MLB all-star Joey Gallo shocks the baseball world as he announces he is switching to pitching
Photo credit: New York Post
MLB all-star Joey Gallo shocked the baseball world yesterday after he announced that he would be transitioning to pitching for the remainder of his career.
Over the years, the MLB has seen this move done before as even last season Brett Phillips switched from being a utility man to becoming a pitcher with the New York Yankees.
Gallo would be the third recent big leaguer to venture into pitching as a way to stay in the game. Last season, longtime utility man Brett Phillips said he would try to make a comeback on the mound and signed a Minor League deal with the Yankees. -Foster
MLB all-star Joey Gallo announces he will be switching to becoming a pitcher
Gallo was invited to the Chicago White Sox Spring Training on a minor league deal to see if he could make the team but after struggling the team end up releasing him which he asked for.
White Sox assistant GM Josh Barfield announced that he expressed to the team that if he was not going to make the team he would like to be released to try becoming a major league pitcher.
«He had expressed interest through his agent if it didn't work out on the Major League team, that he was going to explore the pitching side,» White Sox assistant general manager Josh Barfield told MLB.com of Gallo's thought process. «I know it's something he's been dabbling around with in between some of the reps here.
«But he asked for his release today. So, we accommodated that.» -Barfield
«But he asked for his release today. So, we accommodated that.» -Barfield
Barfield added that due to the current spot their are in, it is pretty much impossible to give him a chance as a pitcher since they are in the second year of their rebuild and every spot matters too much.
«Where we are right now, it's tough to give him that opportunity,» Barfield said. «Yeah, it's not unheard of, right? You see it with [Rick] Ankiel going the other way and [Tyler] Naquin who was here a couple of years ago, he just signed as a pitcher too.» -Barfield
Gallo confirmed the news on social media yesterday by posting a message stating farewell to the outfield then confirming that he would continue playing but now as a pitcher.
It's been fun outfield.v
Just to be clear, I will be pitching.
It will be interesting to see who ends up giving Gallo a chance as a pitcher which will most likely be on a minor league deal since he has not pitched since high school.
Previously on Blue Jays Insider
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