Minnesota Twins Sign Joey Gallo

To those few who think Gallo offers better defense than Kepler, have you watched Kepler?  He is an outstanding RF, it is his strength, it's why he on the team. He may not be Roberto Clemente  but he is as good as it gets right now. Unfortunately, he has lost his mojo at the plate. So now we replace him with a .199 lifetime hitter???

Left field? We have better options in house.  Not all of the rookies will fail.  In fact, any and all of them could hit .199!  And  not strike out 40% of the time!

This signing says they just want to field a team, not to win. Are you reading this Joe Polad?

22 minutes ago, pierre75275 said:

There was that Tommy Herr trade......

I was only 8 and took it better than this. The Frank Viola trade on the other hand...

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Please - this is such terrible news I would rather have the blizzard back.  We have not even been without Sano for a year did we really need another bat to stir the air in the stadium.  I hate this more than any move this FO has made - bring back Shoemaker and put him in the OF. 

Mike I wholeheartedly concur. An incredibly stupid signing. 

1 hour ago, TwinkieFan4life said:

I am a long time Twins fan.  This is the first move they have made that caused me to yell "barf!" upon learning the news.

24 minutes ago, pierre75275 said:

There was that Tommy Herr trade......

It took me at least a month to hate that one.

58 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

You are correct - there should be no expectation that any player can really single handedly lead a team to the playoffs. Having said that, is there truly any realistic expectation that Gallo with move the dial in that direction in any meaningful way?  The FO is nibbling at the edges -  Vasquez is strong move, Farmer is a good exchange for Urshela, and Gallo may or may not be an upgrade from Kepler/Larnach/Wallner. Maybe more is to come, but in total do these three moves make the Twins look like a pennant contender in ‘23?  Re Gallo, what are the opportunity costs of $11MM and the ABs for someone who almost certainly won’t be here in ‘24, let alone by the trade deadline.  

 

They didn't trade Urshela for Farmer. I have zero problem with them trading for Farmer or him being on the team. He's a nice upgrade over Palcious (sp), Adrianza and co.

But he should not start and we did not need to trade Urshela for a bag of balls to afford him.

40 minutes ago, prouster said:

I mean, if at bats for 2024 are the important thing, then everyone should have fun at the lake rather than worrying about the Twins.

Jokes aside, I think there is a way to view this signing positively. Gallo is basically a Kepler replacement with better defense (Kepler’s defense is good, but Gallo is a credible center fielder). He can play DH and 1B with enough power to avoid losing much if any value. Because he can play all three OF positions, DH, and corner infield, he really shouldn’t take at bats away from anyone. In my view, he doesn’t raise the team’s ceiling, but he does raise its floor somewhat. 
 

Not exciting, but not useless. Just my two cents. 

Your two cents plus 10, 999,999.98 will apparently buy you Joey Gallo.

48 minutes ago, prouster said:

?

11 million is not all that much in the free agent market. And what other Boras client did the Twins sign? It’s SF that gave him money. 

11 is likely 11 million more than the 0 dollars being offered by another MLB team right now

Boras led the Twins around by the nose for a year on Correa to get the contract he wanted elsewhere and left the Twins with such few options that Joey Friggin' Gallo (who happened to be his client) was their next option.... so yeah...

Oh and he got the Twins to give Correa the highest SS contract for a year as a holder until he could sign him a long term contract which he didn't have to share the commission with his prior representation. Boras has done just fine manipulating the Twins FO.

And although he is very bright and talented. These particular moves were hardly Rocket Surgery... or Brian Science.... or.... ask the Twins FO... they'll know what I'm trying to say... 

One little last passing thought... If 11 million isn't all that much... please refer to a bullpen in need and not a corner outfielder glut. 

5 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Gallo put up 0.6 WAR last year. He was below replacement level. Wallner was better.

This reinforces my point about CC.....

You can have CC and two rookies, or three Joey Gallos.....

I mean, not to quibble or anything, but if you have positive WAR, you are by definition not below replacement level.

5 hours ago, Fatbat said:

.263 career batter at target field. I’ll bet he hits above that average this year and has 40+ dingers.  A year from now everyone of you will want to sign him to a 3-4 year deal….

Every time the "look at his target field numbers!" thing comes up, you must realize the player was facing Twins pitching.  Its not the ball park or how well they see the batters eye...

7 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Because they were better than him last year? Oh, wait. 

100% this is about not looking cheap and praying Gallo is great. But who cares? It is one year. It solves nothing at all, other than blocking Wallner or Larnach or other players.

Gallo is better than just about anyone in the spring-training-like outfields the Twins ran out there last year when everyone was hurt. If we have similar injury levels this year, at least Gallo is a major-leaguer. 

1 hour ago, D.C Twins said:

11 is likely 11 million more than the 0 dollars being offered by another MLB team right now

Boras led the Twins around by the nose for a year on Correa to get the contract he wanted elsewhere and left the Twins with such few options that Joey Friggin' Gallo (who happened to be his client) was their next option.... so yeah...

Oh and he got the Twins to give Correa the highest SS contract for a year as a holder until he could sign him a long term contract which he didn't have to share the commission with his prior representation. Boras has done just fine manipulating the Twins FO.

And although he is very bright and talented. These particular moves were hardly Rocket Surgery... or Brian Science.... or.... ask the Twins FO... they'll know what I'm trying to say... 

One little last passing thought... If 11 million isn't all that much... please refer to a bullpen in need and not a corner outfielder glut. 

You have to pay players. I don’t know why anyone would be upset about the cost. Players make that much in arbitration. Who cares? Do you want them to pay him the league minimum?

I've been believer in this FO but am losing faith fast on this one.  I am thrilled that Sano is gone because I am more of a fan of small ball and absolutely hate strikeouts.  It just kills the game and makes it non-entertaining for me.

I hate this move and based on the comments here I am guessing it is 95-5% not in favor of this move.

I doubt that the Twins will be getting fans back to the ballpark this way.

Last comment... Please Please Please be part of a bigger shakeup.

And still crickets from those that actually forced this decision on all the fans and the team. I guess communication is not of primary importanceto them. I guess it doesn’t really matter unless it is an apology. I mean, what could they possibly say that would make this make sense, anyway? Still, in this case, they really should attempt to explain themselves. 

9 minutes ago, prouster said:

You have to pay players. I don’t know why anyone would be upset about the cost. Players make that much in arbitration. Who cares? Do you want them to pay him the league minimum?

Good for you. You were one of the 20% who supported a $350 million deal for Correa. I wouldn't be upset by what the players make either. But I do have a question about talent and the style of baseball. Gallo simply isn't any good. I wouldn't pay him a penny. Gallo only makes sense at half the cost if the Twins are trading Larnach, Kepler, and Gordon plus having lost faith in any potential from Wallner or Martin. Then again, maybe that is the plan. I sure don't know or even pretend to know what Falvey has in mind for a plan. 

25 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Good for you. You were one of the 20% who supported a $350 million deal for Correa. I wouldn't be upset by what the players make either. But I do have a question about talent and the style of baseball. Gallo simply isn't any good. I wouldn't pay him a penny. Gallo only makes sense at half the cost if the Twins are trading Larnach, Kepler, and Gordon plus having lost faith in any potential from Wallner or Martin. Then again, maybe that is the plan. I sure don't know or even pretend to know what Falvey has in mind for a plan. 

When he is hitting .160 in June, we will know his plan. High draft choice.

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

Good for you. You were one of the 20% who supported a $350 million deal for Correa. I wouldn't be upset by what the players make either. But I do have a question about talent and the style of baseball. Gallo simply isn't any good. I wouldn't pay him a penny. Gallo only makes sense at half the cost if the Twins are trading Larnach, Kepler, and Gordon plus having lost faith in any potential from Wallner or Martin. Then again, maybe that is the plan. I sure don't know or even pretend to know what Falvey has in mind for a plan. 

What on earth are you talking about? I never posted about Correa’s contract other than to speculate that he wouldn’t get 300 million. That was a couple months ago, and boy was I wrong. Seriously, calm the hell down. 

Trust in FalVine? If us on Twins Daily were smarter, than we would have their jobs? 

Right?

Re: Gallo. 

Taking the line from the financial industry CYA ********:

"Past performance is no gaurantee of future results"

162 game season...

Just saying?

9 hours ago, Azviking101 said:

I have no issue giving someone like this a prove it deal. Here's my main problem here.

Kepler is coming off a bad year, with the potential to have a really good year if the analytics are correct about the loss of the shift. Kepler also has a team option next year. Gallo has the chance to bounce back, but he's on a 1 year contract, so if he does he's going to get a massive contract next year from someone not named the Twins.

Twins had the chance to have a potential huge trade package next year for Kepler or keep him for a season on the cheap and get massive production for little money. As a mid-market team, they have to make the most out of these things and this is a bad decision.

Now there is a great chance neither happens, but the Twins didn't put themselves in position to benefit if that comes true. This just adds to my belief that Falvine duo is clueless.

prove it deals aren't for 11 million dollars...

9 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

They've tried biting the bullet for 2 years now and it hasn't worked. That's why they still have so many holes on the roster. Had Larnach stayed healthy and produced in 2021 there'd be no thought of Gallo. Or if Larnach had stayed healthy and produced in 2022 there'd be no thought of Gallo. But he didn't. Either year. How many years are we biting this bullet and seeing what Larnach can do to stay healthy and produce?

Again, I don't like the deal and it doesn't at all make this offseason successful. Simply pointing out that Gallo is a multi-time all star and gold glove winner and people are acting like the Twins just signed one of us. He's not a problem solver. He's simply more depth. He better not be their last move. But he's better than plenty of guys on the 40-man so the team is better today than it was yesterday.

Projections are trash. I've looked at them. The Twins aren't hopping on fangraphs and saying "well dang, Gallo is only projected for 1.2 WAR this year, waste of time."

you don't pay 11 million for "depth".

18 hours ago, JakeBru3 said:

The young guys have upside and potential and until they reach that the Twins will just be spinning their wheels. Gallo is the 2nd best OF on the 40 man today IMO because the others have only proven they can't stay healthy. They brought in a proven commodity that can help win games now. Hopefully a couple of the young guys can prove they can be healthy, productive, big leaguers and Gallo is a luxory they can flip or let walk after the year. Until that's proven however its a good signing to help win games in '23. 

how are they supposed to reach their potential with Joey Gallo blocking them? they aren't going to bench him with a 11 million  dollar salary, even if he sucks.

5 hours ago, howeda7 said:

They didn't trade Urshela for Farmer. I have zero problem with them trading for Farmer or him being on the team. He's a nice upgrade over Palcious (sp), Adrianza and co.

But he should not start and we did not need to trade Urshela for a bag of balls to afford him.

I said the “exchange” of Urshela for Farmer. It was not a trade, rather replacing one infielder with a similar one who could provide a more direct hedge at SS if we were unsuccessful in the SS sweepstakes. At the moment Farmer is our everyday SS and in that role he’s a marginal upgrade over Urshela. Having said that, I personally would much rather have Urshela still on the team than Gallo. To me, maybe not for others, that’s a no brainer.

6 hours ago, prouster said:

?

11 million is not all that much in the free agent market. And what other Boras client did the Twins sign? It’s SF that gave him money. 

its still about 8-9 million more than he should have got. could sign a RP for that money.

3 hours ago, prouster said:

You have to pay players. I don’t know why anyone would be upset about the cost. Players make that much in arbitration. Who cares? Do you want them to pay him the league minimum?

yes

Hahaha........unbelievable. 

How about this. Trade Kepler, Polanco, and one of the young left-handed outfielders (not Wallner) for a for a top or near top of the rotation starter. Araez at first, second and DH, Joey in right, left, first and DH, Farmer wherever, and figure out shortstop on the fly. Mix and match and see what we have. 

There has to be more moves coming.