Zac Gallen is heading again to the desert. Gallen and the Arizona Diamondbacks are closing in on a one-year contract price $22.025 million, in response to a report from The Athletic. About $14 million could be deferred. The deal matches the $22.025 million qualifying supply Gallen rejected in November. The group has not but introduced the signing, which is pending a bodily.
Gallen, 30, is coming off a 2025 season during which he did not stay as much as his established requirements, therefore settling for a one-year contract regardless of ending within the high 10 of the Nationwide League Cy Younger voting thrice in his profession.
For his profession, Gallen has pitched to a 119 ERA+ and an FIP of three.65 throughout components of seven MLB seasons. Over that span he is compiled a WAR of 20.7, and he is topped 30 begins and 180 innings in three of the final 4 seasons. Gallen spent the final six seasons and alter with the D-backs, who acquired him from the Miami Marlins in July 2019 in alternate for Jazz Chisholm Jr.
Earlier within the offseason, CBS Sports activities ranked Gallen because the No. 18 accessible free agent within the class of 2025-26. This is a part of R.J. Anderson’s write-up:
“Gallen salvaged what he may with 11-start closing stretch, however an in any other case depressing stroll 12 months makes him really feel like a robust candidate to just accept the qualifying supply (if one is tendered) and take a look at once more in 2026. In any other case? He is a candidate to signal a one-year deal elsewhere and modify his arsenal in an try to push again in opposition to a pattern that has seen his efficiency slip in every of the previous two years.”
Earlier than Gallen’s return, FanGraphs estimated Arizona’s 2026 payroll at $173 million. That’s simply south of the franchise report ($177 million in 2024), so Gallen will push the membership nicely into uncharted payroll territory. The D-backs will neither achieve nor forfeit draft picks to re-sign their very own certified free agent.
Arizona introduced Merrill Kelly again earlier this offseason, and now they’ve reunited with Gallen. These two will be part of lefty Eduardo Rodriguez and righties Ryne Nelson and Brandon Pfaadt within the rotation. Corbin Burnes, final offseason’s massive free-agent splash, is anticipated to return from Tommy John surgical procedure at midseason.
The D-backs went 80-82 final season and missed the postseason by three video games. They bought on the commerce deadline, most notably sending Kelly to the Texas Rangers and Eugenio Suárez to the Seattle Mariners, although they saved Gallen.
Gallen was initially drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals. He went to the Marlins with Sandy Alcantara as a part of a December 2017 deal that despatched Marcell Ozuna to St. Louis.
