{"id":584197,"date":"2026-02-21T04:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584197\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T04:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:34:23","slug":"red-sox-manager-alex-cora-gets-brutally-honest-on-lucas-giolitos-impact-on-2025-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/584197\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox manager Alex Cora gets brutally honest on Lucas Giolito\u2019s impact on 2025 team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Sox manager Alex Cora gets brutally honest on Lucas Giolito\u2019s impact on 2025 team<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last season was a resurgent one for the <\/a>Boston Red Sox<\/a>. For the first time since 2021, they returned to the postseason. Although the Red Sox ultimately fell short, their AL Wild Card series loss to the New York Yankees was full of lessons. Entering the 2026 campaign, Boston looks poised to capitalize on last season\u2019s improvement. Yet, when asked about the free agency of former Sox starter Lucas Giolito<\/a>, manager Alex Cora had some praise for the veteran.<\/a> Team beat reporter Christopher Smith shared Cora\u2019s take on Giolito via X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe was great,\u201d Cora stated to the media Friday afternoon. \u201cHe did a good job. Just too bad at the end that he was banged up. A guy that we relied on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giolito did have a solid<\/a> season for the Red Sox. The righty went 10-4 with a 3.41 ERA in 26 starts. He\u2019s certainly one of the best free agents left on the market. Numerous teams have openings in their rotations for an arm like Giolito. How long will it be until he finds a new team? Or could he return to Boston?<\/p>\n

Red Sox look to make a deeper postseason run in 2026\"Mandatory<\/p>\n

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Cora said he didn\u2019t know why the other 29 teams had not signed Giolito.<\/a> Despite how well he pitched with the Red Sox last year, there\u2019s currently not a spot for him in their rotation. Ace Garrett Crochet has been joined by trade acquisitions Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo. In addition to that duo, free agent starter Ranger Suarez came aboard via a six-year, $155 million deal.<\/p>\n

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In combination with those four arms, the Red Sox also return<\/a> Brayan Bello, plus promising rookies Payton Tolle and Connelly Early. As nice as it would be to also have Giolito, the cost likely isn\u2019t worth it at this stage. For now, the veteran righty will keep searching for his next team. Will the rotation\u2019s new additions give Cora his best shot at a title since Boston\u2019s 2018 World Series triumph?<\/p>\n

Related: Red Sox manager Alex Cora keeps it real with Marcelo Mayer\u2019s Opening Day status<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Red Sox\u2019s Romy Gonzalez reveals \u2018lingering discomfort\u2019 as spring training gets underway<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Sox manager Alex Cora gets brutally honest on Lucas Giolito\u2019s impact on 2025 team appeared first on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[858,5,141,48,2542,5172,15558,36543,922,5416,585,10498,4,62,3973,90,89,2543,1587,286],"class_list":["post-584197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-alex-cora","tag-baseball","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-brayan-bello","tag-christopher-smith","tag-connelly-early","tag-garrett-crochet","tag-johan-oviedo","tag-lucas-giolito","tag-mandatory-credit","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-payton-tolle","tag-ranger-suarez","tag-red-sox","tag-redsox","tag-sonny-gray","tag-sox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116106761598483954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}