Zac Gallen is heading back to Phoenix. After rejecting the one-year, $22.025 million qualifying offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks, the right-handed starter agreed to re-sign with the Diamondbacks on Friday, pending a physical. It’s another one-year, $22.025 million deal, but with approximately $14 million deferred, according to a league source.
Because of the deferred money, Gallen did worse than he would have by accepting the straight qualifying offer. But he can go back into the open market without a qualifying offer next winter.
Gallen, who recorded consecutive top-five finishes in the NL Cy Young Award balloting in 2022 and ’23, seemed aligned for a massive payday after registering another strong season in 2024. His numbers took a hit in 2025, though, with some trends that both explain his rocky season and some teams’ tempered outlook for him.
After all, The Athletic projected last spring that Gallen would land a six-year, $174 million deal once he reached free agency. After the season, that forecast changed to a two-year, $42 million deal. He ranked No. 21 on The Athletic’s top 50 free agent big board.
Gallen is only 30 years old, and he does own a 3.58 ERA across seven big-league seasons, with more than a strikeout per inning. He has held the opposition to a .224/.291/.375 clip in his career.
The past three seasons, Gallen’s fWAR has tumbled from 5.2 to 2.8 to 1.1. His ERA and strikeout rate zoomed in the wrong direction last season. His chase rate and whiff rate have been in decline, too, which isn’t ideal for a guy with a pedestrian 93 mph fastball.
The primary issue for Gallen last season, though, was the long ball. He surrendered 31 home runs in 2025, which explains the only marked difference in opponents’ slash line against him the past two years.
2024: .237/.308/.376
2025: .239/.303/.426
The Diamondbacks are aiming for Gallen to recapture his form from 2020-23, when he three times placed in the top 10 in the NL Cy Young Award voting and logged a 3.26 ERA over 100 starts. Perhaps the answer lies within his six-pitch arsenal. His fastball got hit around a bit last year. And while he didn’t throw his cutter often (5.8 percent), hitters walloped the pitch to the tune of a .761 slugging percentage. His changeup was his most effective pitch and when he kept his curveball in the yard, he induced a strong whiff rate with it.