The Fall of Joey Gallo… And How He Will Rise Again

it's 2024 now four years since the incredible 2019 that Joey Gallow had with the Texas Rangers and following a one-year deal with the Washington Nationals Gallow joins his fourth team in the last four seasons Joey Gallow has had an incredibly weird career up till now from a top prospect to a budding star in the league all the way to one of the most hated players within the game and I want to see if we can make any sense of it what's going on with Joey Gallow who as it sits is only 30 years old it's been a rough last couple Seasons but let's go ahead and break it down but first if you guys do enjoy these videos please subscribe to the channel would greatly appreciate it and also a quick shout out to Underdog fantasy they're continuing to ramp up for their season long MLB pick thems they're adding in new player prompts every single day I love the Simplicity of it it's a basic is he going to go over is he going to go under it couldn't be easier and there couldn't be a better time to get started with Underdog fantasy because if you use my promo code goms you're going to get a $100 deposit match so gear up for the baseball season with Underdog fantasy thank you to them for sponsoring the channel so first and foremost a refresher course just what has been going on with Joey Gallow by 2015 Joey rocketed himself up the MLB Prospect rankings all the way to top 10 his first official season would come in 2017 where he'd go on to smack 41 dingers and follow that up with another 40 in 2018 of course the discourse with baseball stats was a lot different even 7 years ago than it is now people pointed to his batting average which was uh not very high it was just a shade over 200 and a lot of people people doubted whether or not he could be a really good player in this league and of course there was much conversation centered around the strikeout percentage in 2017 it landed at 36.8% and it didn't get much better the following year 35.9% but I think what a lot of people failed to look at with Gallow is there was more to it than just the plate because he was a versatile Defender he could play Corner infield and he could also play The Outfield all at a pretty damn good level and that all led to 2019 where Gallow really broke out he was phenomenal in just 70 games he hit 22 home runs and Ops soaring right up near the 1,000 Mark even the batting average was way higher than normal at 253 of course that won't win you any batting titles but combined with the elite walk rate an on base percentage just shy of 400 on top of that Gallows defense was taking another step and he was truly becoming an elite outfielder but unfortunately as we alluded to that season would get cut short just 70 games played following a wrist injury that shut him down from the end of July until the end of the season 2020 would be a misstep offensively of course a weird season with the co year 60 Game season but defensively Joey Gallow was better than ever he had 13 defensive runs saved in just 53 games in right field locking up his first gold glove award an accomplishment he'd repeat the next year backto back Gold Glove wins after 15 defensive runs saved and an additional four outs above average and 20121 was also a good year with the lumber playing in Texas before the trade deadline Gallow posted a 138 Ops plus much thanks to the 25 home runs that he hit but most noticeably to me me was a strikeout in walk percentages he struck out at 32.2% which is still high but it was the lowest in his career and his walk percentage was all the way up to 19.1 from there it would all start to go downhill of course he was traded to the New York Yankees that trade deadline in 2021 wasn't as bad as things would get in the Bronx but it certainly was a stark decline from what he was in Texas the progress he made with this discipline at the plate went away the strikeouts were back up and the walks were going down he had still hit for power but the on base percentage went down by about 80 points and the next season things would really start to get out of hand it was very clear Joey Gallow did not appreciate how the fans in the New York media treated him it went as far as the Yankees announcer Michael Kay openly criticizing him on air before the game between that and the abysmal performance Joey Gallow got shipped out of town and went to the Los Angeles Dodgers where he'd spend the remainder of 2022 he seemed happier he grew his beard back unfortunately the stats didn't quite grow back as they were still well below Joey's standards and that left him in a weird spot as a unrestricted free agent the Minnesota Twins decided to give him a one-year $1 million deal to see if they can Recon struck the 29-year-old Joey Gallow into what he was and in the beginning of the Season it looked like the twins found themselves a diamond in the rough Joey Gallow was incredible in April he hit seven homers and just under 50 plate appearances to make his debut with the twins from there some injuries would slow him down and he would get back into his old habits on the whole he finished as a positive bat a 101 Ops plus hitting 21 home runs but when you examine his 2023 a bit closer there's a lot of work to be done to get Gallow back to his 2019 ways the strength go problem for Joey Gallow Rose to new heights in 2023 his K rate Rose to a heart stopping 42.8% and that is simply too high Gallow did start to retain his health down the stretch the twins opted not to play him and the strike of percentage was a big reason why so if Joey Gallow wants to resurrect his career in Washington he's going to have to make some changes to his Approach at the plate he's still hitting for a lot of power 21 home runs in 332 plate appearances is Elite power levels in ISO at about 260 the problem there is if he's not barreling up the ball hitting it out of the ballpark it's either a strikeout or it's going to be weak contact likely a pop up into the infield or shallow Outfield and looking deep into the numbers a big thing that I was able to tell is he's swinging at the first pitch a lot more and he's not getting himself into these favorable counts that made him such a dangerous hitter that makes pitchers give in and throw to his Wheelhouse in 2019 Joey Gallow swung at the first pitch 27.9% of the time that since Rose to 40.2% of the time that data goes hand inhand with the cont attack quality that he's been able to put up he's never been an elite bat to- ball guy he's always been someone who's going to swing and Miss but if you also look at his Chase percentage despite putting up a high walk rate Gallow isn't nearly as patient for his pitch as he used to be combining Gallo's 2 3 and 31 countsy get himself into 2019 and 2021 that number was over 40% now in 2023 it's dropped down to 30% and that gives the pitchers a big Advantage because they can work the corners more or just throw a complete waist pitch that still has a decent to high chance of getting Joey Gallow to swing and Miss of course a big thing with Gallo's game is he's going to pull the ball in 2023 he pulled the ball just shy of 60% of the time the highest in his career and that's no surprise of course with the changes with the shift he's more incentivized to pull the ball than ever because they can only have two infielders on the right side of the infield but again it brings up the age-old de baate there's few players with the kind of raw power that Joey Gallow possesses but do you always need to swing for the fences are you trying to do too much in certain cases I do think Gallow has the tools to be what he was in 2019 or even as recently as the first half of 2021 it really was not that long ago that he was seen as one of the Premier players in the game I think he's just got to get comfortable again and being on the field is a big part of that he was sporadically placed on the injured list in 2023 but heading into this next campaign a good bill of health is very crucial to him being what he used to be and especially on the other side of the ball because that's the big differentiator between Joey Gallow and most of these three true outcome players is that he has the ability to play Gold Glove defense so overall a one-year 5 million deal from the Nationals a team that you know they'd love to compete but they might not be quite there yet they've got a great farm system of outfielders with James Wood and Dylan Cruz who are going to come up it's a perfect time to bring it to Joey Gallow and see what happens best case scenario is he's really good and you keep him or you trade him at the deadline and worst case you're out five million there's worse things for billionaire owners but let me know in the comments section down below what do you think of Joey Gallow heading to Washington and do you think that he can come back to an Allstar Silver Slugger caliber level if you guys enjoyed this video leave a like down below thank you for watching