Three key pieces to Texas Rangers puzzle, including Joey Gallo, avoid arbitration
The MLB deadline to exchange salary numbers for arbitration-eligible players came and went Friday morning without a whimper in Arlington as the Texas Rangers came to agreements on 2020 contract with a key young trio.
All-Star outfielder Joey Gallo was the headliner, but Danny Santana, expected to play center field, and right-handed reliever Rafael Montero also agreed to deals that again kept general manager Jon Daniels from the threat of going to an arbitration hearing.
Gallo, in his first year of arbitration, will make $4.4 million in 2020. He remains a candidate for a contract extension that could buy out his first or second years of free agency, but the Rangers typically work on extensions in spring training.
Gallo missed the final nine weeks of last season because of a broken hamate bone in his right hand. However, he emerged as one of the game’s best offensive players in the first half, when he was selected to his first American League All-Star team.
He homered in his lone at-bat in the Midsummer Classic.
Santana, who scored a $3.6-million deal, will enter the season as the reigning Rangers Player of the Year after slugging a career-high 28 home runs despite spending the first two weeks of the MLB season at Triple A Nashville.
While he played seven position in 2019, he is expected to replace Delino DeShields as the regular in center field. The Rangers have said multiple times this off-season they have no plans to make Gallo a full-time center fielder.
Instead, he will shift to right field following the trade of Nomar Mazara.
Montero will make $785,000 after finishing last season as the primary eighth-inning reliever, ahead of closer Jose Leclerc. He figures to have that same role to start 2020, especially after Emmanuel Clase was dealt, along with DeShields, to the Cleveland Indians for two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber.
The Rangers haven’t been to an arbitration hearing since they lost to first baseman Lee Stevens in 2000.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 12:36 PM.
