There’s little doubt that Rangers slugger Joey Gallo has drastically increased his career earnings outlook with a massive start to the current season. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News takes a look at the state of affairs on the extension front for baseball’s reigning three-true-outcomes king. The organization is obviously impressed, with manager Chris Woodward tabbing Gallo the club’s “best player” and GM Jon Daniels saying that he’s “mentally in a great spot.” Gallo says he’s not thinking about contracts, but agent Scott Boras surely is. As Grant notes, Boras’s assessment of Gallo’s season to date — “we are seeing the evolution of a superstar player” — offers a hint as to the kind of contract it might take to lock him up.
More from the American League West:
- Angels righty JC Ramirez is set to launch a rehab assignment later this week, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Ramirez underwent Tommy John surgery last April. With his 30-day rehab clock set to be triggered, Ramirez is now back on the map as a near-term roster piece for the Halos. The club owes him $1,901,000 this year, with two more arb campaigns remaining. Though he has had some struggles in his time in the majors, Ramirez has given the Halos 200 1/3 innings of 4.04 ERA ball and showed he could stick in the rotation in 2017.
- As ever, there are other updates to the Angels rotation mix. Nick Tropeano will beat Ramirez back to the big leagues; as Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets, Tropeano is coming up to pitch today’s ballgame. He was optioned after working back from a shoulder strain, and has been tagged in the run-happy PCL, but the innings are needed now. That’s due in no small part to the issues surrounding Matt Harvey, who just hit the injured list with a back strain after an awful stretch on the hill. Harvey didn’t have much of a timeline to offer reporters, as Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). With more to sort out than an injury, there’s no reason to think Harvey will be rushed back.
- For the Mariners, there are a few incremental health updates of note, as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports (all links to Twitter). Rehabbing relievers Sam Tuivailala and Hunter Strickland are still a ways off. The former, who is working back from Achilles surgery, has come down with dead arm and may need to re-start his rehab rather than heading back to the majors. The latter is readying for his first mound work since leaving with a lat injury earlier this year. Starter Felix Hernandez, who’s on the IL with a shoulder strain, is also nearing mound work. The club is still taking it slow with corner infielder Ryon Healy, who has yet to resume baseball activity after recently hitting the shelf due to a balky lower back. That’s a less promising outlook than had been indicated when he was first sidelined, but the club no doubt hopes to avoid a lingering problem.
- Athletics backstop Chris Herrmann is nearing a rehab assignment, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). Herrmann inked a one-year, $1MM deal over the offseason but hasn’t yet debuted with his new organization owing to knee surgery. It remains to be seen how the Oakland club will manage its roster once Herrmann is ready; Josh Phegley has hit well all year and Nick Hundley has turned it on after a dreadful start. It’s possible the A’s could ultimately carry all three, at least for a stretch, as Herrmann does have experience playing in other parts of the field.
- It still doesn’t seem the Astros have cause for alarm regarding righty Collin McHugh, but he’s not going to be ready to return within the minimum ten-day window. Manager A.J. Hinch tells reporters, including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link), that McHugh is in need of “a little more down time” to let his elbow stop barking. “He’s played catch a couple days and has not seen any progress,” says Hinch. “He’s not any closer than he was a few days ago.” McHugh has been a bit homer-prone, which explains his rough 6.04 ERA on the year, but otherwise has impressive peripherals. That he has been moved out of the rotation and into a relief role is testament to the depth of the talent on hand in Houston.
The article on Gallo…
He’s been great for two months. But for the author to propose signing him to a seven year deal seems a bit premature at this stage. He reminds me of Chris Davis. Not sure I’d say he’s worth $30M annually. If he keeps it up for a couple more years, sure. But not based off his hot start to this season.
Nowhere did the writer suggest signing Gallo to a 7 year deal.
Although Jeff Todd did not, the linked article from Evan Grant does hint at such an extension, from what I could tell before the paywall hit.
CursedRangers, totally agree with ya on this, Gotta wait and see how he hits in the new closed air stadium.
Gallo is Chris Davis part 2
I hope he’s not Chris Davis part 2. But it’s not time to give him a $30 mil/year contract either. If that’s the case we shoulda gone after Harper.
We got someone better than Harper. We got Hunter Pence.
I would resign pence
Freaking Boras. It’s only been 158 at-bats, Scotty. So damn predictable.
Every player (almost) has a home away split that favors home. That has been true of Gallo as well but it’s never been as pronounced as this year.
Career home .232/.358/.568/.927 – away .194/.304/.465/.769
2019 home .364/.479/.805/1.284 – away .198/.375/.494/.869
Also of note games H&A are identical (23) K’s Home 26 – Away 43. BABIP Home .442 – Away .313.
Dumpster diving Halos should have known better than to tell fans the additions of Harvey and Cahill would make them legit W.S. contenders. They needed to add legit ML free agents to fill the gap, not has beens.
I think next year given the money situation you are going to start to see the Angels actually spend.
The money situation? After arb raises/etc. the Angels will already be close to the luxury tax line (something Arte said he doesn’t want to pay) They won’t have much wiggle room until Pujols comes off the books.
Adding to the point made by “bigkempin” …Angels Est. Total Payroll w/ Options (Guaranteed + Options + Arb + Other) 2020 – $199.7M…. 2021 – $182.4M…. 2022 – $209.8M
baseball-reference.com/teams/ANA/los-angeles-angel…
Cat, did you even look at that page you referenced? The future payroll numbers are always going to be much higher than what actually happens. The Angels payroll going into next year with reasonable arb raises will be about $145M-$150M.
precision
Yes I did look….13 arb eligible players and another 7 needed to fill the roster…20 players (19 if Calhoun’s option is taken) so you are looking at either $3.5M -3.68M per. Doesn’t appear outlandish at all.
You’re suggesting that they can fill all of those spots for $1.75M-1.84M per.which is doubtful without cuts and dumpster diving.
That’s assuming all options are exercised and all pre-arb and arb players are kept, which never happens. BR also thinks their total value of arb cases will be $65.7 million. That’s a little high. They have too many arb eligible players with significant injury problems, and a LOT of pre-arb players to have such a high value, especially when they’re finally calling up their top prospects more and more. Tommy La Stella is the only arb eligible player I see the Angels giving a significant raise to. Bour will be gone. I don’t see them exercising Calhoun’s option. They have non-tender candidates coming up. Cot’s has them at $89 million under the luxury tax before arbitration and other benefits. They will have an enormous cushion play with again. And this time, they’ll have more top prospects in the big leagues, which gives them even more room to supplement where they need to. They will have a lot more options to go with than they did a couple years ago.
“That’s assuming all options are exercised and all pre-arb and arb players are kept, which never happens.”
There is only one option and if that is exercised that still leaves 19 players needed. You won’t fill 19-20 positions with MiLB call-ups.
Between arb raises and new signings, which will be a must, it’s not hard to see an average of $3.5M. per player. That is a drop in the bucket these days.
They never said they were legit W.S. contenders. They said they were ‘comfortable with the roster they had’, which is code for ‘we know we’re not quite there yet, and we have more work to do’. They did make offers to top starters who signed elsewhere. But at the same time, an arm like Patrick Corbin is no less of a risk considering he has quite an injury history himself. They’re better off skipping any long term commitments right now while they get their farm system ready.
nobody did except the little one in your head.
Colin McHugh? More like Colin McPeeyou..
Good news about the Angels. They are looking more and more like a solid 3rd place team.
Over or Under 20 games come Allstar break?
Under and do you wanna put up some money on that?
I agree with you Rez. I see them between 16 – 18 games out come AS break.
I had no idea that Gallo was performing at such a high level. Obviously I’d be worried that he would turn into late career Chris Davis. Although Davis did have a decent prime.
Look at his splits I posted above. I have never seen such a huge divide, plus his BABIP is but sustainable, at home or away. Regression is coming soon and he will return to his norms.
All y’all realize Joey Gallo can run and defend right?? He’s playing CF and hitting big flies. He isn’t a lumbering 1B
Then I hope the Rangers give him $30MM/ AAV for the next 8 years.
SuperSinker
Yep I realize it and I realize that the massive splits he has so far and the .442/.313 H/A BABIP split are not sustainable.
Texas has no need to worry about Gallo at this time,but, we have a new stadium opening in 2020 and we are in need of a number one and number two starter, Then they can lock up a hitter,We have never had hitting issues in Texas,We lead in runs per game to date and top 10 or top 5 in all batting stats as of date, Texas also needs another stud like Josh Hamilton to root for and Joey is not that player, he has no consistency, it’s hit or miss like Ian Kinsler was and Rougned Odor. We have 80% of our players as free agents come year end.Lets see what John Daniels is gonna do with this.
Gallo is not a free agent till 2023
How can Scott Boras call Joey Gallo a superstar when he’s hitting .190 on the road. It’s unbelievable it keeps getting better with this guy.