Editors Note: This is the latest player profile in our 40-man breakdown series that we have started here at the Nats Report. Check our other player profiles.

Joey Gallo

• Position: Third base, first base, anywhere in the outfield, designated hitter
• Current status: Signed through 2024
• How acquired: Signed as a free agent (1 year/$5 million), 1/27/2024
• 2023 Grade: C
• 2024 Opening Day Projection: Starting first baseman and possible cleanup hitter
• 2023 stats: 111 G, .177/.301/.440, 9 2B, 1 3B, 21 HR, 40 RBI, 101 OPS+, .320 wOBA, 104 wRC+, 0.5 bWAR/0.7 fWAR

2023 Analysis

Baseball’s quintessential three-true-outcomes hitter (63.6% of his plate appearances ended in a walk, strikeout, or home run, far and away the highest in the sport for anyone with 300 or more PA) had what was for him a torrid April (.236/.354/.709 with 7 bolts)…and cratered thereafter, only getting double-digit hits in one other month (May) while whiffing 120 times over the remainder of the season. It was the ur-Gallo experience, except that the (deserving) three-time Gold Glove winner - adept at all four corner spots and capable of handling center field if necessary - had his worst season with the leather per Fangraphs, costing the Twins 6.5 runs overall. That fall-off is worrisome for a guy who turned 30 in April and has a violent swing from a big body (6’5”, 249). Perhaps the nagging injuries that have plagued him for the last three years are catching up with him and his particular style of play.

2024 outlook

Look, Gallo is going to be frustrating for most fans to watch most of the time, but some of the time he is going to do things to a baseball that only a handful of people can match. He has not struck out less than a third of the time as a professional since he was a 20-year-old in High-A blasting an eye-popping 21 majestic bombs in just 246 plate appearances; that’s a 60-homer pace over a full major league season. But last year’s 42.8% K rate was high even for him. He will probably add a few red seats to the third deck in right field, walk two or three times a week, and whiff a ton. If the dingers come at least as often as usual (roughly a quarter of his fly balls leave the yard, a rate only Kyle Schwarber can match), Mike Rizzo may be able to flip Gallo for a lottery ticket in late July. Otherwise, barring injury, he will probably get about 400-450 trips to the plate this year, sitting against most lefties and being deployed defensively wherever needed (first base, otherwise occupied by indifferent fielder Joey Meneses, is the most likely spot, but that would also waste Gallo’s cannon arm). He will hold down the fort until such time as the promotions of the top three hitting prospects (all of which may come this season) render him superfluous to operations, at which point fans can quit grinding their teeth to sawdust every time he fans at a slider with two on and two out. Accept the strikeouts and celebrate the titanic nukes when they happen.