Joey Gallo’s finest baseball is forward of him… that is proper I stated it!

I’m right here to make a case for a Joey Gallo turnaround.

Gallo, in a season to overlook, was shipped from one World Sequence favourite (the Yankees) — the place he carried out brutally and was mercilessly booed every time he struck out — to a different on the other coast (the Dodgers).

Maybe the Dodgers — just like the Rays, Brewers, and Padres, who had been reportedly within the outfielder on the commerce deadline — thought they might repair him, or on the very least present a change of surroundings for the slugger in hopes his prodigious energy returns.

In any case, Gallo slashed .159/.282/.339 within the Bronx, together with batting .085 in his remaining 29 video games in pinstripes. His lefty energy, which was speculated to lead to him ceaselessly depositing balls over Yankee Stadium’s brief porch in proper, was virtually non-existent. In truth, solely 4 of his 12 spherical trippers got here at residence.

His stroll price was down; his strikeout price up. Possibly there’s one thing within the analytics to counsel that he’ll get higher, regardless of not producing in a lineup that has been the highest-scoring crew in baseball.

However right here’s the true cause he’ll enhance — name it the Dodger Impact.

The Dodgers are the Yankees of the West, although they’ve extra just lately appeared in three World Sequence over the previous 5 years, successful one within the COVID-shortened 2020 season. They’re excessive profile, in an enormous market. Gallo couldn’t hack it underneath the brilliant lights of New York, New York. However what about laid-back La La Land the place the followers’ biggest motivating issue is thrashing visitors?

There’s a cause for hope in different struggling gamers blossoming as soon as they placed on Dodger blue, also referred to as Pantone 294. Look no additional than Chris Taylor, Justin Turner, and Max Muncy. 

Do you bear in mind Turner’s Mets tenure? Or how Taylor wasted away in Seattle earlier than a commerce despatched him to SoCal? What about Max Muncy’s time with the penny-pinching A’s?

How would you describe their pre-Dodger careers? Ugly. Disappointing. Lackluster.

What about after? They’ve turn into All-Stars and earned rings.

Taylor went from slashing .240/.296/.296 in three years with the hapless Mariners to .261/.339/.453 in his seven since. He hit a complete of zero dingers with Seattle. ZERO. He’s slugged 85 since.

Turner, a key cog throughout L.A.’s playoff runs, was a .265 hitter with eight homers throughout his 4 years in Flushing. And that was in 814 at-bats. Now he’s a profession .295 hitter with the Dodgers, having clubbed 151 lengthy balls, hitting a career-high of 27 3 times. Within the playoffs, Turner has hit 13 spherical trippers, knocked in 42, and scored 43 runs in 82 video games.

The Dodgers altered Turner’s swing by including a leg kick. With Taylor, it was an entire overhaul that included shifting the barrel and a leg kick. With Muncy, a bit of fine-tuning with a bend and a leg kick. Regardless of the case, the Dodgers knew the way to repair them.

Muncy went from a complete of 5 HRs in two years in Oakland to smashing 35 in every of his first two seasons in L.A. He’s as much as 128 for his profession.

Gallo is a little bit of a distinct story. Earlier than his commerce to N.Y., Pico De Gallo was a two-time All-Star, who had hit 145 residence runs throughout 568 video games with the Rangers. His season excessive was 41 in 2017, and he adopted that up with 40 a yr later.

However his Yankee tenure was his lowest of lows. Although he grew up a Yankee fan, he was amongst a gaggle that simply can’t appear to deal with the Bronx — a hitter’s model of Ed Whitson, Hideki Irabu, Sonny Grey, A.J. Burnett, and many others.

“I believe it’s a product of the tradition we have now round right here, the setting. The way in which everyone seems to be handled,” Turner instructed Bleacher Report after Muncy’s rise to stardom.

Possibly with much less of a microscope on him, Gallo might get his groove again.

Getting Gallo is way from the splash that the Padres made by buying Juan Soto (and Josh Bell), however he might be one of the essential gamers come playoff time.

We’ve seen it occur earlier than in L.A. We might definitely see it once more. Who doesn’t love a great Hollywood ending?