Deadline Coverage: Gallo Trade Creates Playing Time Questions

The Yankees acquired much-needed outfield by adding Joey Gallo and trading away some better than slap-dick prospects.

There are some obvious players gaining and losing value, but there is some murkiness that should clear up by the end of the weekend. As of now, here is who I see as the players gaining and losing values in the trade.

Note: The following players are ranked from most redraft fantasy value added to the most lost.

Up

Joey Gallo

The Yankees needed at least one outfield replacement since they’ve been rolling out the likes of Estevan Florial, Greg Allen, Brett Gardner, and Ryan LaMarre. And they have been the replacements in the last two games. For the season, Gallo is hitting .223/.379/.490 with 25 HR and 6 SB. This is what has always been expected from Gallo. His 162 game average is .211/.336/.497 with 41 HR and 7 SB. With the Yankees dealing with several injuries (e.g. Aaron Judge and Luke Voit), Gallo should slot into the top of the lineup dropping down either Gleyber Torres (.678 OPS) or Rougned Odor (.757 OPS).

Based on team context, his Runs and RBI totals might not go up that much. While the Rangers have been the worst team in the American League at scoring runs (3.83 R/G), the Yankees have been the next worst (4.15 R/G). When the Royals and Orioles have outscored the Yankees, something needs to change.

The biggest gain for Gallo will be that 314 feet right-field corner. While he does spread the ball around some, he definitely has a propensity to pull the ball.

Baseball Savant projects that he would have hit four extra homers had he played in Yankee Stadium all season.

Spencer Patton

Patton has been good this season with a 3.18 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, and 12.7 K/9. With Joely Rodríguez on the Yankees and a possible Ian Kennedy trade, Patton looks to be next in line for Saves in Texas.

Texas Outfielders

While Adolis García and Gallo were locked into playing every day, the Rangers were cycling in one of David Dahl, Eli White, and Jason Martin into the last outfield spot. While the three will get more playing time opportunities, they’ve each been unproductive this season.

Texas Outfield Options
Name PA HR SB BA OBP SLG
Eli White 207 6 3 .183 .266 .323
David Dahl 213 4 2 .217 .255 .333
Jason Martin 57 1 2 .137 .228 .196

If there was one of the three I’d gamble on, it is Elie White since he hits second against lefties and was decent enough in AAA (.343/.450/.537) to make my Voit-Muncy All-Stars.

Same/Unknown/Irrelevant

Prospects Ezequiel Duran, Josh Smith, Trevor Hauver, Glenn Otto, Cooper Hummel, and Alberto Ciprian

All are not in play for the 2021 season and I don’t cover prospects enough to know if their dynasty value has changed.

Down

Greg Allen

All the scrub Yankee outfielders could lose playing time, but Allen is most fantasy-relevant since he can steal a few bases (five in 40 PA this season). Allen has been hitting (.300/.450/.500) so he might stay in the lineup a little longer than the others. Major regression is likely coming since he’s only been able to hit .242/.308/.351 so far in his career.

Joely Rodríguez

Even though Rodríguez has a 5.93 ERA, he’s been a bit unlucky (3.26 xFIP, 3.21 SIERA). He could have been in line for Saves with a possible trade of Ian Kennedy in a few days. Now, he’s just another arm in the bullpen.





Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jason Bmember
2 years ago

How did he hit a triple to straightaway CF? I’m sure it was a dive, miss, and roll to the wall, but I prefer to think of it as hitting the CF on the head and knocking him out cold. Baseball needs more flyballs to the head – it was, and is, baseball comedy gold, but we need to diversify beyond Jose Canseco.

Jason Bmember
2 years ago
Reply to  Jason B

To add: it needs more cars on the field and unexpected tiger attacks – those have been rarely seen outside of Naked Gun.

Jason Bmember
2 years ago
Reply to  Jason B

Also to add: I have nothing cogent to add to the trade discussion.

Anon
2 years ago
Reply to  Jason B

No dive and miss, but Springer got caught in between trying to make a play on it and pull up and play it on a hop and it skipped under his glove all the way to the wall:

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=fe038c84-6b61-42dd-aedd-e349680734a6