Lucas Giolito not extended qualifying offer by Red Sox

The Red Sox did not extend right-hander Lucas Giolito or any of their other free agents a qualifying offer before Thursday’s 5 p.m. deadline, according to multiple reports.

As a result, if Giolito signs with another team as a free agent, the Red Sox will not receive a draft pick as compensation.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand and others, the 13 players extended qualifying offers were Zac Gallen, Shota Imanaga, Kyle Tucker, Gleyber Torres, Framber Valdez, Brandon Woodruff, Edwin Diaz, Trent Grisham, Kyle Schwarber, Ranger Suarez, Dylan Cease, Michael King and Bo Bichette.

Under MLB’s current labor agreement, clubs have the right to extend certain free agents a qualifying offer, which is a one-year deal worth the mean value of MLB’s 125 highest-paid players. This year the qualifying offer is worth $22.025 million, and typically teams only extend qualifying offers to players they’d be comfortable paying that salary annually.

But since those players usually can expect to command much larger deals on the free agent marketplace, qualifying offers are usually rejected. Then if a player who declines a qualifying offer signs elsewhere, their new team must forfeit at least one draft pick and their previous team is granted one as compensation.

If that had happened with Giolito the Red Sox would have been awarded a compensatory pick after the fourth round. Those picks can be valuable, recent top prospects Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell were both selected using compensatory picks acquired after losing Eduardo Rodriguez and Xander Bogaerts, respectively.

But Giolito’s situation is unique enough where he conceivably might have accepted the qualifying offer had it been extended.

Giolito is coming off a roller coaster two-year stint with the Red Sox in which he missed all of 2024 due to elbow surgery before returning to form this past season. He posted a 3.41 ERA over 145 innings and played an integral role in helping the Red Sox get back to October, but right before the playoffs began his elbow flared up again, causing him to miss the club’s postseason run.

Given that recent injury history, Giolito would have been justified taking the higher-value one-year deal in hopes of building up his value for another crack at free agency next year. The qualifying offer also would have hurt his market this winter since teams would have had to give up a draft pick to sign him, further incentivizing him to accept.

Instead, Giolito will reach free agency without a qualifying offer weighing down his value, and the Red Sox will either look to bring the veteran back on a multi-year deal, or they will seek pitching help elsewhere.