With Joey Gallo Bringing His Video Game Power to Texas, Rangers Are Must-See TV

The Texas Rangers were not a team anyone but their fans and family were interested in watching as this season started and then turned a month old.

Their most marketable player, Yu Darvish, was out for the season after Tommy John surgery during spring training. They lost 95 games the year before and did virtually nothing to improve during the offseason.

Despite having incredibly poor injury luck last year, the Rangers were quite healthy to start this season and still lost 15 of their first 22 games while playing mostly inside their division. At that point, they were must-miss TV.

Fast-forward one month. The Rangers have won 19 of their last 29 to move a game over .500 and a game and a half out of an American League wild-card spot. Prince Fielder is one of the game's best hitters again. Nick Martinez is a promising 24-year-old starter. Josh Hamilton is back in uniform, and early returns are promising. Pitching prospect Chi Chi Gonzalez made an impressive major league debut last week.

And now Joey Gallo.

The Rangers called up Major League Baseball's sixth-ranked prospect, according to Baseball America, on Monday to replace third baseman Adrian Beltre, who is on the disabled list with a thumb injury.

Gallo's scouting report: raw power—and a ton of it.

"

Rangers going for it. Joey Gallo gets called up to replace Beltre. This should be fun!

— Eric Karabell (@karabellespn) June 1, 2015"

This move shows Beltre's injury will keep him on the shelf for at least a couple of weeks. It also shows that in that time, the Rangers were unwilling to hand the temporary job to another of their other options, none of whom are overwhelming.

Finally, it shows the Rangers believe they can sustain their success all season and compete for a postseason berth. They did not want to let Beltre's MIA status sink them, so they brought Gallo up straight from Double-A Frisco to provide power and possibly to prove he belongs in the big leagues sooner rather than later.

Gallo is another Las Vegas product slightly younger (21) than Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant. He has never played above Double-A and struggled there in 291 plate appearances last year. But Gallo this year hit .314/.425/.636 for a 1.061 OPS with nine home runs, all of those coming in May, in 146 plate appearances.

He might strike out a bunch in the majors—he struck out 179 times in 537 plate appearances between Single-A and Double-A last season—but he will also undoubtedly run into some misplaced fastballs and hanging breaking balls. When he does, it will be a show.

"

An MLB TV channel that just shows Joey Gallo's BP.

— Ben Badler (@BenBadler) June 1, 2015"

Some organizations believe bringing up a prospect too soon can stunt development. The Rangers wrestled with that idea, but ultimately they did not believe promoting Gallo to the majors—he was scheduled to head to Triple-A Round Rock on Monday—would hurt him, even if he ends up being overmatched, general manager Jon Daniels told reporters Monday.

"

The deciding factor was that we are really confident in the environment, the culture and the clubhouse. It's a good spot for a young player. We have a lot of confidence in our staff and in the value of sitting next to Adrian Beltre and Prince Fielder and learning. He's got a defined time that he's going to be up here. He has a chance to make a contribution and help us. Even if he really struggles, which is possible, he'll be better long-term for the learning experience. He will have a better idea of knowing some of the things he will have to work on.

This will help his development.

"

Gallo's first tests will come against the Chicago White Sox starting Tuesday, followed by the Kansas City Royals. Neither of those rotations has been impressive this season, so maybe that helps the rookie break in before he gets to Oakland to face the A's, a team with the league's lowest rotation ERA (3.19).

Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports

This will also force people to pay more attention to the Rangers. They can tune in for Gallo, but the rest of the club has put itself on the map of relevance over the last month.

There are still questions: Is this nothing more than a good start for Hamilton or has he truly fixed his flawed approach? Will the team's starting pitching hold up? But those can be answered over the month of June and beyond.

In the meantime, all eyes are on Gallo and the Rangers.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.