Joey Gallo Can't Buy Playing Time

Joey Gallo, recalled on Monday by the Texas Rangers, is still on the active roster. He's logged a grand total of... one plate appearance.

Now, there was at least some expectation that when Gallo was brought up earlier in the week, it was only temporary. That when Jurickson Profar was inevitably brought up to fill in during Rougned Odor's suspension, Gallo would go back down. And yet, Shawn Tolleson's family emergency allowed for Profar to slide right up without necessitating any other moves.

There's a fairly decent chance that Gallo goes back down to Triple-A later today to make room for Yu Darvish, and yet, I can't seem to get a sour taste out of my mouth.

During last night's drubbing at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Joey Gallo couldn't get even one plate appearance. While Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland -- both lefties like Gallo, mind you -- continue to be among the worst hitters in the game, it seems to have never occurred to anyone in the Rangers clubhouse to get Gallo into the game.

Now, this isn't just about a player losing five days of plate appearances. In this case, it's a player who, for starters, doesn't have a defined position for which the Rangers will end up seeing him play. He's very clearly blocked at third base by Adrian Beltre, so it would behoove the Rangers to find out exactly what they plan to do with him.

Furthermore, Gallo had just missed three weeks on the minor league disabled list with a groin injury.

To recap, we have a player who has no defined position, who has now missed the better part of a month in what very well be the most important season for him developmentally, and who probably needs at-bats more than any other player in the Rangers system. And he's sitting on the Major League bench.

I can't make sense of it. Maybe there's no sense to be made of it. But it's going to be incredibly frustrating if, to start the 2017 season, Joey Gallo needs another stint in Round Rock because he's "not quite ready yet", and we're able to point at a few days in May and wonder what the hell the Rangers were thinking.

Because if I'm being honest, they can't be thinking. It's inexplicable, and you can't convince me that the team wouldn't be better served by at least seeing if he can perform better than Fielder/Moreland while he is on the active roster.

Of course, as it turns out, they may have wasted that chance. It was deemed more important that he sit on the bench and watch instead of calling up another bullpen arm so that maybe Matt Bush doesn't need to pitch three days in a row for the first time ever -- and after not doing anything with a baseball for four years -- and Sam Dyson doesn't need to add on to his alarmingly high number of appearances in a 6-run blowout in favor of the Rangers.

I'm not a Major League manager but, well, a lot of things aren't making a hell of a lot of sense these days, and I just wonder how much longer it can continue before Jeff Banister's tactics and the Rangers run-differential finally come together to show that, yes, the Texas Rangers have been overachieving thus far in 2016.

Oh, and happy Yuesday.