that Strasburg underwent an MRI today, and the team is awaiting the results of the examination. Even if it proves to be a short-term absence for Strasburg, it’s plausible that a strong performance from Giolito could unseat the struggling Gio Gonzalez in the starting five.
Washington selected Giolito with the 16th overall pick in the 2012 draft. He’d previously been considered one of the favorites to go with the No. 1 overall pick that year, but an elbow injury caused his stock to drop. The injury concerns proved valid when Giolito underwent Tommy John surgery, but he’s made a strong recovery and blossomed into the top-shelf prospect that most scouts expected him to become even after that injury.
Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com write in their free scouting report on the 6’6″. 255-pound Giolito that he has the highest ceiling of any pitcher in the minors thanks to an elite fastball, a power 12-to-6 curveball and a changeup that has steadily improved over his minor league career. ESPN’s Keith Law noted that some delivery tweaks in Spring Training actually set Giolito back a ways, but he appears to be back on track at this juncture. BA rated him only behind Corey Seager, Byron Buxton, Yoan Moncada and Julio Urias entering the season, noting that he had some room to improve the command of his secondary pitches as well as other facets of his game like holding runners and fielding his position. Across the board, Giolito is regarded as an elite talent and a player with ace upside if everything clicks at the big league level.
The timing of Giolito’s promotion means that even if he’s in the Majors to stay, he’ll avoid Super Two designation. The most service time he could accrue through season’s end would be 97 days, which would leave him well shy of a fourth trip through the arbitration process. If he is indeed a big leaguer from this point forth, Giolito won’t be eligible for free agency until following the 2022 season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Finally we get to see the guy that everyone wanted in trade pieces during the offseason.
Calling it now, he has a successful run at the MLB level the nationals should come up with an icecream mixture and call it the giolito.
Red Sox should deal for this kid.
Totally. Think Castillo will enough? Maybe throw in a C prospect?
No, he would command a top flight prospect in return as Giolito is a top flight prospect himself with years and years of team control remaining. The price of young controllable pitching is incredibly. See the Shelby Miller trade.
The Nats aren’t trading Giolito.
Methinks Seamaholic was being a wee bit facetious.
not nearly enough
Lol good joke. A 4th OF for the top pitching prospect in baseball? And that’s not even considering that the Nats don’t have room (they have their own middling 4th OF) and that they’d never deal Giolito
It was a joke on Red Sox fans
Mlbtraderumors- we either need a sarcasm detected button or likes button back. Pick whatever you want but its not as fun seeing the obvious joke comment being taken seriously. Ruins the fun.
I think we all know who the real joke is everytime this joke is recreated.
like
Hahahaha classic.
“If he is indeed a big leaguer from this point forth, Giolito won’t be eligible for free agency until following the 2020 season.”
Come again? Only need 4 seasons now?
I think it would be through 2022, wouldn’t it? Adam Morgan who was called up just about this time last season isn’t a FA until post-2021
Pretty sure he meant arbitration, not free agency.
Giolito too valuable to trade any time soon, if ever.
My question is.. if he goes on what of those insane runs, and Stras gets healthy, who exits the rotation when Stras gets back? Roark and Ross have been really good. Could they deal Gio for a bat or reliever?
Unfortunately, Giolito is on an innings limit, so when Stras returns to the rotation, Giolito will go back down so his innings can be controlled. He will probably, barring further injuries to a starting pitcher, then come back during September call-ups,
Best of luck to Giolito. Great for the game seeing such young talent get the call.
Mets seem to face their opponent’s crown jewel pitching prospect each week.
Nationals please trade this guy to the Yankees for an expiring Chapman..thx
If Giolito excels, they’d bump Gio Gonzales to the pen (he’s well beyond option years) and send down Solis (L) or another pen hand with options.
I will never understand these innings limits. I actually do get it the year after the surgery, but it has been almost four years since his surgery with no signs of a recurrence. Obviously he doesn’t need to go out and throw 250 innings or anything, but limiting it to 140 (with half of that already used up in AAA) will put them in the same position they were in with Strasburg in 2012 and we all remember how that worked out. If you are that worried about him being made of glass, then start him out as a reliever this year.
Starting him out as a reliever makes no sense but holding him back a month or so early in the season makes sense.
Never understood what they did with Stass. You are worried about his arm and innings? Delay his spring training start by a month or so. Would have given the early month off as more healing time. Then they could have activated him in beginning of June and pitched the entire season and post season! But that never occurred to them??
You know a guy is a good prospect when the scouts start citing how he fields his position as something to work on. I’m excited to watch this kid pitch.
If you want an innings limit on a guy that you expect to have in your big league rotation on a playoff team (Nats with Strasburg a few years ago) why don’t you have an extended spring training and have them start pitch closer to May or June so you can use them later in the season and they don’t miss September?