At the best moment of Lucas Giolito’s career, he thought of the worst.
When he couldn’t get anybody out and couldn’t figure out why, when every time he climbed a mound he knew he would “get [his] ass kicked,” when he was by most measures the worst pitcher in baseball, in the spring of 2018, he happened to board a hotel elevator alongside his manager, White Sox skipper Rick Renteria.
Renteria grabbed him by the back of the neck. “I know you’re going to be an All-Star one day,” he said.
Giolito considered his 7.53 ERA, his latest clunker in a string of them, his total inability to put the ball where he wanted it.