Joey Gallo, Nationals agree to one-year deal
The Washington Nationals slugged just 151 home runs last season, the fewest in the National League. Seeking more power to fill that desperate need, the Nationals agreed to a one-year contract with slugger Joey Gallo, two people with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.
Gallo, an outfielder/first baseman who spent 2023 with the Minnesota Twins, has made a name for himself with majestic moonshots during a nine-year major league career: The 30-year-old has 198 home runs in 863 games. The knock on him is that he doesn’t connect consistently; he has a .197 career batting average, and he hit .177 with 21 homers in 111 games with the Twins and struck out 142 times.
Before Tuesday, the Nationals had signed just two players to major league deals during a glacially slow offseason across MLB. Washington added third baseman Nick Senzel and right-handed reliever Dylan Floro on one-year contracts in December. Now, Gallo joins them. His deal, still pending a physical, will pay him $5 million, and he could earn an additional $1 million in performance bonuses.
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At the winter meetings, Manager Dave Martinez said he hoped the Nationals would sign a left-handed-hitting outfielder. Gallo checks that box. Before they added Gallo, all of the outfielders on the Nationals’ 40-man roster were right-handed bats: Lane Thomas, Jacob Young, Victor Robles, Stone Garrett and Alex Call.
Gallo does offer more than power: He won back-to-back Gold Gloves with the Texas Rangers in 2020 and 2021 and can provide strong defense in left field.
A 2012 first-round draft pick, he spent his first 6½ seasons with Texas, where he twice was an all-star and hit .211 with 145 homers in 568 games. He was traded to the New York Yankees in July 2021; he hit .159 with 25 homers in 140 games over parts of two seasons in the Bronx. The Yankees dealt him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in August 2022, and he didn’t fare much better — he hit .162 with seven homers in 44 games before joining the Twins that offseason.
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All told, Gallo has hit at least 19 home runs every season since 2017 (excluding pandemic-shortened 2020). His best years power-wise were with Texas: He slugged 41 homers in 2017 and 40 in 2018.
Gallo’s hitting profile is far from what the Nationals’ roster as a whole looked like last year. Washington finished with the second-fewest strikeouts (1,149) in the majors but also the third-fewest walks (423). Gallo makes up for his lack of contact with strong plate discipline. His career on-base percentage is a respectable .323 despite his poor batting average. In 2021, he had 38 home runs and led the American League in strikeouts (213) and walks (111). Also, the Nationals had the second-lowest exit velocity (87.9 mph) in the majors in 2023. Gallo’s average exit velocity was 93.0 mph.
As the Nationals gradually work toward building a contender, they entered the offseason seeking players who could help the current roster while keeping an eye on players in the pipeline. Washington’s top two prospects — James Wood and Dylan Crews — are outfielders who ended 2023 at Class AA Harrisburg. It’s plausible they could make their major league debuts in 2024. So, too, could Robert Hassell III, another prospect who had a down season in 2023 but spent most of the year with Harrisburg.
If any of those young outfielders gets the call, Gallo could slide to first base, where he played 51 games a year ago, or designated hitter. And, as is the case with any player on a one-year deal, the Nationals could deal Gallo at the trade deadline. But, for now, he helps them fill a hole on the roster as spring training inches closer.
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