At the July 29 trade deadline in 2021, with the New York Yankees fighting for a playoff spot and trailing the American League East leading Boston Red Sox by 8 1/2 games, the Bronx Bombers pulled off a deal that they expected would help turn their season around. In exchange for four prospects, the Yankees acquired a slugger who had been a Texas Rangers first-round draft pick in 2012, and had belted 41 and 40 homers in 2017 and 2018 respectively for the Rangers, his only two full seasons in Arlington. He hit 145 overall in seven years with Texas.
In Joey Gallo, New York believed they were getting the perfect power hitter for Yankee Stadium. A 6’5″, 249-pound left-handed batter with a classic uppercut swing, Gallo appeared to be cut from the perfect mold for a Yankee Stadium slugger who could continually take advantage of the short porch for a lefty pull hitter there. Gallo was already a two-time All-Star as well as a winning a Gold Glove for his outfield defense, twice.
Manager Aaron Boone said at the time that he was “really excited” to add Gallo to the Yankees, and lauded the Las Vegas native’s “tremendous patience and power.”
Gallo Cast Aside by Yankees After Just One Year
And yet, just one short year later, Gallo was gone. The Yankees sent him at the 2022 trade deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitching prospect Clayton Beeter (currently the No. 15 prospect in the New York farm system). Nor did he last long as a Dodger. Los Angeles let Gallo go to the Minnesota Twins as a free agent after the 2022 season.
What happened? In the parts of two seasons he played with the Yankees, Gallo hit 25 home runs, but didn’t accomplish much else. He had just 67 hits, meaning that more than one-third of his base hits were home runs. He literally did not hit his weight, with an anemic .159 batting average. His OPS for his time in New York was a mere .660 â compared to the .833 OPS he accumulated over his seven Texas seasons.
Gallo has bounced around since then, struggling at all three stops â Los Angeles, Minnesota and, in 2024, with the Washington Nationals for whom he hit 10 homers but scraped together just a .161 batting average and .613 OPS in 260 plate appearances.
Heading into the 2025 season, Gallo signed a minor league deal with the Chicago White Sox, but failed to catch on with MLB’s worst team â losers of a record 121 games last year â notching just two hits in 20 at-bats with 11 strikeouts this spring.
Gallo’s Next Career Move Will Happen on the Mound
His continued ordeal led Gallo to request that the White Sox release him, and on Sunday they accommodated his request. Gallo immediately announced his next career move, taking to his X (formerly Twitter) account to announce that he will attempt to make a comeback â as a pitcher.
âHe had expressed interest through his agent if it didnât work out on the Major League team, that he was going to explore the pitching side,â White Sox assistant general manager Josh Barfield said, as quoted by MLB.com. âI know itâs something heâs been dabbling around with in between some of the reps here.”
But can he pitch? That remains to be seen, of course, but with 45 outfield assists in nine seasons there is no question that Gallo has a powerful arm. If he cannot add command of his pitches to his arm strength, however, it appears that the ex-Yankees’ career is over at age 31.
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