The Yankees are expected to be active at the trade deadline, and there’s one player, in particular, they should be targeting.
The New York Yankees are having an up and down season to say the least. They’re currently eight games back of the Boston Red Sox in the AL East, but fortunately for them they are only four and a half games back of the second Wild Card spot.
The Yankees are rarely ever sellers at the deadline and this year in all likelihood won’t be any different. Being a team that has World Series aspirations on a yearly basis means Brian Cashman has to look for ways to upgrade the team in hopes of achieving that ultimate goal.
This year the question of who they should be looking to acquire is a lot easier than it has been in years past.
MLB Rumors: Yankees and Joey Gallo are a perfect match
All signs are pointing towards Texas Rangers’ outfielder Joey Gallo being traded in the coming weeks, and he alone would solve a vast majority of the Yankees current problems.
Gallo entered the All-Star break on a tear and currently has a pretty healthy slash line of .239/.402/.522. His batting average is not indicative of the kind of hitter it is. His 153 wRC+ and .402 on-base percentage would both lead the Yankees as would his 3.5 fWAR.
The current argument among Yankees fans against acquiring Gallo is that he swings and misses too much. That would be a valid concern if he wasn’t one of the best hitters in baseball while being in the bottom five percentile in whiff rate.
His .396 wOBA is in the 94th percentile in the league and it’s right on par with his xwOBA so it’s not like he’s overperforming his expected numbers. Gallo leads the league in walks and is in the 91st percentile in chase rate. He has more than solidified himself as one of the best hitters in baseball regardless of the fact that he swings and misses a lot.
The Yankees could honestly use a guy who swings and misses instead of rolling over to the shortstop for a double play, which by the way the Yankees have the second-most in baseball. The Yankees are currently 20th in the league in fly ball rate which is a far cry from where they’re usual output. From 2017-2020 they were sixth in the league in fly ball rate.
Gallo’s fly ball rate currently sits at 47.2 and he pulls the ball 42 percent of the time which is a match made in heaven for the short porch in right field.
Not only would Gallo provide a major offensive upgrade but his defense would be a heaven-sent as well for an outfield that currently employs a third baseman playing left field and a center fielder that isn’t good enough on either side of the ball to be playing every day.
According to Baseball Savant, Gallo currently sits in the 95th percentile in OAA and outfielder jump. He won’t be playing right field even though that’s his best position, but last year he had a DRS of zero in center field last season, which considering how difficult the position is, that’s a really good sign.
He hasn’t played left field since 2019, but he has a career DRS of three at the position. The Yankees should make the playoffs this year simply because they’re the most talented group out of everyone fighting for a spot, but with the loss of Aaron Hicks this team has some serious production deficiencies in the outfield that Gallo would instantly solve should the Yankees acquire him.