After lost 2022 season, Joey Gallo hopes for revival with Twins

FORT MYERS, FLA. – Joey Gallo has been heckled more ruthlessly during his career than …

"Me?" Carlos Correa interrupted. "I don't know. It would be a good contest."

Hmm, Gallo's Twins teammate and fellow Yankees villain makes a salient point, one that will be more accurately judged in the bleachers of the Bronx in mid-April. But for now, Gallo owns the rare and admittedly impressive distinction of being trolled by a Hall of Famer.

During a national TV interview two summers ago, he told a legendary story of pitching a no-hitter for his high school in the afternoon, then escorting Greg Maddux's daughter, Paige, to their senior prom that night.

The four-time Cy Young Award winner saw the interview, and responded on Twitter: "One of [Joey's] earliest strikeouts," Maddux tweeted savagely.

"Greg is awesome," Gallo said with a laugh. "I love that family. I went to high school with Paige, so I knew her a long time. And Greg's son [Chase] was on the team with me, so I knew the family really well."

In fact, Gallo suspects Maddux's recommendation to the Rangers, who employed the pitcher as a special instructor during Gallo's senior season, helped convince them to draft him in the first round.

It turned out to be a good call, since the 6-foot-5 outfielder and first baseman became one of the highest-rated minor league prospects of the past decade, then developed into an All-Star slugger and Gold Glove fielder during seven seasons with Texas.

But his 140 games with the Yankees were a strikeout-flooded, boo-soundtracked disaster, and his hoped-for revival with the Dodgers over the final two months last summer only added to the problem. Gallo, 29, was among the most frustrated, and frustrating, hitters in the game, his exit velocity when making contact among the best in baseball, but his swing-and-miss rate of 41.2% the worst. His batting average plummeted to .160, his OPS a paltry .638.

So when he became a free agent last winter, a process that for his Las Vegas friends Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant had secured $330 million and $182 million, respectively, over the past three years, Gallo settled on a one-year, $11 million contract in Minnesota and aimed for another try, hopefully with a turnaround year as a selling point.

"If he had had the season he had in 2021," when Gallo was selected to the AL All-Star team for a second time, "the conversation would have been very different for him as a free agent," Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey said. "So we recognize there's risk, certainly. … But motivation, too."

As the Twins enter their third week of spring training — obviously far too early to draw any conclusions — they are delighted with the motivated player they have found.

"It's exciting. It's exciting to see, knowing the potential of the player he's been — not just hypothetically, but as someone who has actually performed at an extremely high level," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He worked hard before he got to camp with [hitting coach David Popkins], and he's still one of the hardest workers out there."

Those winter workouts with Popkins in San Diego produced a rebuilt swing and a calmer approach at the plate, Gallo said, tools that remind him of when he was at his best, when he was hitting 81 homers in 2017-18. He lined a rocket over the right-field seats off Joe Ryan during a game-speed matchup on Saturday, then popped his first Grapefruit League homer of the spring off Detroit's Joey Wentz — a lefthander, notably — as part of a 3-for-3 day on Sunday.

But it's his two walks in five games that really have Gallo enthused, an indicator, he said, that his plate discipline is ready for the regular season.

"The walks are great. Carlos [Correa] was just in here saying, don't forget how important walks are. That's a big part of my game, walking," said Gallo, whose 111 walks led the AL in 2021. "It's always good to get results, but to me, I've been happier so far about my ability to swing at strikes, not chase [pitches], get my swings off. That's the more important thing."

It won't stop the booing he'll hear in New York. But if it leads to cheering at Target Field, Gallo will be satisfied.