The Minnesota Twins have made a free-agent splash, agreeing to terms on Friday afternoon with free-agent outfielder Joey Gallo.
The deal will be one year and will pay the slugging Gallo $11 million, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.
Passan notes that Gallo, who is still just 29, could re-enter the market after 2023, and if he has a strong season, “he’s still primed to do well next year.” Passan notes that Gallo had a 4.7 WAR season in 2021, although he also notes that “this is a make-or-break season” for Gallo.
Gallo, up to 2021, had played his whole career in Texas and was known as one of the best pure sluggers in baseball. He hit 38+ home runs in 2017, 2018, and 2021, per Fangraphs.
He was traded to the New York Yankees at the 2021 trade deadline and struggled in the Bronx. In Texas that year, he put up offensive numbers that were 38 percent above league average. In New York, he was below league average.
2022 did not fare better for Gallo. His numbers were down even further to start the year in New York, being 18 percent below the league average offensively, according to wRC+. He was then traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he was still 9 percent below league average.
He looks to turn things around in a smaller market in Minnesota after being in the spotlight in the two biggest markets in baseball, New York and Los Angeles.
The Twins were looking to replace some of the offensive production that was lost earlier this week when their star SS Carlos Correa, who had opted out of his contract after just one season, left to take a record 13-year $350 million deal with the San Francisco Giants that is set to keep Correa in San Francisco for the rest of his career.
According to Roster Resource, Gallo is slotted into the LF position in Minnesota and is projected to be batting seventh in the batting order.
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