FORT MYERS, Fla. — Starter Lucas Giolito has been growing out his beard (with the occasional small trim to somewhat neaten it up) for six or seven months. And it reminds Red Sox fans of Mike Napoli.
This reporter posted a photo of Giolito on X Friday. One X user replied, “When did Mike Napoli start pitching?” Another wrote, “Mike Napoli, is that you?”
Others compared him to Dallas Keuchel, ‘Honest Abe’ (president Abraham Lincoln), Jake Arrieta and Lance Lynn.
One X user predicted a 300-strikeout season. Another wrote, “19-6, 3.21 ERA, 2.94 FIP and 203 K’s.”
“I’ve heard the Keuchel one a little bit,” Giolito said. “I wasn’t going for that or anything. It’s cool though. I don’t know if my beard will ever be as legendary as Napoli’s or Keuchel’s.”
Giolito is back this season after spending all of 2024 sidelined following an internal brace procedure to repair his damaged elbow last spring.
“I’ve been able to grow a full beard since I was like 20,” Giolito said. “But I had always kept it pretty short and neat. And I just wanted to see a different look. That’s pretty much it.”
Giolito admitted he has trimmed it occasionally just so it doesn’t get too out of control but this is the longest it has been in his life.
“My beard grows really fast,” Giolito said. “I’m Italian. So I have a lot of hair. I probably started committing to growing it longer in July or August.”
He actually neatened it a bit before coming to work Tuesday.
“If you saw me two, three days ago, it was pretty out there,” Giolito said. “And we had picture day yesterday. I wanted to trim it up and make it a little neater.”
He’s unsure how long he’s going to keep it.
“Today’s a nice day. But like last week and the week before, it was pretty hot and humid. I find I’m sweating a lot,” Giolito said. “So I don’t know how long it’s going to last. We’ll see.”
The plan is for Giolito to throw his first live BP next week. He didn’t add or eliminate any pitches to his repertoire while rehabbing. He still has the same mix: a four-seam fastball, changeup, slider and curveball.
“It’s all about for me just solidifying and getting really consistent with what I have,” Giolito said.
He called his changeup “the go-to” secondary pitch. It’s been his most-frequently secondary pitch in seven of his eight seasons in the majors.
“For me, it’s kind of building on the goals that were set last spring training and even before — like in my pitch meeting with the Red Sox before I signed,” Giolito said. “We were looking at some data, metrics and all that stuff we do nowadays. And there were certain goals, especially with the slider. Getting the velocity higher and the movement profile. So just stick with that and getting all those pitches to a good place.”
He said his slider “got a little loopy over the past couple of years.”
“It turned into a little bit of a mini-curveball, especially at the end of ‘23,” he said. “The goal was to get behind it, pull down on it. Get the vertical break on it a little bit higher and the horizontal a little bit deeper and the velocity higher, which I was actually doing a good job of last spring before I blew it out. So just continuing that trajectory.”
He said the goal is for the slider to average 85-plus mph.
“In that range. It’s been that in the bullpens, which is almost like, ‘Woah.’ I don’t throw game speed in the bullpen but to see sliders 84, 85 in the pen, it’s like, ‘All right. We’ll see.’ I don’t know how hard I’m going to be throwing yet — 88, 89. We’ll see.”
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