The headline in a May 15 story published by NJ.com says “Ex-Yankees OF Joey Gallo feuding with Twins manager.” Um, what?
An East Coast media outlet stretching reality with a fabricated headline isn’t anything new, but to call Joey Gallo’s distaste of batting leadoff a feud with Twins manager Rocco Baldelli is next level clickbait.
Gallo gave this quote when asked about batting in the leadoff spot.
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Gallo said, via the Star Tribune,” but I don’t want to.”
Baldelli response when asked about Gallo’s thoughts, in part, was: “He’ll be fine. His thoughts are always welcome, but right now, they’re not going to be taken into account.”
Not exactly a war of words between the two. And Baldelli isn’t wrong. Gallo has been mashing the ball as the leadoff hitter, albeit it’s a small sample size.
In three starts as the leadoff hitter this season, Gallo is 4-of-14 with two homers, two doubles and six RBI. One of his two homers from the leadoff spot came in Wednesday’s loss to the Dodgers. He’s slashing .286/.286/.857 (1.143 OPS) as the leadoff man.
He’s batted seventh in the order in 15 games and that’s where six of his 10 homers have come from.
