White Sox: Lucas Giolito is a Cy Young Award Candidate
Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito has been on a tear…it’s time we recognize him as a candidate for the Cy Young Award.
It’s the middle of June and the Chicago White Sox find themselves playing .500 baseball and one game behind the Cleveland Indians for second place in the American League Central Division. Not bad for a team that wasn’t expected to be very competitive in 2019.
The team just came off a 10-2 victory against the New York Yankees at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago off another stellar pitching performance by starting pitcher Lucas Giolito. Giolito, a former first-round pick of the Washington Nationals, now has a record of 10-1 following six strong innings and six strikeouts against the Bronx Bombers on Friday night.
Giolito is 9-0 since May 29, with a 1.00 ERA in that time frame. That is superstar caliber pitching from a player with so many questions heading into this season based off of sub-par results over the last couple of seasons. At just 24 years of age, Giolito is starting to figure it out and White Sox fans could not be more excited about his future on the South Side.
What of his AL Cy Young award prospects? To put his candidacy in perspective, Giolito is now first in wins (10), shutouts, and complete games. His ERA (2.22) ranks third in the AL and now has a WAR of 3.3, good for third place among pitchers and sixth from an overall player standpoint.
To say his impact on this season has been significant would be an understatement. His early season success has culminated in his selection as the AL Player of the Month in May, followed by a Player of the Week award in June. To put it bluntly, he’s pitching like he is the best pitcher in all of baseball. An all-star nod is all but certain at this point.
From the organization’s perspective, they could not be more thrilled with Giolito’s development, as he firmly represents a building block that this franchise builds upon toward contention in the not too distant future. With Giolito serving as a top of the rotation ace going forward and adding the MLB’s 19th ranked prospect, Dylon Cease, a healthy Michael Kopech and Carlos Rodon, this pitching rotation may turn out to be one of baseball’s most feared in the years to come.
dark. Next. Will the Sox take a conservative approach at the trade deadline?
For now, enjoy Giolito’s start every fifth game and hope that the White Sox can make a push at a Wild Card playoff spot. If longtime pitching coach Don Cooper can somehow coax something out of the remaining starters, perhaps catching the Minnesota Twins isn’t as far-fetched an idea as once believed earlier in the season. Teams can get hot or cold for stretches at a time and perhaps the White Sox are starting to piece things together behind the arm of Lucas Giolito.