Lucas Giolito sounds off to Rob Manfred about sports betting

Pitchers aren’t just facing batters anymore — they’re facing bettors, too.

Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito said he’s concerned about player safety in the wake of the sports betting boom, taking his issues straight to the game’s highest office: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.

The 31-year-old revealed on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast on Monday that he talked to Manfred earlier this week when he visited the Red Sox and Phillies at Citizens Bank Park ahead of their three-game series.

“I asked him about something that has been on my mind this year that’s been a little worrisome for me with the rise of sports betting — the access that exists now with social media and everything,” Giolito said. 

“The threats when a player doesn’t perform well — threats to their family, threats to their life — it’s getting very tiring. I worry for guys that are maybe new to the league and aren’t ready for something like that.” 

Gioltio started Boston’s Wednesday night tilt against the Phillies, allowing five earned runs and striking out two batters over four innings as the Red Sox won, 9-8, in extra innings.

The 2019 All-Star, who is in his first season with Boston after missing all of 2024 due to elbow surgery, has had an up-and-down season.

The uneven on-field results — and even some strong outings — have sparked hate from bettors who lost money on missed prop bets like strikeout totals.

“When it comes to the gambling, it obviously has created an uptick in insane people online — well, not insane, just disgruntled,” Giolito said, adding that even his girlfriend has been subjected to “a lot of nasty s–t” online from angry bettors.

“I’m getting messages after every game, even games where I pitch well, where they’re made at me because I hit the strikeout over instead of being under, or I was under instead of being over like prop bets – all these crazy things. And people put hundreds of dollars on it and they don’t have a lot of money, but they’re gambling it anyways because it’s a disease. They freak out.”

Last year, Manfred said MLB didn’t enter the sports betting world by choice.

“We were kind of dragged into legalized sports betting as a litigant in a case that ended up in the Supreme Court,” he said in 2024, referring to the 2018 case that led to the legalization of sports wagering across the country.

“Having said that, I recognize — probably better today than when we were involved in that litigation — that one of the advantages of legalization is it’s a heck of a lot easier to monitor what’s going on than it is with an illegal operation,” Manfred added.

Giolito is not the only MLB player to voice concerns over sports betting. Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. and his family received death threats in May after a game in which he allowed seven runs.

“I understand people are very passionate and people love the Astros and love sports, but threatening to find my kids and murder them is a little bit tough to deal with,” the 31-year-old right-hander said.

McCullers hired 24-hour security after the threats, and detailed a heart-wrenching conversation he had with his daughter about the ordeal.

“She asked me when I came home: ‘Daddy like what is threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?’” McCullers told The Associated Press. “So, those conversations are tough to deal with.”

Other notable stars, including Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich and veteran Red Sox reliever Liam Hendriks, also spoke about the increased vitriol and threats, with the former noting it’s become a “nightly thing.”

Other players said they’ve started avoiding social media altogether, including Tigers outfielder Riley Greene, who said he deleted his Instagram.

“I’m off it. It sucks, but it’s the world we live in, and we can’t do anything about it,” Greene said.

In McCullers’ case, the person who directed threats at him and his family was identified as a “resident overseas” who had been “inebriated” when they sent the social media threats, a Houston Police Department spokesperson told The Athletic.

But Giolito believes that acknowledging the issue isn’t enough.

“It only goes so far,” Giolito said.  “Is it going to take a player getting assaulted in front of their apartment building by some disgruntled guy that lost a bet for real action to be taken?”