Could Joey Gallo be turning it on at just the right time to either up his trade value or be some kind of net positive for the Yankees down the stretch?
After blasting a solo home run to dead center in Friday night’s win over the Orioles, Gallo has raised his July OPS to .814, well above league average and nearly 200 points higher than his .617 mark in June.
Gallo’s strikeout rate has also dropped from a dreadful 42.1 percent in June to 31.3 percent in July, the lowest monthly total of the season for the two-time All-Star. His walk rate in July is also a season-best 22.9 percent, as Gallo has seemingly gotten some of his plate discipline back that helped mask his high strikeout totals during his time with the Rangers.
Of course, Gallo has struggled so badly overall since coming over from Texas that one month shouldn’t inspire much hope that he could continue that type of production over the rest of the season or in the playoffs, but it is still an encouraging sign for the Yanks, who could either hope Gallo has finally begun to settle in, or capitalize on an opportunity to trade him elsewhere with recency bias on their side.
Potential trade partners could look at Gallo’s July and see that he is putting up a 135 wRC+ this month, or 35 percent above league average and nearly double his mark in June.
The cause of Gallo’s resurgent July? He isn’t taking the ball the other way like many want him to do, as his opposite field percentage this month is just nine percent, down from 30 percent in June, and he is pulling the ball nearly 64 percent of the time.
Yes, the .162 batting average is still tough to look at, but it always has been. On the brighter side, Gallo has started to show some of that production from Texas here in the month of July, and has walked nearly as many times as he has struck out this month (11 and 15, respectively). His pinstriped tenure is likely nearing an end, but Gallo is at least giving the Yanks some kind of production before the trade deadline.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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