Yankees land slugger Joey Gallo in trade with Rangers

The New York Yankees have acquired Texas Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo in a trade, the teams announced Thursday.

The Rangers, who have the worst record in the American League, are receiving a haul of prospects: pitcher Glenn Otto, INF Ezequiel Duran, INF Josh Smith and INF Trevor Hauver. New York also received pitcher Joely Rodriguez from Texas.

The Yankees are in desperate need of a left-handed bat, and Gallo can certainly fill that void, especially with Yankee Stadium's short right field porch.

The Yankees have only 22 home runs from their left-handed batters in 2021 and rank last in the majors in batting average.

This season, the 27-year-old Gallo is batting .223 with 25 home runs and 55 RBI, with an OPS of .869, but has three hits in his last 34 at-bats. He was not in the lineup for Wednesday night's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Joey Gallo swings for the fences, but is eliminated in the first round.
Joey Gallo swings for the fences, but is eliminated in the first round.

Gallo leads the major leagues with 74 walks, but has also struck out 125 times, the third most in baseball.

The Yankees began the night 8.5 games back of the Boston Red Sox in the American League East and could make more moves before the 4 p.m. ET trading deadline on Friday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joey Gallo: Yankees set to acquire outfielder from Texas Rangers