PHOENIX (AP) — Right-hander Zac Gallen has agreed to a $22,025,000, one-year contract to return to the Arizona Diamondbacks, a person with knowledge of the deal confirmed Friday night.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal is pending a physical.
The 2023 All-Star, a client of agent Scott Boras, was seeking a multi-year contract, but after nothing acceptable materialized, he's coming back to the desert where he's spent the majority of his big league's career.
MLB.com first reported Gallen and the D-backs were close to a deal. The value of the contract is equal to the qualifying offer that Gallen turned down in November after he become a free agent. He was the last player to reach a deal among the nine free agents who had turned down qualifying offers.
Gallen had his worst season in the big leagues in 2025, finishing with 13-15 record with a 4.83 ERA and an 8.2 strikeout rate per nine innings, the lowest of his career. But his velocity was still good and he performed better after the All-Star break with a 3.97 ERA over his final 13 starts. He had a $13.5 million salary.
The 30-year-old was one of the best pitchers in the National League from 2022-24, finishing fifth in the Cy Young Award voting in 2022 and third in 2023.
He was the ace for the D-backs in 2023, going 17-9 with a 3.47 ERA, as they made a surprise run to the World Series before losing in five games to the Texas Rangers.
Gallen was selected in the third round of the 2016 amateur draft by the St. Louis Cardinals after playing in college at North Carolina. He was traded to the Marlins in 2017 and made his big-league debut with the organization in 2019 before being traded again to the D-backs in a deal that sent Jazz Chisholm Jr. to Miami.
Overall, Gallen is 66-52 with a 3.58 ERA in seven major league seasons.
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FILE - Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zac Gallen works against a San Diego Padres batter during the third inning of a baseball game Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull,File)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Hopes rose for renewed talks between the United States and Iran on Wednesday, as the U.S. military said its blockade of Iranian ports was in full effect and Tehran threatened to retaliate by strike targets across the war-weary region.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a second round of talks could happen "over the next two days," telling the New York Post the negotiations could be held again in Islamabad as diplomats worked through back channels to arrange them.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said it’s “highly probable” that talks will restart, citing a meeting he had with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. The office of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he would travel to Saudi Arabia Wednesday as his country pushes to mediate new talks and to Turkey for the Anatalya Peace Forum, which starts Friday.
Oil prices fell on hopes for an end to fighting, and in the U.S. stocks surged close to records set in January. The war, now in its seventh week, has jolted markets and rattled the global economy as shipping has been cut off and airstrikes have torn through military and civilian infrastructure across the region.
Meanwhile in Washington, the first direct talks in decades between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors to the U.S. concluded on a productive note Tuesday, according to the U.S. State Department.
Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said the two countries are “on the same side of the equation” in “liberating Lebanon” from the militant Hezbollah group. Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad called the meeting “constructive” but urged an end to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Since March, that war has displaced more than 1 million people in Lebanon.
Israel and Lebanon have technically been at war since Israel was established in 1948, and Lebanon remains deeply divided over diplomatic engagement with Israel.
Last weekend in Pakistan, an initial round of talks aimed at permanently ending the U.S.-Iran conflict failed to produce an agreement. The White House said Iran’s nuclear ambitions were a central sticking point.
“I think they want to make a deal very badly,” Trump said in an excerpt from an interview with Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria" scheduled to air Wednesday morning. He added: “I view it as very close to over.”
A U.S. official said Tuesday that fresh talks with Iran were still under discussion and that nothing has been scheduled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive negotiations.
Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s finance minister, told The Associated Press that “our leadership is not giving up” on efforts to help the U.S. and Iran end the conflict.
Though the ceasefire appeared to hold, the showdown over the strategic Strait of Hormuz risked reigniting hostilities and deepening the regional war's economic fallout.
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,100 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen U.S. service members have also been killed.
U.S. Central Command said Tuesday no ships made it past the blockade in the first 24 hours, while six merchant vessels complied with direction from U.S. forces to turn around and reenter Iranian waters.
The blockade is intended to pressure Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil, mostly to Asia, since the war began Feb. 28. Much of it has likely been carried by so-called dark transits that evade sanctions and oversight, providing cash that’s been vital to keeping Iran running.
Tankers approaching the strait Monday turned around shortly after the blockade took effect, though one reversed course again and transited the waterway.
Since the war began, Iran has curtailed maritime traffic, with most commercial vessels avoiding the waterway. Tehran's effective closure of the strait, through which a fifth of global oil transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing, pushing up the cost of gasoline, food and other basic goods far beyond the Middle East.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Matthew Lee, Fatima Hussein, Collin Binkley, Chris Rugaber, Will Weissert and Konstantin Toporin in Washington; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo; Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem; Edith Lederer and Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter speaks with reporters outside of the State Department in Washington, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A volunteer flips a burnt book amid the debris of a residential building that, according to the authorities, was damaged on March 4 during the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, in southeastern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A veiled woman walks through a mass grave where civilians and Hezbollah fighters killed by Israeli airstrikes are temporarily buried in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Residents gesture and point toward damage as they stand near charred cars at the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike last Wednesday in central Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
