Following a loss to the Phoenix Suns late last March, Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns off-handedly said he was excited that Carlos Correa had signed with the Minnesota Twins. A reporter pressed him on that assertion, pointing out that Towns was a New York Yankees fan. Towns shrugged and said that the Yankees would be fine.
They had Joey Gallo.
Who was to tell Towns he was wrong? The Yankees traded for Gallo during his second All-Star season in 2021. He hit .199/.351/.458 with 38 home runs that year while earning his second Gold Glove. Gallo led the majors in walks and struck out more than anyone else. That’s Gallo in sum. He’s a three-true-outcome player who can make the All-Star team while batting beneath the Mendoza Line.
That’s all well and good until things fall apart, and they did in the Bronx. Many a great player has struggled in the Yankee Stadium crucible. It’s a ballpark designed like a Roman coliseum. A stadium with gold lettering and four levels of seating where the lights shine brighter the longer you’re under them. Gallo isn’t the first player to struggle in Yankee Stadium, and he won’t be the last. But he hit .160/.303/.404 after New York traded for him in 2021, and .159/.282/.339 before they traded him in 2022.
Gallo is 29, meaning he should be in the middle of his prime. But the trade to LA did little to help rejuvenate his season. He hit .162/.277/.393 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and signed a one-year, $11 million prove-it contract with the Minnesota Twins. So far, he’s proving it. Gallo hit two bombs in the third game against the Kansas City Royals and put a charge into another one in Game 1 against the Miami Marlins. He will be a frustrating hitter because of his all-or-nothing swing; Luis Arraez, he is not. But he will provide some thump in the middle of the lineup.
Sonny Gray should have tipped us off that Gallo would be just fine away from New York’s bright lights. The Oakland A’s drafted Gray out of Vanderbilt in 2011, and he debuted two years later with a 2.67 ERA (146 ERA+) in 12 starts. Two years later, he was an All-Star and garnered Cy Young votes. In 2017, the Yankees do what they do and raided the parsimonious A’s for talent. Gray pitched well in his first year in New York but struggled in his second. In 2018, he had a 4.90 ERA (86 ERA+), his worst performance since an outlier 2016 season in Oakland.
In 2019, the Yankees traded Gray to the Cincinnati Reds for Shed Long Jr. and a competitive balance pick. Shed Long is a memorable name you’ve never heard of because he’s hit .216/.284/.376 in three major-league seasons. Gray immediately became an All-Star in the Queen City, again earning Cy Young votes. The Reds were mediocre while Gray was there and bottomed out with 62 wins last year. The Twins wisely raided them like sunken treasure, trading for Gray and Tyler Mahle.
It’s hard to think of Minnesota having inherent advantages over other locations in baseball, especially as snow falls in April. New York and Boston have a lot of baseball history. Los Angeles has sunshine and beaches. But there’s some serenity in the Twin Cities. Not only do baseball players enjoy the best of our weather, unlike their other professional athlete counterparts. But there is less media pressure and more forgiveness among fans. Players aren’t in a crucible here. At worst, they’re in a morass of anxiety and fatalist ideology. That’s what happens when a team loses 18 straight playoff games.
Anxiety and fatalism aren’t going to be part of the next Explore Minnesota campaign. Still, it beats relentless pressure and little forgiveness. And fortunately, most people will latch onto a successful player because many fans are highly engaged and hopeful. The Bomba Squad suffered the same playoff fate as every Twins team since 2004. But Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, and Nelson Cruz became household names because they made the summer of 2019 one of the most memorable in Twins history.
Gallo can do the same. Like Miguel Sanó before him, there’s something beautiful about hearing the ball come off his bat. If he plays well enough, it’ll compensate for his inevitable droughts. Chicks dig the long ball, and so do front offices, apparently. In the offseason, the Twins moved on from Sanó, a one-time All-Star who once looked like a franchise player. They replaced him with Gallo, who hit .211/.336/.497 and 145 homers in seven years with the Texas Rangers. He hit .159/.291/.368 in New York and .162/.277/.393 in LA. We don’t have Texas barbecue out here, but this is a place where he can cook.
