Cleveland Indians: Joey Gallo as potential trade target

With the Cleveland Indians in contention, fans can’t ignore 2021 trade talk with an eye on upgrading the roster.

Yesterday, the name of Mariners’ outfielder Mitch Haniger was floated, but a new name has popped up: Joey Gallo.

The Texas Rangers slugger was suggested by CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa, who wrote that he could see teams who favor analytics, such as the Rays, White Sox and Cleveland being interested in the slugger.

Gallo is the definition of modern baseball’s fixation on launch angle and exit velocity. He’s a lifetime .208 hitter, but has posted an .818 OPS, which is good. He’s hit 122 home runs since becoming a regular with Texas in 2017. He has 127 total, dating back to his debut in 2015.

And he strikes out, a lot. He currently leads MLB, with 77 punch outs. The last time he played close to a full season in 2018, when he played 148 games, he struck out an outstanding 207 times. He also cracked 40 bombs and hit 24 doubles.

Interestingly, Gallo’s only All-Star nod came in 2019, when he hit a career high .253. He had never hit above .209 in any other campaign. He hit 22 homers, only playing 70 games.

Now, the most important thing to consider when talking about a Gallo trade: Money. He’s due $6.2 million this season. The Indians would be on the hook for less than half that sum, assuming they pick him up after the trade deadline.

That said, he enters the final year of arbitration after the season and he’ll likely get a raise. I don’t think the Indians would be interested in paying him $10 million next season.

If they do add him, the team will have temporarily addressed the problem at first base. He’ll either strikeout or hit a homer, but his defense should be sound. Gallo won his first Gold Glove in the truncated 2020 campaign.

The Indians and Rangers have some recent history, with the Tribe trading Corey Kluber to Texas for for Delino DeShields and Emmanuel Clase.