3 Players Phillies Should Acquire from Struggling D-backs
By Matt Rappa
2. Zac Gallen
It might take a lot to acquire 25-year old starting pitcher Zac Gallen from the D-backs, but it would be worth every penny for Dombrowski.
Gallen made his debut with the Miami Marlins in 2019 before being dealt to the D-backs that same year. After three seasons in the big leagues, he has a career 2.98 ERA through 33 starts.
This season, Gallen has a decent 3.99 ERA through six starts, punching out 35 of his 129 batters faced over 29 1/3 total innings. In 2020, he finished ninth in the Cy Young Award race, going 3-2 with a 2.75 ERA and 82 strikeouts across 12 starts and 72 innings.
Coming to the Phillies would be a homecoming for Gallen, who was born in Somerdale, New Jersey.
According to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Jon Miller during Thursday’s D-backs broadcast, Gallen grew up about 10 miles away from Citizens Bank Park, but was a St. Louis Cardinals fan. When the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, he asked his mom and dad if he could miss school to attend the parade. Miller added: “She said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘You’re not even a Phillies fan. You like the Cardinals!”
Fittingly, the Cardinals drafted Gallen eight years later in the third round of the 2016 draft out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Still pre-arbitration-eligible this year and well-under team control, Gallen would be a nice middle-of-the-rotation complement for the Phillies to fellow right-hander Zach Eflin.