photo credit: Charles Wenzelberg
I missed you all so much that I just HAD to come to spend some time with you on this gorgeous Saturday morning and absolutely rip into Joey Gallo. Not because I want to, but because I have to. Well, at least to get this off my chest at least.
It made sense when the Yankees initially traded to get Gallo from the Texas Rangers. The Yankees needed left-handed-hitting while the Rangers were selling. Mix that in with the fact that the Yankees could use some postseason depth and the offensive assist the short porch of Yankee Stadium would provide, and you have the perfect recipe to get a successful and productive second half from Gallo. Except for one issue. It is still unknown if Joey Gallo ever made it to New York.
In simple terms, Joey Gallo has played in 69 games for the Yankees. In these games, Gallo has hit .154 and struck out 103 times in 267 plate appearances. But let’s not overlook the positives. Even with these truly terrible numbers, Gallo has hit thirteen home runs and driven in 22 runs in the process. The issue with this? Those home runs and RBIs came LAST SEASON. Gallo has been, without a doubt, completely invisible this season, which poses the question. Why on Earth does he still get playing time?
Sadly, the answers are far more straightforward than you’d think. The first being Yankees manager Aaron Boone likes math too much. It’s relatively well known that Boone almost lives or dies by the analytics. So if the numbers say Gallo will produce in a specific matchup or that the odds are in his favor even to pinch-hit, you bet your you-know-what Gallo’s going in. Secondly, who else is going to play? The everyday outfield is Aaron Judge, Joey Gallo, and Aaron Hicks. You have the option of Giancarlo Stanton becoming the everyday outfielder. However, it’s very evident that Aaron Boone is still practicing workload management on Stanton, which generally makes no sense when you take into account that Stanton’s numbers at the plate drastically rise when he is in the field on a daily basis, so the fact that Stanton isn’t already playing every day is puzzling in itself. Lastly, outside of having one extra outfielder, there’s just no one else to fill the void should Gallo be benched. On the 40-man, you have the option of playing Tim LoCastro, but it’s safe to say we all agree with that not being an option (although, at this point, I think anything is worth trying). Jason Dominguez is far from being MLB ready, and even if he was, there is ZERO reason to rush his progression, so don’t count on The Martian landing in the Bronx anytime soon. Does anyone still have Brett Gardner’s number?
Please don’t take that last line seriously. I didn’t mean it, I promise.
Look, this season is VERY young, as well as Joey Gallo’s tenure as a Yankee. There is time for improvement in his game. Is it fair to say most of us, if not all of us, are fed up with Gallo? Without a doubt. Especially when you know what he is capable of, breaking the 30 home run mark three times in his career, two of those times being 40 home runs seasons, and his near triple-digit RBI and walks seasons in Texas. Knowing that he is capable of those things and isn’t producing is tough to watch. So what’s the best way to fix it? Extra time in the cages? Bench him? Maybe spending time as the DH and just focusing on at-bats? It’s impossible to tell. As I stated earlier, the season is extremely young, and we haven’t even broken into May yet. The best possible outcome from this would be Gallo eventually going on a tear down the stretch where he is borderline impossible to stop. Remember this article because we will, without a doubt, revisit this at the All-Star break and see what, if anything, has changed for the heavily suffering Joey Gallo.
