Zac Gallen Is one of the more intriguing pitchers on the free agent market this winter, because interested clubs have to balance the solid track record of the right -handed by his shaky season 2025. Theoretically, the situation could offer an opening for Galen to accept a qualifying offer of the Diamondbacks, although John Gambadoro from Arizono Sports 98.7FM (multiple left) feels “There is no chance that he will accept it. ‘
This winter’s qualification body is estimated at around $ 22 million. While he is a nice payment day of a year, Galen is undoubtedly looking for much more in an obligation in the longer term while he is testing the market for the first time. Even if his struggles inevitably reduce his asking price this year, the always present need of baseball means to pitch that Galen should have a kind of acceptable multi -year pact.
Scott Boras (Agent van Galen) has a long history of finding such deals for his customers, although Boras has also investigated relatively shorter contracts with opt-out clausules for players who enter a free agency on the heels of Zo platform years. It is not difficult to imagine that Gallen signed such a deal, and if he returns to form in 2026, an opt-out clause will carry out immediately to return to the free desk. It is clear that in such a way there is a risk of betting in itself, plus next year’s market has the extra uncertainty of labor unrusty and a potential exclusion as the collective employment contract ends.
Galen placed an ERA of 4.83, 21.5% strikeout percentage and 8.1% running speed for 192 innings in 2025, where the ERA and K% both stood out as the career. Almost all of Gallen Status Figures were under the competition average and he was constantly plagued by the home runbal-de 31 gays van Galen were the on two Naste of every pitcher in baseball. The bloated number is partly related to the number of innings that Gallen has thrown, although his barrel percentage and hard -affected ball percentages do not exceed the 26th percentile of all pitchers.
The good news for Galen is that he seemed to be on the right track during the last two months of the season. After placing a 5.60 ERA during his first 127 innings, he improved to a 3.32 ERA compared to his last 65 frames and 11 starts. The turn of Gallen came immediately after the trade deadline, and if he had started pitching a little earlier, it is quite possible that he would have disappeared from Arizona, given the other deadline sale of the diamondbacks.
Ken Kendrick is a well -known fan of Galen, and the owner of d’backs stated earlier this week that it is not “From the realm of reality“That the Righty could be signed again. However, within the same interview, Kendrick said that”We will not spend on the same level“Like in 2025, although the Diamondbacks are still planning to have a competitive payroll and are planning to win next year.
Whether this yields a salary number that can work for both the d’Anbacks and the Gallen camp can still be seen. If Gallen were to reject the qualifying offer and the sign elsewhere, Arizona would receive a compensatory choice of concept just after the first round of the design of 2026. Landing of an extra pick in the general reach of 31-36 would be a decent consolation price if Gallen would leave, especially if the diamondbacks could add the start of pitching elsewhere at a lower price.
For example a reunion with Merrill Kelly has been in principle speculated since Kelly was traded in the deadline to the Rangers. Kelly was open about his desire to stay before and after the trade in Arizona, and Kelly would be available for a lower price than Gallen, given their age (Kelly becomes 37 in a few weeks and Galen turned 30 last month). Gambadoro feels that the diamondbacks will chase one of Gallen or Kelly, but not both, so that one rotation place remains open for a younger pitcher to Corbin Burnes Is ready to return from Tommy John Surgery.
Between Arizona’s pitching needs and the desire of the team to lower the payroll, some other parts of the selection may get less focus. Gambadoro thinks for example Pavin Smith get the majority of the percussion and get Random or Tyler Locklear Faced as the right -handed side of the peloton. Bringing in an experienced bat for the first base/DH mix would also seem logical, even if such an acquisition is probably not as striking as the trade of the last season for the season for the season Josh Naylor.
Smith appeared in just eight games after July 5, like a sloping tribe and then a quad -stem cost him the entire back of the season. Smith hit .258/.362/.434 with eight home runs more than 288 plate performances in 2025, opposite right -handed people in all journeys to court. The result was a very solid 123 WRC+ for the season, but almost all Smith production came during a burning hot April, and his strikeout rate rose to an empty 31.9%. Get more out of Tawa or Locklear would go a long way to solidifying the first basehound of the Diamondbacks, but the unproven duo has only 390 combined Major League PA between them.
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