Happy New Year? It’s ‘back to the old me’ for White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito in 2023

The beauty of the new year, and a new baseball season, is the free gift of turning the page. Of saying goodbye to the past, recent or distant and starting anew.

As one might guess, Lucas Giolito is embracing this. The White Sox’ 81-81 finish last season was a stinker, and Giolito knows he was one of the many reasons why.

“For me, the biggest motivator is the failure of last year,” Giolito told the Sun-Times in a recent phone conversation. “Look in the mirror at the end of the season, at my own season and the team, not playing up to expectation. Get back on the grind in the offseason to right the ship.”

As Giolito gathered with his family in Atlanta for the holidays — to celebrate Christmas, the new year and the birthday of a grandmother who turned 100 on Dec. 29 — he was already in a better frame of mind after going 11-9 with a 4.90 ERA in 30 starts in 2022. After adding weight and muscle last offseason and tipping the scale at 280 pounds in spring training, the 6-6 Giolito is slimming down to 250-255 pounds.

“Back to the old me, I guess you could say,” Giolito said. “We tried something last offseason, and potentially I thought it was working great. We’ll never know truly if it was a good or bad move. It seemed to backfire.”

In the 5-4 loss at Detroit on Opening Day, Giolito left with an abdominal strain that landed him on the injured list. He had pitched four innings of scoreless one-hit ball with six strikeouts.

“You never want that,” Giolito said. “My body didn’t hold up as well as I wanted to. This offseason, focus is to be lean and strong but move well, be an athlete. I want to repeat my mechanics, feel agile and quick.”

A biomechanics assessment this offseason revealed misfiring in his delivery, and a throwing program reintroducing plyometric balls with focus on “getting everything back in sync, my whole kinetic chain” is going well.

“I’m rotating better, the ball is coming out better,” Giolito said.

In a nutshell, an offseason that also included an eye-opening visit to the Dominican Republic with Players for the Planet for a beach cleanup has been “fantastic. It really has,” Giolito said.

The Sox need Giolito at his best to make their rotation championship-caliber. Until further notice, he no longer sits at the top of a unit that includes Dylan Cease and Lance Lynn as the anchors, Michael Kopech and free agent Mike Clevinger.

Giolito, who can become a free agent after the season, is the only one not under contract in 2024.

“I try to stay in the present,” he said. “When it comes to free agency, if I’m sitting here thinking about it, that’s when you start to overthink. That’s not in my nature. I’m not pitching for a contract. I’m pitching for the Sox, and I want to win every game I take the ball. And let the chips fall when it’s all said and done. That’s my mindset.

“It’s going to be an important year for us after the disappointment of last season. We have a lot of new faces on the coaching-staff side, including [new manager] Pedro [Grifol]. I put myself up there as one who heavily underperformed, need to get back in good form to give us a chance to win. We’re all very motivated.”

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