Joey Gallo continues to have Aaron Boone's respect

MINNEAPOLIS — Joey Gallo’s disastrous tenure with the Yankees — short as it was — has been much discussed.  

But  he’s been a different player with the Twins, with whom he signed a one-year, $11 million deal in the offseason.

Gallo, an outfielder the vast majority of his career, has been playing primarily at first base with the Twins. His start at first against the Yankees on Monday night was his 10th of the season,  and he hit a 432-foot solo homer off Greg Weissert in the fourth inning.

“This guy’s been a couple of times in All-Star Games. He’s a really good player,” Aaron Boone said before the game. “Obviously, some well-documented struggles with us, but we never lost sight of what a good player he is and can be.”

Gallo, a 2021 trade-deadline acquisition who hit .159 with 25 homers and a .660 OPS with the Yankees before they mercifully dealt him to the Dodgers before last year’s trade deadline, came into Monday hitting .235 but with five homers and a 1.056 OPS in 12 games with the Twins.

“I think it was very tough on him. I think it absolutely wore on him,” Boone said of the spotlight that comes with playing in New York, something many in the game, including inside the Yankees’ organization, felt would be too high a hurdle for Gallo to overcome when he was brought in in 2021. “But I respected how he handled it. He never ran from it. He never wanted out of the lineup. As best he could, he faced it and owned it. He had my respect in the way that he always continued to fight.”

Another Aaron for Boone to root for

Count Boone, very much a sports junkie, among those enthused that the Jets on Monday at last consummated a deal to acquire quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

“That’s big time, right? Very cool,” Boone said. “I’m sure the entire Jet fan base is, obviously, I’m sure very excited. What seems like a very talented roster, he would seem to me to be a guy that puts them in that serious title contender kind of team.”