Dodgers-Joey Gallo trade gets downgraded once again as slugger lands with bottom-feeder

Joey Gallo was always a weird get for the Dodgers. After joining a long list of players hated in New York by hitting a meager .159/.291/.368 over 140 games with the Yankees, he was traded to the Dodgers in 2022, who sent prospect Clayton Beeter in return. Beeter is a No. 14 prospect in the Yankees' organization, with an expected landing in the majors this year, while Gallo is, well...

Dodgers fans know how Gallo's story in LA goes. After the trade, he got off to an okay start and even hit three home runs in his first few weeks with the team, leading some to wonder if a comeback could be possible, and if it was just the pressure of playing in New York in front of a very unforgiving fan base that had been weighing him down.

However, he finished the year with the Dodgers with a .162 batting average, just a few points better than he did with the Yankees, before the Dodgers let him go in free agency and he continued to struggle with the Twins in 2023. Now, Gallo seems to have found a new home with the Washington Nationals, who have fallen a long way since their 2019 World Series team and now seem to scraping the bottom of the barrel for left-handed hitters.

Dodgers-Joey Gallo trade once again proven to be terrible after Gallo signs with Nationals

To be fair, the Nationals are in the midst of a rebuild and do have a few young players to be excited about (including former top Dodgers prospects Keibert Ruiz and Josiah Gray), but it wouldn't be surprising if that sliver of optimism isn't enough for Nats fans to hang onto, given that they've come in dead last in the NL East for four years in a row now. The greatest members of their World Series-winning team — Trea Turner, Max Scherzer, Juan Soto — have all gone on to bigger and better things, and while they're trying to get fans excited about their young core, the sole name they've sign that has a little bit of a recognizable ring to it is a career .197 hitter.

Gallo can mash when he actually manages to connect with the ball (career .466 slugging), but his yearly batting average has only ever exceeded .250 one time in his nine-season career. The Dodgers trading for Gallo was always a strange decision, and the Twins signing him the next year was an even stranger one. The Nationals make a bit more sense, as they literally have nothing to lose and are lacking in power, but his one-year deal there only reinforces that the Dodgers made a bad choice bringing him to LA in 2022 (and they might come to regret surrendering Clayton Beeter later this year when he arrives in the Bronx).