Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito, right, exercised his $19 million option on Thursday. Giolito missed all of last season after have surgery on his right elbow.

Lucas Giolito officially exercised his $19 million player option for 2025 on Thursday, making official what he previously announced during the Red Sox’s final home stand last month.

The right-hander, 30, was Boston’s most significant free-agent pitching signing last offseason. He suffered a UCL injury in his second spring training game, and underwent season-ending internal brace surgery on March 12.

It was a stunning turn of events for the Sox and Giolito, one of the game’s most durable starters over the last half-decade. Between 2018-23, he made 167 regular-season starts totaling 947 innings. Before signing with the Sox, he made at least 29 starts in each of the last five seasons (not including the shortened 2020). Pitching for the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, and Cleveland Guardians in ’23, he’d made an American League-leading 33 starts.

Giolito broke out with the White Sox in 2019, when he made the All-Star team for the only time, and the first of three consecutive seasons in which he received American League Cy Young votes. He had a 3.47 ERA and 1.076 WHIP over 72 starts during that three-year span, but has struggled since, posting a 4.89 ERA and 1.370 WHIP in 63 starts between ’22-23.

Under new pitching coach Andrew Bailey and a revamped staff, several Red Sox starters took significant steps forward this year, including Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, and Brayan Bello, who became the first homegrown trio to each make 30 starts for the Red Sox since 1987.

For Bailey and Co., helping Giolito limit walks and induce weaker contact will be key. Between the ’19 and ’21 seasons, his walk rate jumped from 7.2% in ’21, to 8.7% and 9.2%. After holding opponents to a .394 slugging percentage and 34.4% hard-hit rate in ’21, they slugged .455 and .482 against him with hard-hit rates of 39% and 41.6% in the subsequent two years. He gave up home runs at a 5.2% clip in ’23, a sizable increase from the 3.5% he’d allowed over the previous five seasons.

By opting in, Giolito also triggers a pair of potential options for the following season. If he pitches at least 140 innings in ’25, he’ll unlock a $19 million mutual option for ’26. Otherwise, the Red Sox hold a $14 million club option or $1.5 million buyout.

TELEVISION: After 42 seasons, Bob Costas is retiring from baseball play-by-play.

Costas had done games the past couple seasons for MLB Network and TBS Sports. His final games were the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals.

Costas’ contract with TBS expired at the end of the season, but his plans to retire from baseball play-by-play had been in the works for over a year.

Baseball has always been Costas’ favorite sport. He called games on NBC from 1982-89 and again from 1994-2000. He was one of the announcers for the 1995 World Series and then the main play-by-play voice for the Fall Classic in 1997 and ’99.

PITCH CLOCK: Nine-inning games in the World Series averaged 3 hours, 19 minutes in the second year of the pitch clock, up from 3:01 in 2023.

The Series average was 3:24 in 2022 and 3:38 in 2021, the last season before the PitchCom electronic pitch-calling device. The 2023 average was the fastest since 1996.

Mid-inning pitching changes increased to 5.2 from 3.8 in 2023 and 2.5 in 2022. World Series runs per game rose to 10.0 from 9.3 in 2023 and 5.8 in 2022. Pitches increased to 315 from 298, the highest total since 2018.

The overall postseason game average remained at 3:02, down from 3:23 in 2022 and 3:37 in 2021.

TRADE: The Los Angeles Angels acquired outfielder and designated hitter Jorge Soler from the Atlanta Braves in a trade for right-hander Griffin Canning.

Soler has been a productive power hitter for five teams over the previous 11 major league seasons. The Cuban slugger was the MVP of the 2021 World Series with Atlanta, and he also won a ring with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.

METS: New York made its first move of the offseason, agreeing to a one-year contract with 33-year-old right-hander Dylan Covey.

Covey went 0-2 with a 2.66 ERA, 19 strikeouts and nine walks over 20 1/3 innings in 18 games this year with Philadelphia’s Triple-A Lehigh Valley, Double-A Reading and Class A Clearwater farm teams.

ATHLETICS: Owner John Fisher and his family will invest $1 billion into the construction of a stadium in Las Vegas and U.S. Bank and Goldman Sachs will offer a $300 million loan, club executive Sandy Dean said.

RAYS: The city of St. Petersburg will spend about $6.5 million to clean up and guard against any further harm to Tropicana Field, the home of baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Milton.

The translucent fiberglass dome of the ballpark was shredded by the storm Oct. 9, leaving in doubt whether it can be repaired in time to open the 2025 season. Major League Baseball wants the Rays to play home games in the area if the ballpark isn’t ready, probably at one of several local spring training sites.

The St. Petersburg City Council voted to approve two contracts with firms to clear the pieces of roof that litter the ballpark, remove damaged turf and waterproof numerous areas including the scoreboard, seating areas, suites and the press box, according to city documents. The ballpark does not have a drainage system and could sustain additional damage throughout the structure from rain without its roof.