Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
There’s an argument to be made that Joey Gallo is the perfect player for the current moment in MLB.
When he finished his first full season in the major leagues in 2017, he was a marvel, an oddity who had managed to prosper in offensive extremity. More than half of his plate appearances ended in one of the three true outcomes (home run, strikeout, walk). There had never been a player like this: Gallo was the first in history to boast a slugging percentage over .