Zac Gallen doesn’t need to move.
The right-handed pitcher, perhaps the best lefty on the free agent market, has agreed to a one-year contract worth approximately $22 million to return to the Diamondbacks. The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed this.
According to Heyman, the 30-year-old received multi-year offers but liked the idea of staying with Arizona.
The Athletics reported that the deal includes approximately $14 million in deferred payments.
The deal ends a lengthy free agency for the 2023 National League All-Star after he rejected a $22.025 million qualifying offer in November, which, ironically, is about how much he’ll make in 2026 anyway.
The attachment to the qualifying offer meant that if another team had signed Gallen, it would have had to forfeit draft picks, with Arizona awarded draft compensation.
Before the Orioles signed Chris Bassitt earlier this week, they were interested in Gallen, Heyman reported in January.
The Cubs, Padres and Angels were among the other teams interested in his services.
But it’s Arizona he’s returning to, a place where he’s pitched for the past seven seasons.
On February 3, Gallen expressed interest in returning to the Diamondbacks.
“It was humiliating,” Gallen told reporters at the WM Phoenix Open. “That’s been the constant over the last few weeks. People have said, ‘Hey, we’d love for you to come back.’ I think people understand what Phoenix means to me.
“My wife is from here, I call this home base now, so it would be great for us to be here.”
He was acquired by the Diamondbacks from the Marlins at the 2019 trade deadline for Jazz Chisholm Jr. and quickly established himself as a reliable arm at the top of the rotation, receiving Cy Young votes in three different seasons.
He had a strong three-year stretch from 2022-2024 with a 3.20 ERA and 568 strikeouts in 542 innings.
But 2025 saw a dip in production with a career-worst 4.83 ERA.
Gallen’s periphery wasn’t great either, with his strikeout rate dropping from 25.1 percent in 2025 to 21.5 percent in ’25.
Still, he’s pitched more than 180 innings three times in the last four years and should help solidify Arizona’s rotation as it tries to keep pace in the NL West.
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