{"id":504749,"date":"2026-01-04T01:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/504749\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T01:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:09:13","slug":"zac-gallen-still-remains-option-for-chicago-cubs-as-they-pivot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/504749\/","title":{"rendered":"Zac Gallen still remains option for Chicago Cubs as they pivot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It feels like the Chicago Cubs and Zac Gallen have been connected ever since the offseason began for the Northsiders. There was the \u2018report\u2019 by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-interest-zac-gallen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bob Nightengale<\/a> that the two sides are close to an agreement before being quickly corrected.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Gallen has yet to sign and the Cubs missed out on Tatsuya Imai who went to the Houston Astros. So now, it\u2019s time for the Cubs to pivot and Gallen appears to still be an option.<\/p>\n<p>Will the Cubs look at Zac Gallen?<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-156684\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20900%20600'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Zac Gallen, Chicago Cubs\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/USATSI_26876832_168419782_lowres-900x600.jpg\"\/>Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen (23) pitches against the Cleveland Guardians at Chase Field on Aug. 19, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>After failing to sign Imai, the Cubs and Gallen are once again being connected. This week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-next-move-could-be-zac-gallen-free-agency\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MLB.com\u2019s Mark Feinsand suggested the Cubs look at Gallen<\/a>. And now, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6933130\/2026\/01\/01\/cubs-tatsuya-imai-astros-mlb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patrick Mooney of The Athletic<\/a> is also bringing up Gallen and the Cubs once again.<\/p>\n<p>As the Cubs pivot, they can continue their dialogue with Imai\u2019s agent, Scott Boras, who also represents Zac Gallen, a free agent who has been repeatedly linked to Chicago this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>Although Gallen is coming off a down year (13-15, 4.83 ERA), he factored into the National League Cy Young Award voting in 2020, 2022 and 2023, when he helped lead the Arizona Diamondbacks into the World Series. Gallen\u2019s durability \u2014 he averaged 30 starts a year over the past five seasons \u2014 is also appealing.<\/p>\n<p>Gallen has had a down year as Mooney wrote. He had a sub-3 ERA back in 2022 and then followed it up with seasons of 3.47 ERA and 3.65 ERA. He\u2019s been a staple in the Diamondbacks\u2019 rotation for the past few years and was a big reason why they made a World Series run a few years back.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of adding Gallen isn\u2019t a bad one for the Cubs who need help in the rotation. But does it solve a big problem for the long term? Probably not.<\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202560%201706'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" alt=\"Cubs\u2019 huge trade proposal ships multiple top prospects for All-Star pitcher\" class=\"post-image\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_25786271_168419782_lowres-scaled.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    Cubs\u2019 huge trade proposal ships multiple top prospects for All-Star pitcher<br \/>\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicitysports.com\/chicago-cubs-huge-trade-proposal-ships-top-prospects-mackenzie-gore\" class=\"read-more\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\tFor More Great Chicago Sports Content<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLGY9QowgMXbAg?hl=en-US&amp;gl=US&amp;ceid=US%3Aen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"349\" height=\"108\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20349%20108'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-10.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Get the latest Chicago sports news, analysis, and breaking stories on the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, Cubs, White Sox, Sky, and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLGY9QowgMXbAg?hl=en-US&amp;gl=US&amp;ceid=US%3Aen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google News<\/a>, so you never miss a story on your favorite Chicago teams.<\/p>\n<p>Follow us on Twitter at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chicitysports23\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@chicitysports23<\/a> for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/chicagosports247\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE <\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It feels like the Chicago Cubs and Zac Gallen have been connected ever since the offseason began for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4,86],"class_list":{"0":"post-504749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-zac-gallen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115834163261629201","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}