Whether by walk or by trot, Texas Rangers’ All-Star Joey Gallo is proving to be elite
No member of the Texas Rangers expects to hit home runs more than slugger Joey Gallo.
He cracked the 40-homer plateau in each his first two full seasons in 2017 and 2018. He was on pace to do it in 2019 before an injury ended his year, and then there was that 60-game 2020 campaign.
But with a complete spring training and the cadence of a normal season back for 2021, Gallo, who’s known to have hot starts, was taken aback earlier this year when he only had two homers through 26 games in April.
For comparison, he swatted three homers in his first eight games a year ago. In 2019, he had four in his first nine games. And in 2018 and 2017 he started with eight and seven homers in the first month of action.
So something was wrong, right? No, not really.
The homers weren’t coming, in part, because he wasn’t seeing a ton of good pitches. He leads the majors with 66 walks, including 24 in April. He had three more in the Rangers last two games against the Tigers.
“I really don’t pay too much attention to the outside [media], but I remember coming across a couple of articles early in the season saying, ‘Oh, he lost his power swing,’” Gallo said. “The focus was more how come this guy is not hitting home runs instead of ‘Wow, this guy is getting on base at a ridiculously high clip and helping us win games that way.’”
Hello, home run swing
By early May, however, the homer stroke showed up as he hit four over a six-game stretch, including two against the Mariners on May 8.
Still, rookie All-Star Adolis Garcia was claiming most of the headlines as he belted homers throughout late April and May.
Gallo took the power surge up another notch as June came to a close. He hit seven in a five-game stretch and earned his second All-Star appearance. He’ll compete in his first Home Run Derby as part of the All-Star weekend festivities on Monday. His 23 homers, including two in Wednesday’s loss, are the sixth most in the majors. He’s the first player in Rangers history to have 10 home runs in a 10-game span and his 23 homers before the All-Star break are a career high.
“He didn’t buy into, ‘Oh, I need to hit some homers,’” said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. “He stuck with his plan. There were some tough days for him. He was kind of confused at times why he wasn’t hitting them. But he stuck with it. I think that shows a lot to the team.”
Gallo may have been privately frustrated, but he wasn’t concerned. He was playing well, despite the low homer totals. In fact, aside from his batting average, he’s in the top five of most offensive statistical categories among AL outfielders. Only one outfielder in the majors (the Nationals’ Juan Soto at .401) has a better on-base percentage than Gallo’s .395 through Wednesday’s game.
“I knew at some point I was going to run into balls. For me, it was almost building a foundation that if I wasn’t getting pitches to hit, if they’re trying to pitch around me I’m not just gonna try to hit home runs [anyway],” he said. “I didn’t expect to have [21] home runs right now, but you catch a hot streak and things go your way.”
Taking what they give you
Part of the approach of pitching to Gallo is that opposing teams have decided to give him as few good pitches as possible. If you walk him, it’s better than surrendering a home run. It’s the same reason teams employ such a massive defensive shift against him. Teams are fine with him punching a gimme single through a wide-open left side of the infield, just don’t let him launch one into the stands.
The biggest difference for Gallo in 2021 is he didn’t let the lack of power numbers early affect his mood or view of his own play. That part of Gallo’s maturation has pleased Woodward the most.
“I’m just really proud of the man he is now,” Woodward said. “Mentally, he’s been in a positive state of mind from Day 1. That’s probably what I’m most impressed with.”
Plus, Gallo knew he was contributing to the team’s success early on by getting on base, smart base running and Gold Glove defense in the outfield.
“I was producing in a different type of way,” Gallo said. “I thought I was still, as far as overall value, one of the best outfielders, but it just wasn’t the Joey Gallo way that people expected.
“But at the same time, I do realize that people do expect me to hit home runs,” he said, “so it’s hard to find a happy medium sometimes if you’re not doing that as well.”
It might’ve been hard, but he found it. And it started paying off in late June.
Home runs in droves
He has been so locked in lately that he has been careful about altering his routine.
“If I’m sleeping on a certain side of the bed, I’m going to keep sleeping on that side of the bed,” he said. “If I drive a certain way to the field, I’ll keep driving that way to the field.”
It’s not superstition, he said. “It’s so hard to have good days in this game why would you even try to mix it up,” he asked.
Is Gallo one of the elite players in the league? The numbers say he is. Woodward says he is.
“You can’t dispute the numbers, no matter what you look at, he’s at the top,” Woodward said. “The industry has realized that [batting average] is not as big of a stat as it used to be. Everything else is off the chart.”
The league knows, Woodward said, that Gallo is one of the game’s elites.
“He’s really learned to impact the game in all aspects,” Woodward said. “If he’s on the bases he’s a threat. When he’s in the outfield you’re not going to second base. As a man, he’s still a humble, don’t-take-anything-for-granted-type guy, but you can tell he carries himself with a lot more confidence now.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
