The Joey Gallo Reclamation Project Has Been a Failure

[Cody Christie]

Entering the 2023 season, the Twins signed Joey Gallo to attempt to rediscover his All-Star form. There have been brief glimpses, but the reclamation project has been a failure.

Image courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

The Twins signed Joey Gallo to a one-year, $12 million deal because of his defensive versatility and offensive potential. He won Gold Gloves at two different outfield positions, and the Twins knew they might have a need at first base while Alex Kirilloff ramped up for the season. Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler worked with Gallo in Texas and believed in Gallo’s ability. The team hoped Gallo could put the 2023 season behind him and return to his All-Star-level form at the plate. 

For Gallo, the 2022 season was an unmitigated disaster. He began the year with the Yankees and hit .159/.282/.339 (.621) with four doubles, 12 home runs, and 106 strikeouts in 82 games. New York can be a harsh environment for players to find success, especially players struggling at the plate. The Yankees traded him to the Dodgers at the deadline, and his OPS increased by 50 points, but it was still over 120 points lower than his career average. It was a disastrous season from start to finish, and Gallo was looking for a new opportunity this winter. 

The Twins provided him with that opportunity while also having coaching and front-office connections to the Rangers, where Gallo had the most success. Minnesota liked that he could shift between multiple outfield positions and fill in at first base while the team waited for Kirilloff. During spring training, the Twins also experimented with him being a leadoff hitter as the team tried to find the best fit at the top of the line-up. Few would look at Gallo as a leadoff batter, but he has shown solid on-base skills and takes a lot of pitches during his at-bats. The Twins entered the season with high hopes for Gallo, and there were some positive early returns. 

Gallo was one of the team’s best hitters in the season’s first month. In 19 games, he hit .236/.354/.709 (1.063) with three doubles, one triple, and seven home runs. His 22 strikeouts were high, but any team will take them if it comes with a slugging percentage above .700. He also ranked among the league leaders at first base according to SABR’s Defensive Index. Gallo provided critical hits in the first month and helped the team sit atop the AL Central. It looked like the Twins had solved Gallo’s offensive woes and had him back on track. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Gallo’s hot start indicates a significant overhaul to his offensive profile. He has struggled mightily since the season’s first month by hitting .157/.284/.306 (.590) with four doubles and four home runs in 36 games. That’s a lower OPS than he had during the 2022 season. Strikeouts have always been an issue for him, but his recent stretch has been even worse than his career totals. He has 51 strikeouts in 108 at-bats since May 2. If the power doesn’t accompany his strikeouts, there’s little reason to continue penciling him into the line-up.

Gallo’s hot start masks his overall season numbers. Many fans have been calling for Max Kepler to be designated for assignment, but Gallo has been equally as bad in recent weeks. He isn’t the root of the team’s offensive woes but is quickly becoming the poster child for what’s wrong with the team in 2023. Strikeouts continue to be an issue, and Gallo is an aging veteran that looks past his prime. Tough decisions are on the horizon for the Twins, and the team might have to consider moving on from Gallo. 

Has Gallo’s Twins tenure been a failure? Should the team move on from him? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

 

View full article

[mikelink45]

As a Gallo critic from day one I yell - YES! Let's move on from both Gallo and Kepler.  Let's get Larnach and Wallner up and think about the future!

[weitz41]

Yes and yes please..Hopefully after the all-star break we will have one or both of Wallner and Larnach starting in the OF.

[LewFordLives]

Thanks for this article. The bigger question is what did they see that prompted the front office to sign him for $11 million???  This was a bizarre signing from day one. That's a lot of money for a reclamation project.

[DJL44]

22 minutes ago, weitz41 said:

Yes and yes please..Hopefully after the all-star break we will have one or both of Wallner and Larnach starting in the OF.

Yes, let's wait another month for the team to make the obvious decision.

[Peter]

Yes!!! He’s got to go-bring up lee next season! With him/Lewis/solano these guys should be playing every game along with c4. 

[weitz41]

24 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Yes, let's wait another month for the team to make the obvious decision.

Moving them this afternoon would be good with me but unless someone calls the Twins, I doubt it will happen until then.

[Eris]

Yes he has been a failure. To the eye test, he does not appear to be a gold glove OF defender anymore. He seems like a very good defender at 1B. As with some of the other posters, I am not sure what the front office was thinking by bringing in another left handed hitting outfielder when they have Larnach and Wallner in AAA. 

[HrbieFan]

The FO always seems bull headed to admit mistakes.  I'm guessing Gallo sticks because of injury concerns with our OF 

[Coach Wheels]

The Twins will wait as long as they can to DFA Gallo because they won't want to eat too much of the contract, they're still cheap. I'd rather have Wallner and Larnach up let them learn the game but this front office has a different agenda

[rv78]

The Joey Gallo Reclamation Project Has Been a Failure

LOL! Big surprise there!

In 2019 he hit .253 in 70 Games. Not even half a season. What was going on in 2019? A juiced ball. In 2021 in 95 Games for Texas he managed to hit .223. Is that really worth $11M? Or the 40 HR's he hit in 2017 and 2018 when he barely hit .200? That's been 5 and 6 years ago. Hardly worth expecting him to be able to hit at that level again. It's impossible for me to see an upside in signing this type of player at this point in his career. 8 years in, his career BA is below .200. Didn't the Twins let Sano go because he was the same type of hitter? A power threat that striked out a ton. The failure was signing him in the first place. I say keep using him as much as possible so the Twins FO can see how much of a mistake they made. Maybe it will force a change in the FO, or at the least it will get ingrained into their heads how stupid a move like that is. Outside of playing 1stbase defensively Wallner would have been the much better option. Could he be hitting any worse? I doubt it and he wouldn't be at a cost of $11M. Not matter how you look at it, before he even played 1 game for the Twins, this was a terrible move. Why is it the Twins think they can resurrect someones career? Most of them regress once they come to the Twins and their own players usually perform better after they leave the Twins.

[tony&rodney]

Home runs are a good way to score runs. Signing Gallo was doubling down on that strategy. Unfortunately, hitting two solo shots every game still means the scores will mostly favor the opposition. The Twins have become a parody with their inability to advance runners or plate teammates. The swing from the heals approach is fine until a batter reaches two strikes. At that point a player needs to cut their swing down and just flip the ball somewhere. Gallo is the poster child of three massive swings. If he cannot adjust, rostering him is pointless. Like many I was very surprised that Gallo was signed by the Twins. The fit was unclear to me but I'm just a twins fan who follows the games and tries not to look back because Falvey will do whatever he wants anyways. Gallo is who he is and 2022 was not bad luck for Joey. Nobody can say that he wasn't given a full opportunity if he was released today. 

[DJL44]

Just now, Coach Wheels said:

The Twins will wait as long as they can to DFA Gallo because they won't want to eat too much of the contract, they're still cheap. I'd rather have Wallner and Larnach up let them learn the game but this front office has a different agenda

They're going to "eat" this contract whether they are playing him or not. It's a sunk cost.

I try not to be too harsh on Gallo. He was quite useful in April playing well at 1B and at the plate. He is a capable defender at 1B and the corner OF positions and he can hit the ball a ton when he connects. There is a role for that on many teams including the Twins. The problem is the Twins have too many players like Gallo on offense.

It is pretty disheartening that the Twins have spent $35M on Gallo, Kepler and Buxton and they're not getting much production out of any of them.

[Whitey333]

My guess is that although he should be gone today they will keep him until at least the trade deadline and more likely dump him after the season.  I also was one of those that questioned Gallos signing especially fir 11 mill.  He instantly became one of the highest paid players on this Twins team.  11 mil for a guy with a career 199 average and a strikeout rate near 40%.  I'm sure we have AAA players can do that at about the minimum salary.  Gallo has been a bust.  It's time for Wallner and Larnach.  Let's move on from some of these veterans that seem to just be going through the motions.  This team has been stuck in neutral for two and a half seasons.  Get some players in here with some drive and enthusiasm.

[mikelink45]

1 hour ago, LewFordLives said:

Thanks for this article. The bigger question is what did they see that prompted the front office to sign him for $11 million???  This was a bizarre signing from day one. That's a lot of money for a reclamation project.

Sometimes I think the FO is enamored with their own intelligence and get caught up trying to prove how they can figure out what others cannot.  And too often what they prove is that they might want to talk to some old time baseball people. 

[Riverbrian]

That first month... The Gallo signing looked brilliant. 

It wasn't.

[Greglw3]

Yes they should let Gallo go, it was another J.A. Happ/SHoemaker failed experiment and don’t look now but Andrew Stevenson is hitting .321/.395/889 with 26 stolen bases right now at St. Paul.

[Nashvilletwin]

It’s the second derivative of the FO’s moves that really hurt.

Trading Kepler and not signing Gallo would’ve opened up the cash to acquire another starter to fill the void caused by the disastrous trade for the injured Mahle (whom some of us TDers predicted never would be an effective innings eater given his pre trade medicals).  Instead we were idiotically “forced” into trading Arraez for Lopez.  It’s laughable to think how much better off this team would be with Arraez playing 1B every day, Kiriloff, Larnach and Wallner as our corner OFs, and the $ savings from Kepler and Gallo, plus the retained trade capital of Steer and CES, utilized in a different way to bolster the rotation. Talk about squandering scarce resources….our FO really outdoes itself in that regard.

[USAFChief]

Here's the article from his signing, in case anyone wants to review their original take:

 

https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/minnesota-twins-sign-joey-gallo-r13403/page/2/

 

Not much love then, either. 

[specialiststeve]

Was pissed when they signed him... pretty much assured this was going to be the outcome. A signing of 5 plus incentives fine... 12 mil for a reclamation project. Stupid. 

Time to cut bait and let Walner take his place... today!! 

[D.C Twins]

yup...

[Sparky55]

I don’t think it would be a tough decision at all. 

[gman]

My response now is the same as Dec 2022. Don't want, don't need him, get rid of him as soon as possible.  His accidental fast start is long gone and to late to trade him now.

[Einheri]

I'd keep Kepler over Gallo.
But that isn't saying much as I'm ready to part ways with both.

[Johnny Ringo]

We are now in the 8th year of the Falvey regime. I think the FO must be judged as average at best. For years,  our fans have found solace in the "small market" argument. Folks, Tampa and Cleveland and Baltimore have blown that excuse to smithereens. It's intellectual road kill.  We have not one playoff game under their watch. If someone wants to argue that "average" is too generous, I will listen. 

One of my biggest concerns about the FO is their inability to own up to bad contracts and simply move on. Wait! They did it with Donaldson. Not really. They didn't have to eat any money. How can you explain the retention of Kepler and Gallo and Pagan? What's the commonality? Big (by MN standards anyway) money. 

Should Gallo and Kepler be dispatched in favor of Larnach and Wallner. Of course. What ever you think of Gallo and Kepler they are not the future. Are Larnach and Wallner? It is unclear. They have not been given consistent enough playing time to decide that.  But they could be and they are certainly no worse than the incumbents as we collectively find out. 

There is an old adage in investing; sometimes taking small losses are your best trades. They mitigate worse outcomes.  I don't think anyone has ever told our FO that saying.  

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

1 hour ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

His signing was a thank you to Boras for allowing Correa to re-sign with us IMO.  I think the Twins may have also thought a new start could energize Gallo, but it has produced the same results.  They will not DFA him to save face.

Agree, no need to DFA Gallo, he is performing pretty much to expectations when they signed him.

I went back through the earlier thread, and the Gallo signing actually came right after the Giants landed Correa. The fans hadn’t quite recovered from losing Correa, and I think it added a little zest to some of the reactions to the Gallo signing. 

[rv78]

Quote

It is pretty disheartening that the Twins have spent $35M on Gallo, Kepler and Buxton and they're not getting much production out of any of them.

 

This is huge and explains how this FO does not see the entire picture but only what they WANT to see. How many seasons for each have been productive?

Gallo: 2.5 (2017, 2018. and 1/2 of 2019)

Kepler : 1 (2019)

Buxton: 2 (2017, 1/2 of 2019, 1/2 of 2021)

All 3 have 25 seasons combined under their belts and have been productive in 5 or 6 of them total, but this FO thinks they are going to lead the team to the playoffs and beyond. Who looks like a fool?

[joefish]

Let Gallo go. Any direction.  Just go. 

I will miss Max but  I'll get over it. I have hoped for him to get back to good.  It ain't happening. Go Max too.

[jkcarew]

The signing was a bit of a head-scratcher. Looked very promising early, but he’s broken now. Still slightly above league average production-wise…but that’s not worth much at 1B or LF, and not what they were hoping for when they signed him for $11M.

[Blyleven2011]

2 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

It’s the second derivative of the FO’s moves that really hurt.

Trading Kepler and not signing Gallo would’ve opened up the cash to acquire another starter to fill the void caused by the disastrous trade for the injured Mahle (whom some of us TDers predicted never would be an effective innings eater given his pre trade medicals).  Instead we were idiotically “forced” into trading Arraez for Lopez.  It’s laughable to think how much better off this team would be with Arraez playing 1B every day, Kiriloff, Larnach and Wallner as our corner OFs, and the $ savings from Kepler and Gallo, plus the retained trade capital of Steer and CES, utilized in a different way to bolster the rotation. Talk about squandering scarce resources….our FO really outdoes itself in that regard.

Smartest people in the room so they think  ,,, 

7 years of no accountability  on anything  , run and hide  when  things are going bad and can't wait to get in front of the camera when twins are playing good  

..