Joey Gallo Considered Dramatic Move After Disastrous Year In New York
Joey Gallo’s Yankees tenure made him wonder if he wanted to ‘do this s–t anymore’ https://t.co/Q6E2BhuSBt pic.twitter.com/hwxCbXeUjz
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) February 24, 2023
“I think every baseball player at some point is like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this s–t anymore,'” he told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. “It’s a tough game.” Gallo had these thoughts going through his head as the boobirds rained down on him mercilessly in the Bronx, and he struggled to a .159 average and a career-worst .621 OPS with the Yankees in 2022, whiffing an unconscionable 106 times in just 82 games.
Combined with his equally-woeful 58 games after coming over to the Yankees in a 2021 deadline deal, and his New York numbers came out to a combined .159 average and 194 strikeouts in 140 games (while hitting 25 home runs). His 84 OPS+ made him 16% worse than the average hitter during his New York minutes.
“I tried to handle it well,” Gallo said. “I took pride in the fact that I still played. I was still diving for the Yankees, running into walls for the Yankees, running hard for the Yankees. I knew I was getting traded. But I still had the pride, the integrity for the game, the respect for the fans, respect for the organization. I’m still going to go out here and bust my ass. I’m not going to just cash it in.”
He'll have a much less pressure-packed environment in Minnesota with which to try and re-ignite his career this season. And he's thrilled with the situation.
“The Minnesota market is different than the New York market. The Texas market is different than the New York market,” Gallo said. “I always just wanted to play baseball, have fun, hang out with the boys. That’s my goal, just to play baseball and win games. I don’t really like it being more than that.
“I guess [Minnesota] is more my vibe, you know what I mean?”
Photo: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
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