Slugger Joey Gallo has taken a new route to the basepaths this season.
Entering Wednesday, Gallo led the American League in walks and ranked eighth in the Majors in on-base percentage at .439 -- but with only two home runs. He has openly talked since Spring Training about changing his mentality at the plate, as his plate discipline has drastically improved year-over-year, regardless of his lack of homers.
“It's just tough, I think, as a hitter to not hit much,” Gallo said on Zoom on Wednesday. “Obviously, you want to hit the ball, and we worked on hitting the ball so much, and as a little kid, you just want to hit when you hold a bat in your hand. You have to be OK with taking your walks, and I've always valued walks highly.”
Gallo has been the prototypical power hitter in the past, but his homer in Tuesday’s win against Angels came after a 20-game stretch without one. The thump, however, still registered as the long ball was his 14th with a 114-mph-plus exit velocity (114.3) in the Statcast era (since 2015, including the playoffs).
Gallo joked during a postgame interview with Bally Sports Southwest that it had been so long since his last homer that he didn't know how to react.
One would think that Tuesday night’s breakthrough would lead to a sigh of relief for Gallo, but it’s not something he was too focused on.
Gallo has emphasized multiple times he’s not worried about the lack of home runs at this point in the season, though he would like a few more extra-base hits with 15 of his 17 knocks being singles.
“It was nice to hit a home run, obviously,” Gallo said. “I didn't really care that much because I felt like I was finding a lot of other ways to help the team win, and I knew home runs were gonna come. It wasn’t like I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can't hit home runs anymore.’ I just really haven't put the bat on the ball like that, and haven't got many pitches to do it with. I was just doing what I could every day to help the team win.”
Despite that, his .236 batting average is lower than he would like, and he was also disappointed in some of his strikeouts when the Rangers were swept in Chicago last week.
Manager Chris Woodward said he’d like to see Gallo be a bit more aggressive in the coming weeks, especially after he got called for third strikes on 3-2 counts multiple times in the White Sox series. Many of the called strikes were right on the edge of the strike zone that could have gone either way.
Gallo says that’s the price to pay for his patience at the plate.
“You want to think about getting a pitch in the zone and hammering it, and that's what I have to really keep thinking,” Gallo explained. “I feel like I have missed a few opportunities in the last couple of weeks that I did get a pitch to hit and I missed it by maybe being a little too passive. But, like I said, I think walks are a huge part of the game, and especially for a player like me, so I'm OK with it.”
“That sounds kind of funny, but he's so good at his decision-making at the plate that I don't mind if he chases a few times,” Woodward added. “If it allows him to do more damage at times, especially in those 3-2 counts or 3-1 counts. ... I think he's done such a good job of being stubborn in the strike zone.”