Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes explains reason for Joey Gallo trade

As of Wednesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers are undefeated since acquiring Joey Gallo at the trade deadline. The team that ditched him, the New York Yankees, are 1-5. Makes you wonder. The Yankees could be cursed. Don’t forget about Andrew Heaney’s success, too!

All kidding aside, some fans rightfully questioned Gallo’s arrival, especially for No. 15 prospect Clayton Beeter. Gallo quite literally put forth the worst 500 at-bat showing in Yankees history (at least for a starting player) over the course of the last year. He hit .159 with a .660 OPS and 85 OPS+. He recorded just 46 RBI despite 25 homers! Absolutely inexplicable.

Not much has changed since joining the Dodgers, though. Fans gave him the condescending pats on the back when he logged his first hit and then singled off a position player … because that’s pretty much how Gallo is viewed in the larger baseball picture at the moment.

Across five games, he’s 3-for-14 with eight strikeouts and zero walks. Nobody’s expecting an overnight turnaround from the troubled slugger, but with so little time between now and the postseason, what was the Dodgers’ reasoning here?

Like with Heaney, it appears LA’s front office might’ve spotted something the Yankees didn’t. Hey, Gallo did notch his first extra-base hit for the Dodgers on Tuesday night (his first since July 22)!

What was the Dodgers’ reasoning for trading for Joey Gallo at the deadline?

Here’s what general manager Brandon Gomes said on MLB Network this week when explaining the Gallo deal:

“We still see some of the under-the-hood stuff that is encouraging. We feel like getting him with our hitting group will tap into some of what made him an All-Star in previous years. On top of that, it’s a really strong defensive profile, so it’s a little bit of betting on the future in our hitting department and we feel like it’s a nice complement with the rest of our group.”“We don’t feel like the true talent level has changed. Then you start to look into some of the mechanical differences and it’s like ‘OK, we see some low hanging fruit that we can go and attack.'”

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman added plenty of commentary as well, further echoing Gallo’s upside and the fact that he was traded for quite a haul of prospects just a year ago. We’ll see, though. Dodgers fans are certainly a bit more forgiving than Yankees fans, but Gallo’s bleak production can bring out the worst in any fan. He already failed spectacularly in the AL’s best offense. Will re-growing his beard help him in the NL’s best offense?

Depends how long the “under-the-hood” search takes for the Dodgers. Gonna need multiple high-end mechanics to solve this one.

Andrew Heaney homers, Joey Gallo Curse prove Dodgers own Yankees

The New York Yankees have watched Andrew Heaney transform in Los Angeles, as well as Joey Gallo curse them from the Dodgers roster.