Joey Gallo acquired by Dodgers in exchange for Clayton Beeter
The Dodgers acquired left-handed bat Joey Gallo from the Yankees for Clayton Beeter.
The Los Angeles Dodgers took to social media to welcome Joey Gallo.
At the start of this year, Andrew Friedman, President of Baseball Operations for the Dodgers, said that he was impatient to trade for Yasiel Puig in January. Now that he’s part of their organization it looks like they have a real upside story.
The Dodgers came into the day aiming to trade for Juan Soto, but were thwarted by the Padres. The Dodgers are now pursuing another player.
With a .159 average, Jorge has had an historically bad season. He’s not been able to tap into his power, with a lowest ever exit velocity of 88.4 mph in 2018.
The outfielder led the Majors in strikeouts last year. Joey Gallo has nearly reached that same rate this year with a 38.8% strikeout rate, which ranks in the bottom one percent of players. This is a problem because his swing-and-miss rate has been known to be high.
Last July, the Dodgers brought Joey Gallo to the Big Apple on a 12.5 million deal, hoping that he would be able to return to his all-star status. He struggled throughout the season, but he eventually got into form and had an amazing second-half of the season.
“I think, obviously, he has elite power. He’s a good defender that has swing-and-miss tendencies in the outfield. With us for most of the season we’ve kind of been short in the outfield, so adding him is helpful to us”
How the Dodgers are going to figure out how Gallo can stay on the field is an interesting question. With Chris Taylor still injured, Joey Gallo will split his time between left field and right field, but because he only hits .102 against left-handed pitchers, there’s a good chance that he won’t see much court time this season.
When Taylor returns, Joey Gallo’s role will suffer. The Dodgers may have Taylor or Thompson play center field, and relegate a struggling Cody Bellinger to the outfield. James Outman, who is off to a historic start to his career, could struggle when Taylor returns.
They sent Jake Lamb to the Mariners in order to get rid of the player allocation problem.
The Dodgers have acquired Lamb, whose .770 OPS and two homers in 25 games indicate that the move is low-risk high-reward.
According to Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, the number of players has increased and it is challenging to find playing time for all of them. He asked Bellinger to take on this new opportunity with a fresh start.
Beeter has a 5.75 ERA and is a Double-A starter.
Related news,
Harrison Bader heads to the New York Yankees
Vin Scully, the famous Dodgers baseball broadcaster, died
Noah Syndergaard acquired by Phillies, Angels get former No. 1
Trey Mancini traded by Orioles to Astros in 3 team deal
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