{"id":556127,"date":"2026-02-05T14:58:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/556127\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T14:58:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:58:33","slug":"poll-who-will-sign-zac-gallen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/556127\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll: Who Will Sign Zac Gallen?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The impact position players are off the market for the most part at this point, and yesterday the top starter remaining followed suit as Framber Valdez<\/a> landed with the Tigers on a three-year, $115MM deal<\/a>. That leaves\u00a0right-hander Zac Gallen<\/a> as both the final remaining qualified free agent and the best starting pitcher still available. Gallen\u2019s market has been a bit deflated coming off the weakest season of his career, though with a lifetime 3.58 ERA and 3.65 FIP across 1007 1\/3 big league innings there\u2019s no doubt that he could still impact a rotation-needy team if he can get back on track. Which teams would the right-hander be the best fit for, and where will he ultimately land? A few of the most likely options:<\/p>\n

Arizona Diamondbacks<\/p>\n

For a qualified free agent who lingers on the market, sometimes a homecoming simply makes the most sense. The Diamondbacks are the only team in the majors that wouldn\u2019t forfeit a draft pick in order to bring Gallen into the fold, and that alone makes them a sensible fit. Beyond that, the Arizona pitching staff is in serious need of help. Adding Gallen would be prudent, given the team\u2019s lack of experienced rotation depth and a fifth starter (Michael Soroka<\/a>) who has had durability concerns. His addition could push some of those depth starters into the mix for a bullpen that lacks impact options with Justin Martinez<\/a> and A.J. Puk<\/a> both set to open the season on the injured list. The biggest obstacle for a reunion between Arizona and Gallen is money; ownership hasn\u2019t been shy about their desire to bring down a payroll that has sat in the $190MM range over the past two years, and unless ownership makes an exception for a beloved longtime D-back, the Snakes are more or less at their limit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baltimore Orioles<\/p>\n

The O\u2019s entered the season with a need to upgrade the rotation. They\u2019ve acquired Shane Baz<\/a> and re-upped with Zach Eflin<\/a>, but neither is a surefire front-of-the-rotation arm. That\u2019s also true of Gallen after that shaky 2025 showing, but at his peak he\u2019s been the type of arm Baltimore seeks. Adding Gallen to a rotation including Trevor Rogers<\/a>, Kyle Bradish<\/a>, Baz, Eflin and Dean Kremer<\/a> would be a more aggressive approach than the O\u2019s took last winter when signing back-end veterans like Tomoyuki Sugano<\/a> and Charlie Morton<\/a> to one-year deals. Baltimore\u2019s payroll is still nearly $20MM shy of last year\u2019s Opening Day mark, so there shouldn\u2019t be any major financial hurdles.<\/p>\n

Chicago Cubs<\/p>\n

The Cubs have already had a big offseason, headlined by their Alex Bregman<\/a> signing and a trade for Marlins righty Edward Cabrera<\/a>. The Cabrera trade has given the Cubs a deep cache of starting pitching options that\u2019s pushed Colin Rea<\/a> and Javier Assad<\/a> into depth roles, and even more help figures to be on the way when rehabbing southpaw Justin Steele<\/a> returns at some point in the first half. Even so, the team\u2019s starting pitching options all have worrisome injury histories. That includes Cabrera, who briefly went on the IL with an elbow issue back in September. Adding a healthy workhorse like Gallen could make plenty of sense to raise the floor, and with talented arms like Steele, Cabrera, and Cade Horton<\/a> in the mix Gallen might be under less pressure to deliver the ace-level results he\u2019s flashed in the past.<\/p>\n

San Diego Padres<\/p>\n

The Padres have been clear about their desire to add another starter, and Gallen could be just the sort of high-upside arm the team needs to credibly replace Dylan Cease<\/a>. It wouldn\u2019t be the first time president of baseball operations A.J. Preller pulled off a major move in the final months before Opening Day. Cease was acquired in March of 2024, while righty Nick Pivetta<\/a> signed with San Diego last February. The biggest obstacle to Gallen following in their footsteps could be financial, as it\u2019s unclear just how much wiggle room the Padres have left. Perhaps the team working out the details of veteran righty Yu Darvish<\/a>\u2019s possible exit<\/a> from the club could create the budget space necessary to land Gallen.<\/p>\n

Other Options<\/p>\n

While the aforementioned quartet of clubs are perhaps the most likely destinations for Gallen, they aren\u2019t the only ones. Detroit could have made sense as a Gallen suitor, but their agreement with Valdez surely takes them out of the starting pitching market at this point. The Angels have been connected to<\/a> the right-hander recently, but they\u2019re viewed as a bit of a long-shot and are by far the least competitive team among this group. Atlanta<\/a> is known to be shopping for a veteran starter, but it\u2019s unclear if the team has the stomach for the sort of $20MM+ annual salary for which Gallen figures to be searching. The Blue Jays were connected to Valdez shortly before he signed, suggesting a willingness to continue adding to their rotation, but Gallen might not be viewed as impactful enough to justify pushing Cody Ponce<\/a> and Jose Berrios<\/a> out of the fifth starter job. The Giants were also connected to Gallen earlier in the winter but have since signed Adrian Houser<\/a> and Tyler Mahle<\/a>. President of baseball ops Buster Posey downplayed the idea of adding another starter<\/a> last week, but the San Francisco rotation has both injury and workload concerns behind ace Logan Webb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Where do MLBTR readers think Gallen will ultimately land? Have your say in the poll below:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The impact position players are off the market for the most part at this point, and yesterday the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,38,4,86],"class_list":{"0":"post-556127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-diamondbacks","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-arizonadiamondbacks","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-diamondbacks","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-zac-gallen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116018621669691913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556127","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=556127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}