Why the Texas Rangers should (or shouldn’t) extend All-Star Joey Gallo this spring

This story is a first in a series of position previews leading to Texas Rangers spring training. The first workout for pitchers and catchers is Feb. 18, and the first full-squad workout is Feb. 22.

The building-for-the-future Texas Rangers have much to determine in 2021, beginning with who they will want around in 2022, 2023 and beyond.

The players who debuted last season, like Leody Taveras and Sam Huff, are on their way to the beyond. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Willie Calhoun, Nick Solak, Nate Lowe, Jose Trevino and pile of pitchers should make the cut for next season.

Joey Gallo should be around, too, though the right fielder’s name surfaced at the trade deadline last season. The Rangers are still willing to listen to what other clubs might want to give up for one of the game’s best power hitters who just happens to be a Gold Glove winner.

Gallo, however, doesn’t want to leave.

He wants to sign a contract extension. He isn’t afraid of the rebuild. He wants to lead the Rangers from the American League basement to the World Series, as Michael Young did more than a decade ago.

As players start to pack for spring training, with the first full-squad workout scheduled for Feb. 22, the Rangers are confident that Gallo will perform more like the player he was in 2019, when he was an American League All-Star, than the .181 hitter he was in the abbreviated 2020 season.

Spring training, it turns out, historically has been the timeframe when president of business operations Jon Daniels has hammered out contract extensions.

And it’s not like everyone is going to be out partying in Phoenix Metro this spring, with COVID-19 again limiting what everyone with on-field access is allowed to do.

Both sides might as well explore if they have a future beyond Gallo’s final two seasons of salary arbitration.

“We’re at a difficult point right now,” Gallo said. “I’ve got two years left. We’re considered to be rebuilding. It’s a difficult point in the organization. We’ll see what happens, but I’ve been here my whole career. It’s definitely someplace I’d like to stay.”

Pros

Gallo showed in 2019 that he can be one of the best players in baseball. Seriously.

The season he and the Rangers had been waiting for was interrupted by an oblique injury and then cut short by a broken hamate bone, but what he did in 70 games was All-Star worthy.

He strayed last season from the approach that had been working for him. Gallo is at his best when he’s thinking of crushing baseballs. While fans whine and moan when he doesn’t hit the ball the other way to beat an infield shift and cheer when he does, the other team cheers, too.

“I’m trying to get back to where I was in 2019,” Gallo said. “Last year, I thought about the ballpark too much. I thought about 60 games, I’ve got to do this and that. For me, I have to be true to my roots, and that’s to drive the ball and be a power hitter and not be something that I’m not.”

Gallo is going to strike out a lot. He’s going to hit balls into the teeth of defensive shifts. He’s also going to hit balls over everybody, maybe 40 times a season as he did in 2017 and 2018.

His career 162-game averages show that he is good for 41 homers and a .825 OPS.

The Rangers don’t have anyone like him, and no one in the minors even close to being a suitable replacement. Brayan Lora has yet to play as a professional and is only 17. Steele Walker will be in big-league camp, but will never hit for power as Gallo has displayed.

Gallo wants to be part of the rebuild. He wants to take the lumps and show younger players how to deal with them. At 27, Gallo isn’t exactly old, but he’s one of the team’s veterans now and has said he wants to be the face of the franchise.

That seems admirable with the team at its lowest point since 2007.

“I’m going to do my best to be a leader on this team,” Gallo said. “I know it’s a lot of young guys, and I’m excited for that opportunity.”

Speaking of low points, his value might be as low as it’s going to get. And, as of Saturday, the Rangers now have a little extra cash to throw around starting next season.

Cons

The 2019 season was great, albeit short and a one-off experience. When the Rangers say 2020 was a fluke, the fluke looks like 2019.

While Gallo has shown an improved foundation for hitting, he still doesn’t hit. Yes, he walks more. Yes, he hits balls with elite exit velocity that well-positioned fielders still gobble up for outs.

His career 162-game averages show that he is a .208 hitter with .327 on-base percentage. Those numbers dip in some clutch situations.

Another potential roadblock? Gallo’s agent, Scott Boras, has a reputation for taking his clients to free agency. There’s not a lot of money in the game right now, so the owners say, following a season with no fans because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There have been a lot of unknowns, a lot of questions around the game right now — both Rangers-specific as well as in general,” Daniels said. “We haven’t been active in long-term free agency and we’ve elected to get more answers on some of those bigger items before engaging financially in some of those contract items.”

The Rangers potentially could find a more consistently productive hitter with money earmarked for a possible Gallo extension. They could also trade Gallo, who would likely produce a couple quality prospects.

The Rangers are rebuilding, and they ran into trouble in the first place once they depleted their farm system via trades to bolster rosters for the playoffs. Depth is key to any farm system, and a Gallo trade would help with that.

They are expected to be in a position to again sell at the trade deadline.

“We touched on it at the trade deadline last year,” Daniels said. “I think the way we addressed it was that we still view all of our options are still available to us, which could be playing things out, could be a contract extension or could be a trade. Nothing’s really changed in that regard.”

What to do?

The Rangers need as many quality young players as they can get. If they believe Gallo is a quality young player, as they say he is, they need to keep him.

While they appear to pinching pennies, both because they are rebuilding and because of the financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, they might now have to break the bank.

Offer Gallo a short-term extension. Buy out his final year of arbitration and two years of free agency, with a club option or two. Give him somewhere between Rougned Odor money ($12 million per year) and Khris Davis money ($16.75 million per year), as both of those salaries come off the books shortly.

That’s not a ton of risk, and it allows Gallo to become a free agent again at a relatively young age and possibly with better numbers.

Gallo wants to be treated fairly. He has moved to Dallas and said he considers himself a Texan now. He wants to stay put.

Make it happen.

“I think it’s a misconception where people think I’m sitting here saying, no, I don’t want any part of an extension,” Gallo said. “I would be more than happy to listen and work something out.”