{"id":577253,"date":"2026-02-17T10:14:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/577253\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:14:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:14:50","slug":"diamondbacks-re-sign-cy-young-finalist-to-steal-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/577253\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks re-sign Cy Young finalist to &#8216;steal&#8217; contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Arizona Diamondbacks arguably got a steal of a deal to re-sign starting pitcher Zac Gallen.<\/p>\n<p>The Diamondbacks inked Gallen to a one-year deal <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BNightengale\/status\/2022499572665454873\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BNightengale\/status\/2022499572665454873\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">after fending off other suitors<\/a> for his services. According to USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale, the contract was for $22.025 million with $14 million deferred.<\/p>\n<p>Gallen reportedly turned down \u201cseveral multi-year offers\u201d from other teams to return to Arizona, enabling him to test the market again next season.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The DBacks stayed patient and got a steal with Gallen fortifying their rotation. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lNFcFJ6fxQ\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/lNFcFJ6fxQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BNightengale\/status\/2022512208585056661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 14, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Nightengale himself called the contract a \u201csteal\u201d for the Diamondbacks, who will likely get the best Gallen can offer in 2026. With Gallen fully motivated to showcase himself for his next big contract, the 30-year-old looks poised for a bounce-back year in Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>The New Jersey native was a breakout performer for the D-Backs in 2022. Gallen had a 2.54 ERA with a league-best 0.91 WHIP, earning him a top-5 finish in Cy Young Award voting. He followed that up with his first All-Star appearance and a top-3 Cy Young finish in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Gallen, however, looked far from an ace last season, when he posted a 4.83 ERA across 33 starts. The decision to sign a one-year contract was a bet-on-himself move that could land him a big payday next offseason if he can prove to teams that he\u2019s capable of anchoring a rotation.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Diamondbacks arguably got a steal of a deal to re-sign starting pitcher Zac Gallen. The Diamondbacks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,38,4,86],"class_list":{"0":"post-577253","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\/116085451884427410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577253","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=577253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}