After operating with a short-handed rotation for much of the season, starting pitching is a natural need for the Blue Jays as the deadline approaches. The Jays “are looking for a front-line pitcher,” USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes, and Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen is one of the hurlers on Toronto’s target list.
The D’Backs took a 46-50 record into today’s game with the Angels, and they sit 6.5 games back of the final NL wild card spot. A team with such high expectations (and a club-record payroll) might wait until closer to the deadline before finally deciding to sell, but barring a major winning streak after the All-Star break, it certainly looks like Arizona will be moving some talent at the deadline. Nightengale writes that the Diamondbacks are already open to discussing impending free agents, which could make Arizona a sought-after trade partner if such players as Gallen, Eugenio Suarez, Josh Naylor, or Merrill Kelly are available.
Gallen is perhaps the most difficult player of that group to evaluate in terms of trade value, as he is posting the worst season of his seven-year MLB career. The righty has a 5.40 ERA in 115 innings and a slate of unimpressive Statcast metrics, including some of the worst hard-contact rates of any pitcher in the league. Gallen has been prone to hard contact even in his best years, but a worsening walk rate over the last two seasons has contributed to his struggles. A 4.18 SIERA indicates that Gallen should be out-performing his actual ERA, though those are still the numbers of more a mid-rotation arm rather than a front-of-the-rotation type.
The catch is that Gallen has looked like an ace in the past, with three top-nine finishes in NL Cy Young Award voting on his resume. His best finish was a third-place result in 2023, when Gallen had a 3.47 ERA over 210 innings for an Arizona team that made a surprise run to the NL pennant. The 210 frames was a career high for Gallen, and he added another 33 2/3 innings on his arm during the Diamondbacks’ lengthy playoff run. It can’t be overlooked that Gallen hasn’t quite looked the same since that signature season, as his production took a step backwards in 2024 before his sharper downturn this year.
Arizona is surely still going to put a significant asking price on Gallen, hoping that rival teams could view him as a change-of-scenery candidate. The Diamondbacks’ trade efforts will also naturally be helped by the fact that basically every contender could use a starter, plus Gallen is relatively affordable (around $5.625MM remains on his $13.5MM salary). A pitcher with Gallen’s history will draw interest even if his most recent results haven’t been good. From the perspective of trade suitors, however, those 2025 numbers will surely loom large, as clubs will have to gauge how much they’re willing to offer for a rental pitcher who isn’t in top form.
The Blue Jays have leaned hard on Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, and Chris Bassitt as the top three starters in their rotation this season, as Max Scherzer’s injuries and Bowden Francis’ struggles left Toronto operating with what felt like a three-man rotation for a big chunk of the first half. Scherzer has since returned to the mound (though is still managing thumb discomfort) and minor league signing Eric Lauer has pitched really well since joining the rotation in May, plus Alek Manoah has started a rehab assignment and is expected to be back at some point late in the second half in his return from UCL surgery.
With this much uncertainty, another solid starter would go a long way towards helping the Jays’ chances of keeping their lead in the AL East, or at least making the postseason bracket. Gallen figures to be one of many names linked to the Blue Jays as GM Ross Atkins evaluates what promises to be a typically busy trade market for pitching.