You really have to feel sorry for Joey Gallo.
Throughout his entire career, he’s been the same player. He’s a guy who will not hit for average (like, at all), he’ll strike out a ton *but* he will hit dingers. The Yankees knew that when they traded for Gallo from the Rangers last season, hoping the lefty Gallo would feast on the short porch to right field at Yankee Stadium.
It turned out that Gallo was the wrong fit for the Yankees.
The Yankees traded Gallo — who was hitting .159 with just 12 home runs this season — to the Dodgers on Tuesday for pitching prospect Clayton Beeter. It was a move that Gallo knew was coming, and a recent interview with nj.com summed up just how much he struggled with the pressure of underperforming in New York.
He said after admitting that avoided going out in public:
Yeah, I think feel like people are a little sick of me here, so I don’t really know what else I can do at this point here. I haven’t played well, so I think it’ll help me to move on.
He also said that opposing players used to reach out to him after Yankees fans booed him, which in turn made him feel worse about himself.
I don’t want to say names. Kansas City guys reached out to me over the weekend. A bunch of guys. It makes me feel like a piece of s**t, honestly. I remember playing here with the Rangers, watching [Yankees] get booed off the field and thinking, ‘Holy s**t! I feel bad for that guy.’ Now it’s me. I do appreciate people reaching out, but it makes me feel like I’m a problem.
Again, Gallo was never a player who offered consistency at the plate. But once the power numbers declined and his fielding became unreliable, the situation in New York kept getting worse for him. He needed a fresh start, and Los Angeles could easily be that place. But at the same time, you would have liked to see the Yankees support a player who was struggling like that — particularly if he didn’t want to show his face around town.
Fans had plenty of thoughts about the very sad interview as well.