The Twins have signed veteran right-hander Giovanny Gallegos to a minor league deal, per a membership announcement. Gallegos has been assigned to Triple-A.
The veteran righty, 33 subsequent week, started his large league profession with the Yankees again in 2017. Gallegos made simply 20 appearances with New York earlier than being dealt to the Cardinals partway by means of the 2018 season within the deal that despatched Luke Voit to the Bronx. Gallegos made simply two appearances in St. Louis down the stretch with 1 1/3 scoreless frames however emerged as a key piece of the Cardinals bullpen the next yr.
From 2019 to 2022, Gallegos pitched to a sterling 2.84 ERA with a virtually matching 2.83 FIP with 33 saves in 228 1/3 innings of labor with an eye-popping 32% strikeout price. That four-season stretch noticed Gallegos emerge as one of the vital dominant relievers within the recreation: amongst relievers with not less than 150 innings of labor in that stretch, the righty’s ERA and FIP each ranked eighth whereas his strikeout price ranked Eleventh and his SIERA ranked tenth. As spectacular as these numbers have been, issues took a flip for the more serious throughout the right-hander’s age-31 season final yr.
Gallegos’s ERA and FIP ballooned to 4.42 and 4.36 respectively in 2022, figures that have been really barely beneath common by measure of ERA- and FIP-. These middling run prevention numbers have been brought on by two important elements: the right-hander’s strikeout price plummeted to simply 25.8% after sitting properly above 30% for his complete Cardinals tenure to that time, and his residence run price skyrocketed. After permitting residence runs on simply 8.6% of fly balls from 2019 to 2021, the 2022 season noticed that quantity shoot as much as a whopping 15.3%. Simply ten certified relievers allowed extra residence runs than Gallegos’s 11 final yr, and the mix of diminished strikeout capability and difficulties maintaining the ball within the park gave the veteran the look of a pedestrian center reliever fairly than the shutdown leverage arm he had been in years previous.
Gallegos ended his 2023 season on the IL resulting from rotator cuff tendinitis, and whereas and the Cardinals have been each certainly hoping for a rebound in 2024 the season proved to be something however for the veteran hurler. Continued shoulder woes price the right-hander practically two months earlier this yr, however even when he was wholesome sufficient to take the mound his outcomes have been nothing wanting disastrous. The righty surrendered a 6.53 ERA with a virtually matching 6.36 FIP in 20 2/3 innings of labor for the Cardinals this yr. That’s the Eleventh-worst ERA within the majors this yr amongst relievers with not less than 20 innings of labor, and Gallegos paired these lackluster outcomes with a career-worst 22.6% strikeout price and a ten.6% stroll price that isn’t solely the very best of his profession however greater than double his price from simply final season.
These deep struggles led the Cardinals to designate Gallegos for project previous to the commerce deadline in hopes of discovering a staff prepared to commerce for him, however no deal got here collectively and he ended up electing free company final week. Now, he’ll look to regain his earlier kind in a Twins group that has struggled to get manufacturing out of the bullpen in current weeks. Minnesota relievers have mixed for a lackluster 4.60 ERA for the reason that calendar flipped to July, and accidents to Brock Stewart and Kody Funderbunk have additional diminished the depth accessible within the membership’s aid corps. If Gallegos can present enchancment on the Triple-A degree, it’s not exhausting to think about the Twins believing within the veteran righty’s observe report of success sufficient to present him a spot within the membership’s bullpen over a pitcher like Josh Winder or Randy Dobnak.
