Lucas Giolito agrees to 2-year deal with Red Sox (source)

BOSTON — As soon as the Hot Stove season started, new Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow had his eye on starting pitching.

It took a while, but the Sox finally came up with a significant addition to the rotation, agreeing to terms with free-agent right-hander Lucas Giolito on a two-year, $38.5 million deal on Friday, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. The deal, which has not been confirmed by the club, includes an opt-out after 2024.

In a three-year stretch from 2019-21, Giolito was one of the top starters in the American League, as he went 29-21 with a 3.47 ERA over 72 starts, holding opponents to a .207 average over that span.

Giolito went on a downturn the last two seasons, but the Red Sox are confident he can reverse that trend in the team’s new-and-improved pitching infrastructure under Breslow, pitching coach Andrew Bailey and director of pitching Justin Willard.

The Red Sox had been targeting one or two starters this offseason, and it will be interesting to see if they add someone in addition to Giolito.

Lefties Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell are the top two starters left on the traditional free-agent market. There is also Shōta Imanaga, who had a strong career in Japan and was posted to MLB teams in November. Teams have a deadline of Jan. 11 to sign the 30-year-old lefty.

Giolito’s 2023 season was topsy-turvy, to say the least. It started fine, with Giolito going 6-6 with a 3.79 ERA in 21 starts for the White Sox.

But after getting traded to the Angels, his season started to take a significant dip, as he posted a 6.89 ERA in six starts. The Guardians later claimed Giolito off waivers, and he had a 7.04 ERA in six starts with Cleveland.

That stretch led to Giolito making the wrong kind of history, as he became the first pitcher since 1899 to allow eight or more runs in a game for three different teams, per OptaSTATS.

Prior to this season, Giolito had spent six straight seasons with the White Sox, who acquired him from the Nationals in December 2016 as a part of the package in return for Adam Eaton. His best season came in 2019 when he went 14-9 with a 3.41 ERA in 176 2/3 innings while leading all of baseball in complete games (three) and shutouts (two) en route to finishing sixth in the Cy Young Award voting.

He finished with a 3.48 and 3.53 ERA in 2020 and ’21, respectively, to earn some down-ballot Cy Young votes, and he also threw a no-hitter during the ’20 season.

At only 29, there should be plenty of gas left in Giolito’s tank, but it’s up to him to prove that he can be back to his dominant self. His biggest problem in 2023 was hard contact. He ranked in the 8th percentile in barrel rate and the 32nd percentile in hard-hit rate, which are two of the biggest reasons he led the American League in home runs allowed (41).

Aside from Giolito, Boston’s rotation currently includes swiftly emerging youngster Brayan Bello and erstwhile ace Chris Sale, who has battled a barrage of injuries in recent…