Grading Yankees’ transformative 2022 MLB trade deadline moves

Grading Yankees’ Joey Gallo Trade to Dodgers: A+, Depressing Necessity

The New York Yankees would surely have loved to keep Joey Gallo, the 40-homer All-Star they obtained at the 2021 trade deadline.

Unfortunately, the team never had control of that player to begin with.

Instead, the Yankees’ version of Gallo was a tragic .160 hitter whose time in the Bronx ended right around when he began to give interviews about how he had very little interest in showing his face in the streets of New York City. The Yankees were his childhood team. Suddenly, they needed to find an out clause for a down-and-out slugger.

Unfortunately, Gallo will not get the chance to recover somewhere with dimmed lights; he heads to Los Angeles in exchange for Dodgers right-hander Clayton Beeter, a top pick from 2020 who’s struck out 88 men in 51.2 innings while walking 35. Still, he ranks 15th in MLB Pipeline’s Dodgers list, and is about as strong a prospect as New York could’ve hoped to receive here in a deal that the whole world knew was going down.

Gallo’s fate in the Bronx was the worst-case scenario. His average dropped 60 points from where it needed to be for his brand of baseball to translate, and in turn, some fans made harassment of the 28-year-old into their entire brand. A swap with Milwaukee or Atlanta felt ideal. A Dodgers trade? The Yankees prioritized the return over Gallo’s comfort. That’s the business, yet again.