The MLB Winter Meetings are set to kick off in a couple of days, which should — hopefully — jumpstart the offseason and spark a flurry of free-agent and trade activity. That anticipation prompted former GM and current MLB insider Jim Bowden to put together a list of moves he hopes to see before the meetings conclude.
The Braves made the list once, with Bowden hoping they land right-hander Zac Gallen on a five-year, $135 million deal.
Zac Gallen inks a 5-year, $135 million deal with the Atlanta Braves
Once Gallen joins the Braves, their pitching room immediately makes adjustments with his mechanics and gets him back on track.
I actually like the idea of signing Zac Gallen as a buy-low candidate. This is a guy who was in the Cy Young conversation a couple of years ago, but his last two seasons have looked much more like those of a middle-of-the-rotation arm, posting a 4.31 ERA over 61 starts.
And it’s not as if the peripherals paint the picture of someone suffering from terrible luck. Even in 2023 — when he finished third in the Cy Young race — his underlying numbers weren’t elite. Since then, they’ve only trended downward, to the point where his most encouraging metric last year was his 60% groundball rate.
Because of his track record, Gallen will probably still land a multi-year deal if he wants one. But it’s just as possible he opts for a one-year prove-it contract to rebuild value and re-enter the market next offseason.
What isn’t possible? A five-year, $135 million deal for a pitcher who just posted a 4.83 ERA in 2025. That might be the most Looney Tunes projection I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been doing this for a long time. The Braves have never been an organization willing to give that kind of money to a starter under Alex Anthopoulos, and while that could eventually change for the right arm, Zac Gallen isn’t getting $135 million from Atlanta… or from anyone else.
If he does, that general manager should be fired before the Winter Meetings conclude.
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Photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire