The New York Yankees may be done with their heavy lifting on
the free agent market but that does not mean the team is done improving their
roster at the big league level. If the free agent spending is done, and Yankees
GM Brian Cashman says it is unless the team can move some payroll around, which
leaves the team two options in order to improve. They can make trades, and
subsequently sign more free agents if they move money in those deals, or they
can simply continue building from within. One such name and arm that they could
build from within with is a name that a lot of people and fans may not know
now, but you should get to know him. His name is Giovanny Gallegos, learn the
name.
The 25-year old relief pitcher was added to the Yankees
40-man roster this winter making arms such as Nick Goody, who was traded to the
Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later or cash considerations,
expendable. The Yankees must be high on him but who is he?
Gallegos is another big-framed right-handed pitcher for the
Yankees standing at 6’2” that signed with the team out of Mexico in 2010.
Gallegos had a rough and rocky road to his career that included a knee injury
and a Tommy John surgery but has since found his niche as a reliever after
being moved there full time in 2015. Gallegos is the Yankees stereotypical low
ERA, low WHIP, high strikeouts and low walk type reliever they seem to be
pumping out in excess lately. Gallegos is a big command guy while surviving
with enough velocity and movement to be effective.
Gallegos is a former starting pitcher so he is not a
two-pitch pitcher like most relievers. Instead Gallegos has three off-speed
pitches alone that he uses at will against batters. That in itself is something
special. Gallegos has been nothing but dominant in the Yankees minor league
system and reached Triple-A in 2016 where he posted a 1.40 ERA and 0.84 WHIP
with a 5-1 record. Gallegos is a ground ball pitcher, which can only help
inside Yankee Stadium, and is poised to make a run at the final spot in the
Yankees bullpen a la Johnny Barbato in 2016. Stay tuned to see if he can do it.
This guy is the type I like in the BP as a change of pace with 4 workable pitches and good ground ball % and C&C. Put him in after a real 97/100 mph pitcher and he should be very effective set-up man. Could be a good addition to the BP anywhere they use him with a caveat of...let's us see how he does playing with the big guys!
ReplyDeleteHe's a very intriguing guy I wanna see how he turns out. I'm surprised we never heard of him much before this year and wonder how high he would be on a top prospect list. The depth in the system just keeps on adding and adding. I feel like we could trade a bunch of middle piece in the farm for a decent guy in the majors like a Jose Quintanna or Sonny Gray I don't wanna to break up the nucleus of Judge, Frazier, Bird, Torres, Didi, Sanchez. If we were to trade for a guy like him I'd be willing to part with sevy, mateo, or Rutherford. But probably not all three. Rutherford is very intriguing and i really like him and wanna see him up here in 2-3 years but u gotta give something to get something. I also if we aren't contending at the trade deadline, wanna trade Tanaka, clippard, Headley, betances and keep on stacking the prospects so we can make a huge trade and not really take a hit. But for right now we need everyone down there who's pretty good and I see a bigger trade happening next year after a lot of our players settle into place
ReplyDeleteTyler, you're right in that the Yankees need to continuously trade contracts before players walk, as this is our best chance to constantly add top talent.
DeleteTrading betances would hurt. But I'm confident in our ability to develop relievers!
I'm prospect hugging, I don't want to trade any of them. But I think I'm highest on sanchez, Frazier, torres, and rutherford. Unfortunately, Aaron judge, sevs, and bird, where I don't want to say "hurt" their trade value, but did more to hurt than strengthen their trade value.
BUT. If we are talking about trading Tanakas shit contract for prospects, then trading our prospects for Quintana, aren't we just better off re-signing Tanaka? I get Quintana is cheaper and controlled, but 4 top 100 prospects, including 2 top 25 vs just paying $ is sure as shit going to hurt.
Unless you do both, or at least try to do both.
Replacing Tanaka with Quintana by itself is silly, to me.