Diamondbacks key free agents receive contract projections from ESPN

The Arizona Diamondbacks had a solid season, finishing 86-76, but they’ve failed to make the postseason every year since their World Series run in 2023.

This offseason, ahead of a potential impending lockout, several key members of last season’s team will hit the open market in free agency.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel projected the contracts of the top 50 free agents, and three Diamondbacks made the list: starting pitchers Michael Soroka and Zac Gallen and reliever Jonathan Loaisiga.

Soroka, ranked as McDaniel’s 28th-best available free agent, will garner some interest from teams looking for a solid back-of-the-rotation starting pitcher.

Soroka had a huge age-21 season in 2019, posting 4.0 WAR and a 51% ground ball rate and looking like he would blossom into a perennial second/third starter. Then the injuries hit, and he wasn’t relevant again until 2025, but injuries limited him to 22 combined appearances in 2025 and 2026. The traits are still there (but the ground ball rate is now below average), and he’s still in his 20s for all of next season, so I could see a one-year prove-it deal or a team taking a gamble that the bulk and quality will show up now and offer him a two-year contract. I think there will be interest in both concepts, so this is mostly Soroka’s call.

Next on the list, ranked one spot lower at No. 29, was Loaisiga. The long-time New York Yankee wrapped up his first season with the Diamondbacks, posting a solid 2.42 ERA in 67 innings.

McDaniel projects his contract at around two years, $22 million.

Loaisiga had pretty mixed seasons from 2023 to 2025 then broke out in 2026 due to improved command, a slight tweak to his pitch mix and a bit more zip on his fastball. He throws mostly 97-99 mph sinkers to right-handed hitters, helping him rack up tons of ground balls. His changeup is his bread-and-butter against lefties, leaning more on the four-seam as his preferred fastball to complement it. The combination of above-average control and high ground ball rates while also limiting hard contact means Loaisiga doesn’t need to strike out many batters to have setup man performances.

The final significant Diamondbacks free agent is Gallen, who was ranked 44th. He’s coming off a disastrous season in which he put up a career-worst 6.07 ERA to go along with the worst strikeout rate of his career.

Nevertheless, he’s not too far removed from being a Cy Young candidate, and McDaniel thinks he’ll get around a one-year, $12 million prove-it deal to see if he has anything left in the tank.

Gallen got multiyear interest last offseason, but after turning down the QO at the beginning of the winter, he settled for a version of it with deferrals. He had a really rough season, with a cratering strikeout rate and ballooning ERA, to the point where a change of scenery and going back to the drawing board on a one-year pillow contract is likely his best move. Gallen is yet another potential target for low-payroll, development-first clubs to get an All-Star-level talent for a smaller one-year deal.

Other notable Diamondbacks free agents include catcher James McCann and relievers Taylor Clarke and Kevin Ginkel.

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