The Twins are in agreement with outfielder Joey Gallo on a one-year deal that will pay him $11MM. The two-time All-Star is represented by the Boras Corporation. Apparently when one of Boras’s players is having a tough time getting signed, they turn to the Minnesota Twins for some reason. Either Boras has something on the Twins FO dynamic duo that they don’t want the public to know or they are just easy to convince that the player will be good and might sign a long term deal with them.
Twins fans were disgusted with Miguel Sano and his strikeouts and they couldn’t wait for him to be run out of town. The Twins FO obliged and didn’t tender Sano. But if Twins fans didn’t like Sano, they are really in for a treat in their new outfielder Joey Gallo. Sanó has the second-highest career strikeout rate in MLB history at 36.4 percent. The only player to whiff more often is Gallo, who sits atop the all-time career list at 37.3 percent, including 39.8 percent last season for the Yankees and Dodgers.
Gallo, 29, was one of the most top sluggers in the league between 2017-2018 but is coming off a rough stretch in which he has hit just 32 home runs and struckout 251 times in 184 games since being traded by Texas to the Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline. On the plus side he did win Gold Gloves in 2020 and again in 2021.
The Twins have a chorus line of young outfielders like Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner, Gilberto Celestino and others waiting for their shot but the FO goes out and spends $11 million on Gallo who career batting average over eight big league seasons and 752 games stands at .199. What I don’t understand about this FO is why when you have all these young studs in the wings, all first round picks by the way (except for Celestino), do you not give them their shot and let them prove they can or can’t play before you go out and sign Gallo. If you don’t have faith in these guys then trade them before they become stale and you get nothing in return for your first round picks.
This is an absolutetly terrible signing for the Twins who for some reason seem convinced that they can slug their way to the World Series, but it ain’t goinna happen baby. The Twins recently lost out on signing shortstop Carlos Correa after he went with the San Francisco Giants in a 13 year deal. Many Twins fans are miffed the Twins didn’t sign Correa or any of the other big name free agent shortstops and to see the Twins sign another player similar to Sano will certainly not put more fans in the stands.
The sad part is that this could put the Twins into a downward spiral where the FO may just throw in the towel with this team, trade off their best players and start all over again. We sure don’t want to see Minnesota Twins fans get punished for the ineptness of this FO. Some of us long time Twins fans are getting long in the tooth and can’t be waiting around for a total rebuild to see the Twins be a good team again before we have to walk off into that cornfield in the sky.