After 'searching for it' in '22, Gallo believes he's found it

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.”

• Gallo believes new rules will create excitement, draw in fans

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 have your head moving all over the place and still hit with these pitchers nowadays. It's almost impossible. It's about quieting it down and being able to get my ‘A’ swing off almost every time I commit to swinging the bat.”

That can couple with drills on the back side of his swing, one-handed drills, machine drills and other work he’s doing with Popkins as they experiment with different combinations of work in the hopes of finding what will click with Gallo. After an offseason of FaceTiming every day and early arrival in Spring Training for targeted work, the slugger hopes that he has already found a balance that works well for him.

“There is a blueprint in a sense of where we've seen him be the most successful, and for him, what feels good,” Popkins said during the offseason. “But year to year, movements change. There's going to be little alterations you can do to make someone swing a little faster, quicker or be a little shorter.”

It’s a small sample size so far (and with the caveat that it’s Spring Training), but Gallo has reached safely in six of the seven games in which he’s seen action, with the same amount of walks as strikeouts (three) in 13 plate appearances.

Gallo isn’t far removed from an All-Star 2021 season in which he hit 38 homers, got on base at a .351 clip and won a Gold Glove Award -- and he already feels closer to that.

“I think he's built, already, a really good foundation with Pop on the hitting side,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I'm looking forward to seeing where all this goes, but he's been very impressive and I think he has the right way about him to contribute here in a big way.”