Speaking with Lindsey Adler of The Athletic on Thursday, Joey Gallo seemed like a struggling player who was very aware that his tenure in New York was a failed one, and likely nearing an end.
“It’s something I’m gonna have to really live with for the rest of my life,” Gallo told Adler. “It’s going to be tough. I didn’t play well, I didn’t live up to expectations. And that’s a tough pill to swallow.
“Every time I see a Yankees hat, every time I see a Yankees jersey, it’s something I’m going to have to understand. I didn’t play well as a Yankee. I wish I had.”
Gallo went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in Thursday’s win over the Royals, potentially one of his final games in pinstripes now that the Bombers have acquired fellow outfielder Andrew Benintendi, and have reportedly been searching for a trade suitor for Gallo, a pending free agent.
Gallo’s hitless night dropped his batting average to .159 on the season, even as July had been his best month of the season. Overall as a Yankee, the two-time All-Star hit .159 with a .660 OPS, nearly 200 points lower than his seven years with the Rangers.
“When I see my numbers, I feel like I’ve played better than that,” Gallo said. “There are a couple of things mechanically that I think I could have been better about monitoring. Baseball is a weird game. You can be doing something slightly wrong, and in baseball you just start doing it every day, and it starts to become a habit you don’t notice. I just feel like something here got out of rhythm, out of whack.”
Gallo heard plenty of boos from the home fans during his time in pinstripes, as fans grew frustrated with his bloated strikeout totals and lack of power. Gallo heard all of it, and wishes it could have gone differently. But now, he seems to be acknowledging that there likely won’t be an opportunity to change that.
“This is a tough place to not play well,” Gallo said. “It’s hard to deal with, and at the end of the day, you want to make fans happy and proud…It doesn’t make you feel good about yourself. But that’s something I needed to learn, and I see it as part of growing for me as a person and as a player.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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