SARASOTA, Fla. — Joey Gallo figured that the time would come this spring when he’d step into the batter’s box and still find a shift awaiting him to load the right side of the field — albeit in a different form, with an outfielder moving from left field to shallow right, to accommodate the new infield shift restrictions posed by MLB’s new rule changes.
His response to that? Bring it on.
“I don’t mind it much at all,” Gallo said prior to the Twins’ 5-5 tie with the Orioles Friday night at Ed Smith Stadium. “When I always didn’t like the shift, I didn’t really mind the fact that they were taking singles away. I minded the fact that they had seven guys in the outfield and I couldn’t hit a double or I couldn’t hit a triple or any ball hit to the outfield was an out. Now, they’re doing the opposite just to shift me, and there’s only two guys in the outfield.”
Now, in order for Gallo to take advantage of these new shift restrictions — or even the changed ones that he feels won’t be as big of a detriment to him — the key is for him to put the ball in play more often than he did last year, when his strikeout rate peaked at a career-high 39.8 percent. And in this regard, he’s not trying to reinvent the wheel; he’s more trying to get back to where he was when he was most successful.
So far this spring, following swing work with hitting coach David Popkins, Gallo feels a confidence that has eluded him for some time, he says, as he scuffled to a career-worst year with a .160 average and a .638 OPS across stints with the Yankees and Dodgers in ‘22.
“It’s just a feeling, a confidence at the plate, a swing and a setup that I feel like when I get in the box, I can have success with,” Gallo said. “I felt, last year, that I didn’t really have that confidence at the plate, just because I didn’t feel like my swing was where it needed to be. I was searching for it the whole year. For me now, when I’m at the plate, I think I can do damage every time. That’s how I know I’m in a pretty good spot.”
A key is in the adjustment he’s made to quiet the excess head movement that crept into his hitting last season, which could have contributed to his difficulties in making contact. He didn’t even notice it at the time, he said, but it’s obvious when he looks back at his old film.
“It’s definitely quieting things down and just not as much movement, especially with my head, my head movement,” Gallo said. “From that aspect, it’s hard to…
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