The New York Yankees have to sign or trade for multiple players that make more contact
The New York Yankees made a trade with the Texas Rangers for Joey Gallo at the trade deadline in 2021 and really, they shouldn’t have. Why? The Yankees already have a ton of players like him.
Sure, he draws his fair share of walks, but he doesn’t hit for average. When he gets a hit, it’s a homer. He’s the dictionary definition of a three true outcomes guy: strikeout, walk, homer. He did one of those three in 58.8 percent of his plate appearances in 2021, which was the highest percentage of any player in baseball.
Aaron Judge did it in 43 percent of his plate appearances. Gary Sanchez did it in 45 percent of his plate appearances. Giancarlo Stanton, Luke Voit, and Rougned Odor did it in 44 percent of their plate appearances.
For comparison, the league average on the three true outcomes is at an all-time high of about 35.5 percent.
They have to get some better contact players rather than Joey Gallo. Gallo is a Gold Glove winner, versatile, and gets on base so he is valuable. But like with anything, too much of something is not good and the Yankees lineup is littered with Joey Gallo or Joey Gallo-lite players.