REPORT: Lucas Giolito Declined Extension From White Sox Last Offseason

According to James Fegan of The Athletic, Lucas Giolito declined a 4-year contract extension worth $50 million guaranteed last offseason from the White Sox. The White Sox have been one of the more successful teams in MLB when it comes to locking up their young players to long-term deals, but talks with Giolito went no where according to Fegan.

It sure does sound like Giolito almost felt disrespected with the offer because those negotiations did not move forward a single inch after he declined.

Via The Athletic.

The White Sox offer was declined without a counter made by Giolito’s camp, as it was not viewed as being suitable enough to drive further discussion.

Now, a year later, the White Sox and Giolito are once again at a disagreement over his value and the right-handed pitcher isn’t happy whatsoever. As of now the two sides are slated to go to an arbitration hearing over a difference of $200,000. Yet, it turns out the actual difference was only about $50,000.

Lucas Giolito described going to arbitration with White Sox as ‘frustrating, very unfortunate, disheartening.’

Said it came down to $50K difference prior to filing.

‘It’s like, come on. Very upsetting.’

— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) March 23, 2022

Via the Chicago Sun-Times.

Arguably the ace of the Sox’ pitching staff and a candidate to be their Opening Day starter for a third consecutive year, Giolito filed for $7.5 million while the Sox filed at $7.3 million. Giolito said the sides were as close as $50,000 ($7.4 million and $7.45 million) in pre-filing negotiations before the Sox lowered their number.
“Very frustrating,” said Giolito, who clearly wanted to address the issue with reporters at the team’s spring-training complex at Camelback Ranch. “I love White Sox fans and I appreciated all the love from those guys [on social media]. It’s just very unfortunate, disheartening.”

Not ideal for Rick Hahn, who will surely try to continue to approach Giolito about an extension before he reaches free agency following the 2023 season. However, this does seem like a major rift between player and team, as Giolito’s father has even entered the conversation on social media.

Here’s Giolito’s dad questioning the White Sox true motives on Wednesday.

It would be ridiculous to arbitrate over $50K. The arbitator would say WTF? I do not appreciate that the Sox lowered their offer almost twice as much as Lucas raised his. Luc was trying to be fair. Sox trying to punish him for not taking their offer?

— Rick Giolito (@RickGiolito) March 23, 2022

At this point the prospect of Giolito signing an extension doesn’t appear to be in the cards for the White Sox. I mean, just take a look at how he’s being written about. It’s expected that he’ll sign elsewhere if he reaches free agency.

Chicago Sun-Times:

Giolito, who earned $4.15 million in his first year of arbitration last season, will be eligible for free agency after the 2023 season and seems headed elsewhere if he doesn’t sign an extension.

“Like I’ve always said about extensions, I absolutely love this team,” he said. “The more I play the more I understand my value as a player. And I just want fair. It’s always fair for me, that’s where I’m at.”

This week’s Pinwheels and Ivy Podcast goes over this arbitration fiasco between Giolito and the White Sox. Plus, we talk about some early spring training overreactions surrounding mainly Craig Kimbrel and we take a look at swings from prospects Micker Adolfo and Yoelqui Céspedes.

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