{"id":88856,"date":"2024-11-03T20:18:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T01:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=88856&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=88856"},"modified":"2024-11-03T20:18:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T01:18:15","slug":"nationals-decline-joey-gallo-2025-option-free-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/03\/nationals-decline-joey-gallo-2025-option-free-agent\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals Decline Veteran Slugger&#8217;s 2025 Option"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>The Washington Nationals have announced that they declined their half of the $8 million option for veteran infielder\/outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gallojo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joey Gallo<\/a>, making him a free agent. The 30-year-old veteran slugger will get a $2.5 million buyout.<\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\r\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nationals have declined their half of the $8 million mutual option on Joey Gallo. He gets a $2.5 million buyout, which combined with his $2.5 million salary and $200,000 in performance bonuses means he ultimately made $5.2 million for his 1 year in D.C.<\/p>\r\n\u2014 Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkZuckerman\/status\/1853194498148282782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 3, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>\r\n<h2><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/h2>\r\n<h2>Nationals Decline Joey Gallo&#8217;s 2025 Option, Making Him Free Agent<\/h2>\r\n<p>Gallo previously signed a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/01\/23\/joey-gallo-washington-nationals\/\" target=\"_self\">one-year, $5 million deal<\/a> with the Nationals for 2024. The veteran finished with a $200,000 performance bonus after making 200 plate appearances. According to Mark Zuckerman of MASN, the slugger&#8217;s buyout, combined with his $2.5 million salary and performance bonus, means he ultimately made $5.2 million in D.C.<\/p>\r\n<h3>Gallo&#8217;s Season in Review<\/h3>\r\n<p>Gallo played in 76 games for Washington in 2024 but was a major liability for the team. In his 223 plate appearances, the slugger finished with a lowly slash line of .161\/.277\/.336 and 10 home runs. These stats translated to a 76 wRC+ and a below-replacement value of -0.2 fWAR. He also had 102 strikeouts, which were tied for the second-most on the ballclub this past season. His performance with the Nationals shows that he is not the same power hitter that he once was with the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\r\n<p>Gallo also dealt with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/20\/nationals-activate-joey-gallo-injured-list\/\" target=\"_self\">injury issues<\/a> during the season. In late April, the veteran was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right shoulder sprain and missed 17 games. He then strained his hamstring in June and missed over two months.<\/p>\r\n<h3><strong>Other Options<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<p>Gallo played primarily at first base along with a few appearances in the outfield for the Nationals in his lone season in Washington. However, with the Nats declining his option for 2025, the team will be looking at a big upgrade at first base over the winter. They already have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/y\/yepezju01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juan Yepez<\/a> as an option, as he contributed well since getting called up to the majors in July. If the team wants Yepez to split time with a seasoned veteran, there are many options in free agency, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walkech02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christian Walker<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alonspe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pete Alonso<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goldspa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Goldschmidt<\/a>. But if Washington wants to focus on the outfield, they can try and bring back <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=sotoju01,soto--004jua&amp;search=Juan+Soto&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-11-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juan Soto<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<h3>Gallo&#8217;s Future<\/h3>\r\n<p>Gallo was once a strong power hitter for the Rangers from 2019 to 2021. However, his recent inconsistency has led him to play for five different teams in the last four seasons. The 30-year-old might have to settle for a minor league contract after a rough season in DC. But other ballclubs could still make offers based on his 10 years of experience in MLB.<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Geoff Burke-Imagn Images<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Nationals have announced that they declined their half of the $8 million option for veteran infielder\/outfielder Joey Gallo, making him a free agent. The 30-year-old veteran slugger will get a $2.5 million buyout. Nationals have declined their half of the $8 million mutual option on Joey Gallo. He gets a $2.5 million buyout, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5242,"featured_media":88864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1071,35],"tags":[2517,265,2133,1305,208,2402],"class_list":["post-88856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nationals","category-mlb","category-news","tag-christian-walker","tag-joey-gallo","tag-juan-soto","tag-juan-yepez","tag-paul-goldschmidt","tag-pete-alonso"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}