Joey Gallo ‘by far the best player on the field’ every game, Texas Rangers manager says
Seven games make for a small sample size, even in what would stand as shortest MLB season should it somehow reach its 60th game.
But those seven games have provided enough evidence to show that there is only one only hitter in the middle of Texas Rangers’ batting order for opponents to fret.
Heck, there might be only one in the entire batting order who opponents truly fear.
Joey Gallo might not be clearing a high bar, with hitters like Rougned Odor (.125 average), Willie Calhoun (.056) and Elvis Andrus (.179) trying to find their footing.
Gallo, though, is setting a high bar for others on this team and across the game to match.
So far, he is proving that his breakthrough 2019 season, in which he was an American League All-Star before a hand injury scuttled his season, was no fluke.
“It’s pretty special what he’s doing right now,” manager Chris Woodward said. “He’s by far the best player on the field every time he steps out there. ...
“Everything he’s doing right now is showing the rest of our team like, ‘Jump on my back. I’m the best player in baseball.’ There may be not another more talented player in all of baseball.”
Woodward heard some moans coming, apparently. He quickly mentioned the great Mike Trout and Mookie Betts, but didn’t shy away from continuing to lavish praise on Gallo.
The right fielder leads Rangers’ everyday players in every major statistical category. He’s hitting .310 with a .429 on-base percentage and a .724 slugging percentage. His 1.153 OPS dwarfs the next closest regular, Shin-Soo Choo, at .742.
Gallo also leads with nine hits, three home runs, eight RBIs and five runs. He is tied for the lead in steals (two) and walks (six).
Gallo doesn’t lead the team in strikeouts, with seven in eight games.
His three-run homer Sunday helped the Rangers pull away from the San Francisco Giants and avoid a three-game sweep. His two-run homer Wednesday helped the Rangers avoid a sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
As he started to show last season, he is no longer an all-or-nothing hitter. He makes pitchers work, and punishes them if they make a mistake.
“I know Trout is good and Mookie Betts, these guys are pretty good players,” Woodward said. “But Joey is with size, with power, with speed, with arm. He’s got all of it. And now he’s got a tremendous approach in the batter’s box. He doesn’t chase pitches. He stays in the strike zone.
“And he gets a two-strike hit, stayed through it up the middle first at-bat. Those are the kind of things that if he starts doing that, it is pretty scary how good this guy could be.”
But his production isn’t the whole story, Woodward said. Gallo is the Rangers’ best player, but plays like he’s fighting to keep his job.
No one consistently runs harder to first base than Gallo. He covers ground in the outfield as if he’s the only one out there.
At 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, he can score from first on an extra-base hit.
“He sets the tone for the rest of our team, so when your best player is that good and he plays as hard as Joey does ... ,” Woodward said. “The only thing I’m worried is he plays too hard at times, and I don’t want him to get hurt. He doesn’t need to run 100 miles an hour down the line on a routine ground ball to first base.”
Gallo aw-shucked his way through the postgame Zoom call Sunday.
If he is asked to move third in the lineup from fourth, he’ll do it if it makes the team better. The loss of Odor and Danny Santana (.059) to injuries are huge losses. The sacrifice fly Calhoun collected before the three-run homer was a great piece of hitting (it was).
As for his 3-for-4 game, well, it was hard to get going for a day game after a night game. And when he was down two strikes in the count against left-hander he had never faced before, Gallo, a left-handed hitter, was just trying to put the ball.
He made it sound like he got lucky to hit the ball over the fence at the deepest part of Oracle Park.
“I was able to get a barrel on it, and it ended up getting out of the ballpark for three runs,” he said. “It was pretty exciting.”
The Rangers are off Monday before hopping across the bay for a three-game series against the Oakland A’s, who will throw lefties in the first two games. But all three of Gallo’s homers this season have come off lefties, and he has the most homers (26) in baseball against lefties since 2018.
If he stays healthy at this level of play, he will be in future MVP discussions and could take the Rangers where they want to be.
That’s a lot to throw at a player, but Woodward did so without hesitation.
“Keeping him healthy, keeping him on the field and him maintaining that kind of level of play is critical for our success,” Woodward said. “He can turn around our organization and make us a champion just because of how good he is.”
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
