{"id":571764,"date":"2026-02-14T07:32:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T07:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/571764\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T07:32:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T07:32:39","slug":"zach-gallen-free-agency-diamondbacks-bring-back-ace-on-one-year-deal-per-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/571764\/","title":{"rendered":"Zach Gallen free agency: Diamondbacks bring back ace on one-year deal, per report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zac Gallen<\/a>\u00a0is heading back to the desert. Gallen and the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> are closing in on a one-year contract worth $22.025 million, according to a report from\u00a0The Athletic<\/a>. About $14 million would be deferred. The deal matches the $22.025 million qualifying offer Gallen rejected in November. The team has not yet announced the signing, which is pending a physical.<\/p>\n

Gallen, 30, is coming off a 2025 season in which he didn’t live up to his established standards, hence settling for a one-year contract despite finishing in the top 10 of the National League Cy Young voting three times in his career.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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For his career, Gallen has pitched to a 119 ERA+ and an FIP of 3.65 across parts of seven MLB seasons. Over that span he’s compiled a WAR of 20.7, and he’s topped 30 starts and 180 innings in three of the last four seasons. Gallen spent the last six seasons and change with the D-backs, who acquired him from the\u00a0Miami Marlins<\/a>\u00a0in July 2019 in exchange for\u00a0Jazz Chisholm Jr<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Earlier in the offseason, CBS Sports ranked Gallen as the No. 18 available free agent<\/a> in the class of 2025-26. Here’s part of R.J. Anderson’s write-up:\u00a0 <\/p>\n

“Gallen salvaged what he could with a good 11-start closing stretch, but an otherwise miserable walk year makes him feel like a strong candidate to accept the qualifying offer (if one is tendered) and try again in 2026. Otherwise? He’s a candidate to sign a one-year deal elsewhere and modify his arsenal in an attempt to push back against a trend that has seen his performance slip in each of the past two years.” \t \t<\/p>\n

Before Gallen’s return, FanGraphs<\/a> estimated Arizona’s 2026 payroll at $173 million. That is just south of the franchise record ($177 million in 2024), so Gallen will push the club well into uncharted payroll territory. The D-backs will neither gain nor forfeit draft picks to re-sign their own qualified free agent. <\/p>\n

Arizona brought Merrill Kelly<\/a> back earlier this offseason, and now they’ve reunited with Gallen. Those two will join lefty Eduardo Rodriguez<\/a> and righties Ryne Nelson<\/a> and Brandon Pfaadt<\/a> in the rotation. Corbin Burnes<\/a>, last offseason’s big free-agent splash, is expected to return from Tommy John surgery at midseason. <\/p>\n

The D-backs went 80-82 last season and missed the postseason by three games. They sold at the trade deadline, most notably sending Kelly to the Texas Rangers<\/a> and Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a> to the Seattle Mariners<\/a>, though they kept Gallen. <\/p>\n

Gallen was originally drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a>. He went to the Marlins with\u00a0Sandy Alcantara<\/a> as part of a December 2017 deal that sent Marcell Ozuna<\/a> to St. Louis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zac Gallen\u00a0is heading back to the desert. Gallen and the Arizona Diamondbacks are closing in on a one-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[22,5,60930,4,2046,86,75207,75206,75205],"class_list":{"0":"post-571764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-cubs-free-agency","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-free-agency","13":"tag-zac-gallen","14":"tag-zac-gallen-contract","15":"tag-zac-gallen-diamondbacks","16":"tag-zac-gallen-free-agency"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116067825098106636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571764","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=571764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}