Joey Gallo

He became the first teenager since Dick Simpson in 1962 to hit 40 home runs in a minor league season.

Between two minor league teams, he batted .251/.338/.623 with 40 home runs and 172 strikeouts in 411 at bats.

Joseph Nicholas Gallo (born November 19, 1993) is an American professional baseball outfielder, third baseman and first baseman for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Minnesota Twins.

On May 8, Gallo hit his 100th career home run versus Nick Kingham of the Pirates.

The Rangers selected Gallo in the first round of the 2012 MLB draft, and he made his MLB debut with the Rangers in 2015.

The Texas Rangers selected Gallo in the first round, with the 39th overall selection, in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft.

Rather than enroll at LSU, Gallo signed with the Rangers for a $2.25 million signing bonus.

Gallo started his professional career with the Arizona League Rangers, where he hit .293/.435/.733 with 18 home runs and 52 runs batted in in 150 at bats over 43 games, and was named a Post-Season AZL All Star, a Topps Short-Season/Rookie All Star, and the Topps AZL Player of the Year.

The 18 home runs were an Arizona League record.

He was named the Arizona League MVP.

He was promoted to the Spokane Indians of the Class A Short-Season Northwest League, hitting .214/.343/.464 with four home runs and 26 strikeouts in 56 at bats in 16 games.

Prior to the 2013 season, Gallo was the Rangers 10th-best prospect according to Baseball America.

He played the season with the Hickory Crawdads of the Class A South Atlantic League, leading the league with 38 home runs and 165 strikeouts in 392 at bats, and was named a Mid-Season All Star and a Post-Season All Star.

Gallo won the Joe Bauman Home Run Award for hitting the most home runs in minor league baseball for the 2013 season.

Over the offseason, he worked out with Troy Tulowitzki and Jason Giambi at the Philippi Sports Institute in Las Vegas.

Gallo started the 2014 season with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Class A-Advanced Carolina League, batting .323/.463/.735 and leading the league with 21 home runs as he struck out 64 times in 189 at bats and was named a Mid-Season All Star and a Post-Season All Star as well as the Carolina League MVP, and was promoted to the Frisco RoughRiders of the Class AA Texas League in June where he was named a Post-Season All Star, a Baseball America High Class A All Star, a Baseball America Minor League All Star, and a Topps Class A All Star.

In July, he played in the All-Star Futures Game, where he was named the MVP of the game after hitting a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning.

Between the two minor league teams he batted .271/.394/.615 with 42 home runs and 179 strikeouts in 439 at bats.

Gallo began the 2015 season with Frisco, and was named a Mid-Season Texas South All Star.

On June 1, 2015, the Rangers promoted Gallo to the major leagues.

On June 2, in his first major league game, Gallo hit a home run and drove in four runs, becoming the first Ranger to achieve four RBIs in an MLB debut game.

On June 5, Gallo earned his first MLB Golden Sombrero against the Kansas City Royals.

On June 30, 2015, Gallo was optioned to Triple A to make room for Josh Hamilton.

In the minors in 2015, he batted .240/.342/.520 with 23 home runs and 139 strikeouts in 321 at bats.

In 2015 in the majors, he batted .204/.301/.417 with six home runs and 57 strikeouts in 108 at-bats.

In 2016, Gallo spent the majority of the season in the minors, appearing in only 17 games for the Rangers.

In 2016, in 25 at-bats in the majors, he had 19 strikeouts and one hit (a home run).

With Round Rock, he batted .240/.367/.529 with 25 home runs and 150 strikeouts in 359 at-bats.

In 2017, Gallo won a major league roster spot out of spring training and played multiple positions all season for the Rangers.

For the season, he batted .209/.333/.537 with 196 strikeouts (second in the American League), 41 home runs (third in the league), and 80 RBIs in 449 at bats.

He hit the third-longest home run in MLB in 2017, at 490 feet.

In 2018, Gallo batted .206/.312/.498, hit 40 home runs (third in the league), drove in 92 runs, and struck out 207 times in 148 games.

He was selected to the 2019 and 2021 MLB All-Star Games and won the Gold Glove Award in 2020 and 2021.

He currently has the most home runs ever (198) for a player with a career batting average under .200 (.197).

Gallo attended Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As a senior, he was the Nevada Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year and a High School All-American by MaxPreps, ESPNHS and USA Today.

He hit a Nevada high school record 67 career home runs in 446 at bats, and during his senior year of high school he had a .509 batting average with 21 home runs and 80 runs batted in (RBIs) in 114 at bats.

Gallo signed a National Letter of Intent to play college baseball for the LSU Tigers.

In 2019, Gallo was named the AL Player of the Week for the week of April 15-21 after hitting .478 (11-23) with four home runs and 11 RBI over six games.