Major League Baseball

Lucas Giolito chronicles his journey from draft day to no-hitter on 'Flippin' Bats'

Published Aug. 10, 2021 10:47 p.m. ET

For the latest episode of "Flippin' Bats," one of the best pitchers in baseball stopped by.

Chicago White Sox pitcher and 2019 MLB All-Star Lucas Giolito shared with Ben Verlander some of the highs and lows of his journey to becoming a staple in Chicago's rotation.

Giolito's story began his senior year of high school, when he suffered an elbow injury early in the season that threatened his standing as one of the top prospects in the country.

"My third start of the year, our first league game, I ended up tearing my UCL, partial tear," he said. "One of those finicky, weird ones where they don't recommend surgery, so I got PRP injections and started rest and rehab. That killed my draft stock, and I was done for the rest of the year."

As a result, Giolito slipped from being a potential No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 MLB Draft, but he was still chosen by the Washington Nationals with the 16th pick.

"I was crushed on that day," he said. "I was hopeful I would be picked on day one, but I wasn't really sure. I was sitting on the couch, watching it on TV. Bud Selig who was still the commissioner at the time, says my name, and it was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ It was crazy, man. I completely broke down."

Giolito spent the next few years in the Nats' minor-league system before being traded to the White Sox in 2016.

Giolito made seven starts for Chicago in 2017, recording a 2.38 ERA and showing signs of promise as a starter. But he then experienced a tumultuous 2018, in which his ERA ballooned to 6.13 over 32 starts.

"It was tough, it was depressing at times, and I had some dark moments on the mound," he said. "It was that wakeup call, like, yeah, this isn’t going to work. I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to realize my true potential as a pitcher if I keep going about it like this."

The struggles led Giolito back to the drawing board to transform himself and his game heading into the 2019 season. He credits White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz with helping him through the transformation.

"I had worked with him in high school and every offseason leading up to any season in baseball that I had," Giolito said. "But over the last few years, I had gotten complacent with where I was at, where my work ethic was, and so when he would come to me in the 2016 offseason and 2017 offseason and would tell me, ‘I have this new tool. I have this new drill that I want you to try,' I would be like, 'Yeah, well, that's not really for me.'

"And, unfortunately, it took that 2018 season for me to go back to him and be like, what do you got for me?"

Lucas Giolito discusses 2018 off-season transformation, mental health, more ' INTERVIEW ' Flippin' Bats

Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito sits down with Ben Verlander to discuss his offseason transformation in 2018 and the mental work that went into it.

Giolito's willingness to look in the mirror and do the work to get back on track led to a breakout 2019 season that saw him lower his ERA to 3.41 and be named to his first All-Star Game. He carried that momentum into 2020, when he tossed the first no-hitter of the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"My stuff was feeling really good. I was feeling very confident," he said. "I get to the field that day and see the lineup that we are facing with the Pirates, and I'm like, cool. This can be one of those games where if I am executing, I can get a lot of strikeouts and hopefully dominate and go deep and give us the best chance to win today.

"I locked it in early in the warm-ups, and then in the first inning, it was like I found my rhythm really quickly."

Through the ups and downs, Giolito has found his place in the majors and established himself as a formidable pitcher for one of the best teams in baseball.

Watch Ben Verlander's full interview with Lucas Giolito below:

Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the "Flippin' Bats" podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter @Verly32.