Lucas Giolito officially exercised his $19 million player option for 2025 on Thursday, making official what he previously announced in the Red Sox’ final home game last month.

The 30-year-old right-hander was Boston’s top free-agent signing last season. He suffered a UCL injury in his second spring training game and underwent season-ending internal support surgery on March 12.

It was a stunning development for the Sox and Giolito, one of the game’s most durable starters over the past half-decade. He made 167 regular season starts from 2018-23, totaling 947 innings. He made at least 29 starts in each of the last five seasons (excluding the shortened 2020) before signing with the Sox. At the age of 23, he played for the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Guardians, leading the American League with 33 games played.

Giolito left the White Sox in 2019 and was named to the All-Star team for the first time, the first of three consecutive seasons in which he received American League Cy Young votes. He had a 3.47 ERA and 1.076 WHIP during that three-year period, but has struggled since then, posting a 4.89 ERA and 1.370 WHIP in 63 starts from ’22-23.

Under new pitching coach Andrew Bailey and a revamped roster, many Red Sox starters have taken significant steps forward this year; these include Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello, who became the first homegrown trio to make 30 starts for the Red Sox since 1987. .

Bailey and Co. Helping Giolito limit walks and encourage lighter contact will be crucial. Between the ’19 and ’21 seasons, his walk rate increased from 7.2% in ’21 to 8.7% and 9.2%. After holding opponents to a .394 slugging percentage and 34.4% slugging percentage in ’21, he hit .455 and .482 against him with 39% and 41.6% slugging percentages the next two years. they did. He gave up home runs 5.2% of the time in ’23; This was a significant increase from the 3.5% he allowed over the previous five seasons.

By opting in, Giolito also triggers a pair of potential options for next season. If he throws at least 140 innings in ’25, he’ll unlock a $19 million joint option for ’26. Otherwise, the Red Sox have a $14 million club option or a $1.5 million buyout option.

TELEVISION: Bob Costas is retiring from baseball play-by-play after 42 seasons.

Costas has pitched for MLB Network and TBS Sports over the past few seasons. Their last game was the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals.

Costas’ contract with TBS expired at the end of the season, but plans to retire baseball play-by-play had been in the works for more than a year.

Baseball has always been Costas’ favorite sport. He called games on NBC from 1982-89 and 1994-2000. He was one of the announcers for the 1995 World Series and then the main play-by-play voice for the Fall Classic in 1997 and ’99.

CLOCK TIME: Nine-inning games in the World Series averaged 3 hours, 19 minutes, down from 3:01 in 2023 in the second year of the pitch clock.

The series average was 3:24 in 2022 and 3:38 in 2021, the last season before the PitchCom electronic pitch device. The 2023 average was the fastest since 1996.

Mid-inning pitching changes increase from 3.8 to 2.5 in 2023 and 2.5 in 2022. World Series runs increased from 9.3 in 2023 to 10.0 in 2022 and 5.8 in 2022. Pitches increased from 298 to 315; this is the highest total since 2018.

The overall postseason game average remains at 3:02, down from 3:23 in 2022 and 3:37 in 2021.

TRADE: The Los Angeles Angels acquired outfielder and designated hitter Jorge Soler from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for right-hander Griffin Canning.

Soler has been a productive hitter for five teams over the previous 11 major league seasons. The Cuban slugger was the MVP of the 2021 World Series with Atlanta and also won a ring with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.

: New York made its first move of the offseason by signing 33-year-old right-hander Dylan Covey to a one-year contract.

Covey went 0-2 with a 2.66 ERA, 19 strikeouts and nine walks in 20 1/3 innings in 18 games this year with Philadelphia’s Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Double-A Reading and Class A Clearwater farm teams.

ATHLETICS: Club manager Sandy Dean said that club owner John Fisher and his family will invest $1 billion for the construction of a stadium in Las Vegas, and US Bank and Goldman Sachs will offer a loan of $300 million.

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