Joey Gallo Makes Shocking Decision For His Career

Former 40-HR slugger Joey Gallo, who has been unable to get his batting average above .199 this entire decade, has made a shocking decision for his career, announcing that he will become a pitcher.

After being released by the White Sox this morning, Joey Gallo announced on his social media that he will continue his baseball career as a pitcher pic.twitter.com/G8fnO1LMlY
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 16, 2025

After 10 years of monstrous strikeout totals, Gallo now must figure, 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.' He asked for his release from the Chicago White Sox Sunday morning, and immediately made his announcement on social media that he will continue his baseball career trying to induce strikeouts from the mound, rather than being a victim of them.

Just to be clear, I will be pitching.
— Joey Gallo (@JoeyGallo24) March 16, 2025

Gallo, still just 31, is a two-time All-Star in the outfield, and has a gun of an arm, landing in the 100th percentile in arm strength per Baseball Savant in 2020, the 99th percentile in 2021, and the 90th percentile in 2022.

Last season, in 260 plate appearances for the Washington Nationals, he hit just 10 homers, with a .164 average.

Gallo has 208 career long balls, and is 6th all-time in baseball in HR per at-bat (trailing only Mark McGwire, Babe Ruth, Aaron Judge, Barry Bonds and Jim Thome).

But he also has a whopping 1,292 strikeouts in 939 games, with a career .194 batting average.

He led the majors in strikeouts—as a batter—in 2021, with 213. Now, it sounds like he'd like to do the same thing—as a pitcher.

Time will tell.