In his three best full seasons in the majors, Joey Gallo averaged 40 home runs, 87 walks and 205 strikeouts while barely batting above .200.
That's the type of hitter the Twins hope they are getting for $11 million in 2023, which should tell you plenty about their thinking already: Bosses Derek Falvey and Thad Levine still revere the home run and on-base potential as much larger pluses than the downsides of striking out and having a lot of completely empty trips to the plate.
Gallo at his best is a feast-or-famine hitter, and the Twins' acquisition of Gallo late last week is a feast-or-famine move — not just for the nature of the best of Gallo, but also for the worst version of him that we saw in 2022.
Splitting time between the Yankees and Dodgers — two high-rolling contenders who clearly saw value in Gallo — the 29-year-old outfielder hit just .160 and struck out in almost 40% of his plate appearances. If the Twins get that version of Gallo, they're going to look like fools.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a wilder swing, which makes this Twins offseason so far equal parts underwhelming and hard to quantify — something Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday's Daily Delivery podcast.
The Twins missed out on Carlos Correa, though Reusse was never convinced retaining Correa was a realistic proposition.
They signed Christian Vazquez to solidify their catching depth chart and added the left-handed hitting Gallo to a cadre of outfielders who hit from that side.
