Washington Nationals star Joey Gallo had a lot to reflect in terms of his previous season with the Minnesota Twins where even though he was second on the team in home runs, he was left off the postseason lineup and was in a massive slump. Now with the Nationals, he is looking to turn over a new leaf and is “at peace with what happened” according to Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune.
“It's not always going to go great,” Gallo said. “I mean, there is no ill will. I'm at peace with what happened. I wish I performed better for the team and that city, but I am still proud of what we did as a unit.”
Gallo understands why playing time with Twins diminished
It was a strange season to say the least for Gallo with the Twins as even though he was second on the team with 21 dingers, he only had 40 runs batted in to go with a disappointing .177 batting average and a league average OPS of .741. With the low batting average, he also struck out 42.8 percent of the time at the plate as Gallo said he “totally understands what the situation was” and that there were other players on the Twins that were playing better.
“I totally understand what the situation was,” Gallo said. “There were guys playing better than me at the time and I was on a one-year deal, too, so I wasn't inked for the future with them. They didn't really have any ties to keep playing me. It was a mutual understanding that I knew I probably wasn't going to be on the playoff roster. I worked as hard as I could to be ready if I did get called, but obviously I didn't. That's something I'll have to live with.”
To go along with the less than ideal offensive numbers, Gallo was also dealing with multiple injuries like a foot issue in early September. Gallo would credit the multiple issues to his poor play as it was not all bad where in the month of April, he had seven home runs 14 runs batted, and hit a .236 batting average in 19 games.
“I went through a couple of different little injuries, and tried to get back to where I was before those,” Gallo said. “Obviously, you start struggling a little bit.”
Gallo contemplated changing approach to hitting
For people that have been following Gallo's career, he has always been a player that is more power than making contact on the baseball. However, the batting average never went below .200 in his best years with the Texas Rangers where in 2017 and 2018, he hit 40 and 41 home runs respectively.
Funny enough, the Twins last season followed the philosophy that Gallo has stuck by where power was the focus as they struck out 1,654 times as a club which is an MLB record per Nightengale. However, even Gallo said to the Star Tribune that there was thoughts of changing his approach now with the Nationals.
“Making contact is great, but if you're not doing anything with the contact, you're not making an impact,” Gallo said. “That's great if you're striking out 10% of the time, but if you're not driving the ball and you're not getting hits, it doesn't really matter if you are just grounding out. That's the fine line.”
Gallo gives credits to the MLB's current pitchers
If there is one aspect the Twins could say, it's that they led the American League in home runs and second in walks. Gallo would give credit to the pitchers of today saying it is a “strange time in baseball right now in terms of how tough it is to hit.”
“Nobody wants to strike out,” Gallo said. “There are no hitters that are like, ‘This is the way to go and let's just strikeout and try to hit bombs.' I'm not trying to do that. I obviously want to hit the ball. It's just a strange time in baseball right now in terms of how tough it is to hit. The pitching is just very, very good. I mean, if a guy is throwing 95 [mph], we're fighting for the bat rack because we want to hit. Usually, the guy is throwing 100.”
After signing a one-year deal with the Twins, Gallo now is signed to the Nationals on a one-year deal to hopefully provide some boost to the lineup. The Nationals are trying to bounce back after a 71-91 record from last season where they finished last in the NL East as their opening day is April 1 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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