Power Ranking Every MLB Team's Ace Entering 2024 Season | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Sarah Rodriguez
Published Mar 24, 2026
Age in 2024: 29
2023 Stats: 8-15, 184.1 IP, 4.88 ERA, 5.27 FIP, 204 K's, 1.0 WAR
Note: This list was compiled before ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Lucas Giolito likely has a partially torn UCL and flexor strain and could be out for the 2024 season. If Giolito misses the season, Nick Pivetta would slot in as the team's ace.
If there was a free-agent pitcher this past offseason that most needed to go to a place where he wasn't expected to take the ball on Opening Day and be the ace, it was Lucas Giolito. Instead, barring another free-agent signing, Giolito will be the No. 1 starter for a Boston Red Sox rotation full of pitchers who best profile as back-of-the-rotation arms.
It's not that Giolito hasn't ever pitched at an ace level. Between 2019 and 2021, Giolito posted a 3.47 ERA across 427.2 innings. Over that three-season stretch with the Chicago White Sox, Giolito's 11.3 WAR was the seventh-best mark among all qualified starters.
The problem is that Giolito struggled in 2022, posting an 81 ERA+ (100 is the league average) in 30 starts. And things arguably got even worse in 2023, a campaign Giolito split with the White Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Guardians. Giolito finished 2023 having allowed a staggering 41 home runs while posting a 4.88 ERA. To his credit, he still made 33 starts, but it was about as bad of a contract year as he could have had.
Boston gave Giolito a two-year, $38.5 million deal that includes a player opt-out after 2024, which was fair market value. But it was the type of deal that would have made sense for a team with an established ace or two that was hoping to be able to resuscitate Giolito's career in addition to what it already has.
Instead, Giolito landed in Boston, where if he doesn't return to the 2019-21 form he showed, the Red Sox will almost certainly finish in last place in the loaded AL East. If Giolito does rebound, he'll opt out and could go elsewhere after the 2024 season given that the Red Sox have pinched pennies in recent years.
