8:23 p.m.: It’s $22.025MM guaranteed, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. That is the same as the price of the qualifying offering. However, about $14MM of the salary is deferred, Rosenthal adds.
8:10 p.m.: It will be a one-year deal, reports Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. The signing is pending physical.
8:08 p.m.: ID-Backs closes re-signing deal Zac Gallenreports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. The veteran righty has been on the open market for some time after turning down a qualifying offer early in the offseason.
Gallen is coming off a down year that clearly reduced his appeal on the open market. He entered this season as a strong candidate to command over $100MM once he hits free agency. Gallen stayed healthy and pitched all 33, but had career-worst stats. He turned in a personal 4.83 earned run average with a career-worst 21.5% strikeout rate.
The season got off to a particularly rough start, as Gallen allowed at least five earned runs in nine innings over the first four months. He carried a 5.40 ERA into the All-Star Break and had a 5.60 mark in 127 innings at the trade deadline. The D-Backs were aggressive salesmen, on the go Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suárez, Merrill Kelly again Shelby Miller. They didn’t get an offer they liked from Gallen in addition to the draft pick they could have collected if he signed elsewhere after turning down a qualifying offer.
Arizona was reportedly worried about overworking young pitchers, so they also took advantage of holding Gallen to innings alone. He’s gotten better after the deadline, pitching quality starts in eight of his last 11 outings. The 30-year-old has turned in a 3.32 ERA over his last 65 innings. The Diamondbacks went 7-4 in those games, which is part of the reason they were able to hang on to the Wild Card picture heading into the final weekend despite the July selloff.
While it’s been an encouraging few months, it hasn’t been a great return to form. Gallen only struck out 20% of opponents in that span. He’s helped a lot with a .232 average on balls in play. Gallen struck out between 25-29% of opponents in his first five-plus home MLB season. The swing-and-miss decline wasn’t that bad per se, but last year’s 9.5% swing rate was the second-lowest mark of his career.
There are no major changes in Gallen’s raw materials. His fastball averaged 93.5 mph, matching his career mark. That’s about league average for a starting right fielder. Opponents have had increasing success against Gallen’s heater over the past few seasons. He holds respectable results in the knuckle-curve and changeup, his second-highest contributions. He used to put together a cutter, a slide and a sink – all of which were hard hit.
It remains to be seen whether they will make any changes to his arsenal in 2026. Gallen began cutting back on his use of four-seam fastballs in the final few months of last season, mostly in favor of more changeups. Either way, the team feels they deserve better than an ERA near 5.00 would suggest. Statcast’s “expected” ERA, based on his strikeout/walk profile and the bats he allows, comes in at 4.28. His 4.24 SIERA was in the same range. A good drop in those metrics would make him a league-average starter.
More to come.
