Texas Rangers News: No ESPN, Joey Gallo will not be a free agent at year’s end

Joey Gallo finally made his much-anticipated Home Run Derby debut as the Texas Rangers‘ representative on Monday night at Coors Field.  Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned.

The All-Star right fielder was eliminated in the opening round, as the hometown hero Trevor Story bested Gallo 20 home runs to 19. Gallo made somewhat of a comeback late, but couldn’t do enough to secure a spot in the Derby semifinals.

It was a disappointing Derby for Gallo, who many expected to go deep in the tournament to potentially face off against another upset participant, Shohei Ohtani. Still, it was blast to watch as Pete Alonso of the Mets captured his second consecutive Home Run Derby title, beating out cancer survivor and Orioles’ slugger Trey Mancini.

Joey Gallo got to experience the Home Run Derby but fell short of expectations

But Gallo’s early Derby exit wasn’t the only miss at the event.

ESPN’s broadcast crew gaffed when they mistakenly mentioned that Joey Gallo would become a free agent at the end of the season.

It wasn’t a good day for ESPN as they messed up Joey Gallo’s contract status with the Texas Rangers during the Home Run Derby

I mean, come on ESPN. The network already had a blow-up earlier in the day regarding Shohei Ohtani and Stephen A. Smith’s comments. It’s not as if they needed another one.

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We’ll be the responsible fact-checkers here, though. Joey Gallo won’t be a free agent until after the 2022 season, meaning he has one more year of arbitration remaining. This is also assuming the Rangers don’t extend their star slugger, though it’s certainly possible that they do.

If Texas does decide to trade Gallo, the acquiring team will get that last year of salary arbitration coverage.

Either way, it’s not a good look for ESPN. And they didn’t even bother to correct themselves. But we’re willing to bet if Gallo was a Yankee or Dodger, the network wouldn’t botch those contract details.

If only Gallo had advanced to the next round of Monday night’s Derby. Perhaps ESPN would’ve fixed the error of their ways.

It’s ok, though. Joey is loved among Texas Rangers faithful, TV gaffes aside.