PHOENIX -- As expected, the Diamondbacks on Thursday extended a qualifying offer to free agent right-hander Zac Gallen and will receive Draft pick compensation should he turn down the offer and sign with a new team.
This year's qualifying offer is worth $22.025 million, which is the mean salary of Major League Baseball's 125 highest-paid players. In the history of the qualifying offer system before this offseason (since 2012), only 14 out of 144 players had accepted the one-year deal.
Gallen and the rest of the free agents around baseball who received a QO on Thursday have until 2 p.m. MST on Nov. 18 to either accept or decline the offer.
Despite posting overall numbers in 2025 that were below the norm for him, Gallen is expected to turn down the offer and test the free agent market. Pitching is still a much sought after commodity and Gallen has a track record, as well as a strong final two months of the season, that should make him attractive to other teams.
Gallen, though, owns a home in Arizona and spoke towards the end of the season about wanting to stay with the Diamondbacks.
After his final start of the regular season against the Padres in San Diego, Gallen remained in his uniform long after the game ended, not wanting to take it off.
"It's tough for me to take [it] off," Gallen said. "Kind of lingered on the mound a little bit too when [manager Torey Lovullo] was coming out [to take me out]. Wearing this uniform for seven years now, as much as I spent some time in other organizations, I think of myself as a D-back, really. Spent most of my career here and if it's the last time, it'll be a tough pill to swallow. I know the last two years didn't go the way we wanted them to. This year didn't go the way I envisioned for myself. But every fifth day I put the uniform on, I was honored, I was proud to put the uniform on. I went out there every fifth day and just tried to give these guys everything I had. Obviously just this year wasn't enough."
The Diamondbacks have also expressed interest in retaining Gallen and it's possible that even if he turns down the qualifying offer the two sides could reach an agreement on a multi-year deal.
"He just got done explaining how much this organization means to him," Lovullo said after he and general manager Mike Hazen had an end of the season exit talk with Gallen. "We know that he's on a journey, this offseason that none of us know about, and it's very unpredictable. So things might change, things might not change, and there's some unknown in this game, you deal with that as best you possibly can. We just had a really emotional meeting with him, and things he said meant a lot to me, and I know the things that we said meant a lot to him."