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With regular third baseman Adrian Beltre headed to the disabled list with a sprained thumb, the Rangers have promoted top prospect Joey Gallo from Double-A to the majors. It’s an aggressive promotion, but it’s also a short-term one, as Gallo is expected to head back to the minors once Beltre is back. In case he manages to make an impression over the next two weeks, though, one that makes it hard to send him down, you should get to know him while he’s here.
The two key things to know about Gallo are that he can hit baseballs a very, very long way, and that he strikes out constantly. Gallo struck out almost 40 percent of the time in his introduction to Double-A pitching last year, and has cut that to just 34 percent in 2015. The thing is, though, that when he does make contact, he often gets a hit: Gallo’s batting average on balls in play is regularly higher than the average one, and while he won’t keep up this season’s ridiculous .453 pace, he also probably won’t strike out this much forever. Gallo is just 21, and he’s batting .314/.425/.636 with nine homers and 20 extra-base hits in just 34 games this season. He has time to cut down on the swings and misses.
The combination of power and whiffs is a rarity, in the sense that you don’t often see each at this level of extreme. When Adam Dunn came to the majors at 21, he was only striking out 20 percent of the time at Triple-A -- it wasn’t until he was in the majors that the whiffs became a nonstop, league-leading thing. Of course, strikeouts have risen in MLB since 2001, when Dunn debuted, but Gallo is still a curiosity. He’s also one of the game’s best prospects, and while the risk is obvious, so is the talent.
- We get that you’re excited, Royals fans, but maybe don’t stuff the digital MLB All-Star Game ballot boxes with Omar Infante and Alex Rios?
- Let’s pretend April didn’t happen. These are the MLB headlines you’d be reading at the start of June.
- The Phillies are willing to pay part of Cole Hamels’ contract in order to trade him, which is bad news for the Red Sox, who will now likely face an influx of competitors for his services.
- Speaking of Hamels, Ruben Amaro is still taking a ton of flak even though the Phillies appear to be headed in the right direction under him these days.
- Johan Santana does not regret his June 2012 no-hitter -- the first in Mets’ history! -- even while the assumption is that sticking out the entire nine-inning contest helped derail his career for good. It’s worth pointing out that he was actually fine performance-wise until he hurt his ankle in early July, though, setting off a cascade that he’s never fully recovered from.
- Rene Rivera slid into second on Monday. Or, at least, in the direction of second: he fell a few feet short of his goal.
- Ashley Stephenson is the face, voice, and heart of women’s baseball in Canada -- yes, baseball, not softball.
- Giancarlo Stanton needs a lesson in how to eat a KitKat.
- The Mets need to trade for some hitters to keep this season going, so what of these options?
- The Braves spent their offseason collecting new prospects for their rebuild, so how are those kids (and the rest) doing on the farm?
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