This story was excerpted from Ian Browne's Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BOSTON -- While Lucas Giolito technically became a free agent earlier this week when the big righty and the Red Sox agreed not to exercise a $19 million mutual option, there is a path for the sides to reunite for another season, though not necessarily a likely one.

The Red Sox have until Thursday at 5 p.m. ET to extend a $22.025 million qualifying offer to Giolito, who made a nice bounceback from right UCL surgery in 2025, going 10-4 with a 3.41 ERA in 145 innings.

The innings wound up being an important component. Once Giolito reached 140 innings, his $14 million club option -- which the Red Sox likely would have picked up -

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