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Both Miguel Sanó and Joey Gallo made their major-league debuts in 2015. Since then, no other player has been given as much leash while striking out as much as these two. Among hitters with 2,000 or more plate appearances in the past nine years, Gallo ranks No. 1 in strikeout rate at 37.9 percent. Sano is right behind him with the second-highest rate at 36.4 percent. These are the Sultans of Swing-and-Miss.
Despite striking out at historic clips, they've combined to play more than 1,500 games in the big leagues. Not only that, but they have three All-Star appearances between them. And now, at a time where it would be easy for anyone to look at the recent track records and write them off, both are getting another shot.
On Tuesday, both former Twins sluggers latched on with new teams. Gallo got a $5 million, one-year deal with the Washington Nationals. Sanó signed a minor-league contract with the Angels, and will compete for a job in spring training.
Twins fans have seen how poorly it can go with these two when they're not doing anything well to offset the K parade. In fact, those are our lingering final memories of both. Gallo had a nice start last year but become progressively unusable, to the point where he didn't come close to sniffing a postseason AB. Sanó batted .083 with a .345 OPS in 71 PAs during his final stint with the Twins, an injury-wrecked 2022 campaign. No team was interested in bringing him aboard last year.
But it also needs to be acknowledged what comes along with these staggering strikeout propensities: power that registers a flat-out elite scale. And not just raw power but proven in-game power. While Gallo and Sanó rank first and second in K-rate since 2015, they also rank ninth and fifth, respectively, in average exit velocity during that span.
You might say, exit velocity? Who cares. Can't be a terribly meaningful metric if those guys are up near the top of the leaderboard. But, these are the other seven names in the top nine: Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Yordan Alvarez, Shohei Ohtani, Nelson Cruz, Matt Olson and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Talk about powerful company.
None of the aforementioned sluggers strike out like Gallo and Sanó, which is why those two haven't approached the same MVP-caliber levels of overall production. But their offensive impact is real, and it can be game-changing. We saw it when Sanó obliterated the league for four months in 2019 or when Gallo launched 38 jacks as recently as 2021.
And, for all the talk about these strikeouts presenting massive downside and bust potential, that isn't really born out statistically. Anyone who followed the Twins last year can tell you Gallo was beyond bad almost all season long, incapable of doing anything other htan launching a very occasional homer. Yet he finished with an above-average OPS. Sanó has posted an above-average OPS every season where he's made 300-plus plate appearances.
Power with a little patience plays. Even when it comes attached to unprecedented levels of striking out. That's why we see Gallo and Sanó getting these chances despite both looking cooked the last time they were on a major-league field. Yes, this is a skill set that tends to degrade quickly, and it's possible they've both simply lost it age 30. Thus the low-stakes investments from two teams coming off 90-loss seasons. But 30 isn't that old, and rarefied power like that is worth betting on.
Having said that, most Twins fans are surely not disappointed to see Gallo and Sano take their reclamation journeys elsewhere. Even if Minnesota remains committed to an approach that prioritizes power at the expense of contact, it will be nice to see this plan in action without one of the all-time strikeout kings in the mix, pushing the offense toward a ridiculous extreme.
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