There’s a new-look Lucas Giolito at White Sox spring training this year. But it's a bit of a return to the old-look Giolito. After bulking up last season, Giolito shed 35 pounds over the winter to return to a more familiar weight and body type.
“I just took last year’s failures as big time motivations,” Giolito said. “I worked really hard in the gym, kinda revamped just the focus and attention to every little area when it comes to getting my body in the correct shape so that my muscles are strong, loose, I’m able to explode when I want to.”
The key for Giolito’s weight loss was just eating a generally healthier diet and cutting down on fat.
“I feel like that’s something important as you get older,” Giolito said. “When I was younger I could get away with eating a bunch of garbage and rely on my metabolism, but nowadays that I’m approaching 30 in a couple years, I think that it’s important to make good incremental steps towards taking care of yourself the best that you can in a lot of different areas, and nutrition is one of them.”
Giolito was upset with his performance last season, which included an IL stint at the start of the year, so he made the decision to cut weight in an effort to recreate his past success.
“As a big guy, it’s important to be able to repeat my mechanics and be an athlete as much as I possibly can, so that was a huge focus… When I was at my best I was around this weight, this type of body, this type of condition.”
It’s early, but Giolito has already noticed a difference from last year. He feels more stable, more explosive and more athletic. His body feels better, so he feels like he can already get after it with all his pitches. That has allowed him to do more work on his mechanics, too. Accordingly, Giolito believes his pitches are in a better spot now than they were at the same time last spring.
MLB
“A combination of all that stuff, just worked really hard in the offseason, and I feel like I’m in a much better, more prepared spot, currently.”