Zac Gallen, $100 million man?
Roster moves
The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves. The D-backs’ 40-man roster is at 40.
- Recalled from Triple-A Reno: RHP Cristian Mena
- Optioned to Reno following last night’s game: LHP Tommy Henry
Henry did his job, throwing 36 pitches over 2.2 scoreless innings, and Ryne Nelson is now slated to return to his usual position of long relief. However, given his pitch count, it’ll be a few days before he’ll be able to throw again, and with Henry also needing a day or two’s rest, the team has therefore called up Mena as temporary coverage. I imagine he’ll likely be with the team either until Corbin Burnes’s scheduled start on Saturday, or until Mena is burned up like Henry. He made his MLB debut on July 3 last year, and has made six starts for the Reno Aces, so should be capable of giving length if needed. Mena has a 5.76 ERA, but Reno. That’s actually better than most of the starters the Aces have used.
Writing today on ESPN, Jeff Passan predicts that tonight’s starter Zac Gallen is still in line for a nine-figure contract on the free-agent market next winter. He says, “While Gallen’s stuff has ticked down this season and he turns 30 in August, he has been a consistent enough innings eater with a high enough strikeout rate to warrant inclusion among the nine-figure aspirants. His elevated walk rates each of the past two seasons are of concern for a pitcher whose fastball sits at 93, so Gallen needs to pare those back if he wants to stay in this group.” Me, I would frankly be surprised, given how much Gallen has struggled in general since coming back from a strained hamstring in the middle of last season.
However, he was good enough to beat these Mets with six innings of one-run ball, last Thursday in New York, and hopefully he can do so again tonight. After back-to-back recaps, not to mention participating in GDTs with a total of close to a thousand comments in them, I intend to take this game off, and will be icing down my typing arm from the sofa. Last thing I want is to blow out my elbow and end up needing Tommy John surgery. That two-thousand word article on the resurrection of Shelby Miller, isn’t going to write itself, after all. So, have fun with tonight’s contest, while I lurk quietly in the corner!