Diamondbacks’ Zac Gallen reacts to being named Opening Day starter
Zac Gallen understands what the honor means to be the Opening Day starter for the Arizona Diamondbacks having done it twice.
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SCOTTSDALE — Zac Gallen understands the responsibility of starting on Opening Day for the Arizona Diamondbacks having done it twice.
Pitching the first or second game may not make much of a difference in the grand scheme of a 162-game season. It is, however, is a show of trust from the organization to open the campaign on the right foot, as D-backs baseball officially returns when Gallen begins his first windup.
Manager Torey Lovullo on Thursday announced Gallen would start Arizona’s season opener at Chase Field next week against the Chicago Cubs over coveted free agent addition Corbin Burnes, who agreed to a $210 million contract over the winter.
“(Lovullo) just said, ‘Hey, we’re giving you the ball on Opening Day, something I feel like you deserve,'” Gallen recalled. “‘You’ve been here a while. You’ve been through some dark times, helped lead us out of those dark times.’
“(I’m) super appreciative that he was able to give me that honor. That’s not something I take lightly. We have a bunch of guys in here deserving of that honor. So yeah, it’s something I’m proud of.”
This is Gallen’s seventh season with the club, and he is one of four players on the active roster who played games for the 2019 D-backs with Kevin Ginkel, Merrill Kelly and Ketel Marte. Gallen has ascended franchise leaderboards to sixth in both starts and strikeouts.
Gallen first started on Opening Day in 2023 at the Los Angeles Dodgers and did so again last year at home against the Colorado Rockies.
“It’s cool, not something you think about necessarily as a kid, but as you get into it, you understand what the honor means and what it is to be able to go out there and take the ball in the first game,” Gallen said. “It’s become something I cherish.”
Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen reflects on being named Arizona's Opening Day starter: pic.twitter.com/Nh3o8HSPTI
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) March 20, 2025
Lovullo said he’s never made a tougher decision when it comes to who would be the Opening Day starting pitcher and commended Burnes’ understanding of the situation.
“Zac is very humble and very quiet,” Lovullo said. “I get to see a different side of him than I know you guys do. But he said something to me that I’ll never forget. He said, ‘Thank you. That really means a lot to me, and I’m going to go out there and give you all I can.’ So those are the memories that I’ll carry with me. I know it mattered to him, and I know it mattered to Corbin, and I was gonna have to make a tough decision.”
The skipper did not yet disclose when Burnes would debut, but Gallen started on Thursday with Burnes probable for Friday, for those counting at home.
Diamondbacks skipper Torey Lovullo dives into his reasoning behind naming Zac Gallen as the team's Opening Day starter: pic.twitter.com/6DNvAIakwO
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) March 20, 2025
Zac Gallen closer to final form in spring training outing
Shortly after the announcement, Gallen took the hill for his final start of spring training. He threw 4.1 innings against the Athletics at Salt River Fields, getting up to 73 pitches.
He allowed one run on five hits (all singles) with two strikeouts and two walks. He did not surrender much hard contact and had the breaking balls working with eight whiffs between his curveball and slider.
“Felt like everything started to come together a lot better from where I was in that first live (batting practice),” Gallen said after an 11-3 win.
“Even where I was last outing in that Triple-A game, (I) still felt a little off today but I felt a little bit closer, little bit more in sync, little better rhythm. So I think it was a good outing from 30,000-foot view.”
In classic Gallen fashion, he wanted one more hitter to try and force a double play and end the fifth inning, but he was too close to his pitch limit. Plus, the D-backs wanted to get Ginkel in the game to work with a runner on.
Ginkel, A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez all got in reps and will likely pitch on back-to-back days Friday on the backfields.
Gallen finished his Cactus League experience with a 2.89 ERA in 9.1 innings with 10 strikeouts, although his four-frame outing in a Triple-A game does not count toward those numbers.
The D-backs have four games left before heading back to Chase Fields for exhibitions against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday and Tuesday.
Arizona visits the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night at 6:10 p.m. with Burnes lined up to start against his former club.
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Comments
3 Comments
Agreed. He has shown ace stuff in past seasons, but not since the first half of 2023. I’d call him a good pitcher, but not elite.
I don't have as much faith in Zac Gallen as apparently some do. He was mostly unimpressive last season, and could barely pitch into, let alone finish, a 5th inning. That's not the trademark of a staff ace, that's more like a number 4 pitcher.
I'd hate to see him get a huge contract, only to produce the same results. Hopefully the competition from Burnes and Kelly will light a fire inside him, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't.
Boy, Lovullo really made a mountain out of a mole hill with this one. And by doing so he put more significance behind it so that whoever ends up #2 can’t help but feel slighted. Should have just told the two, three weeks ago, that Gallen is getting the nod because he has tenure and then casually let the media find out. He has a tendency to like to put the focus on himself. Listen to him talk to the media. It’s a lot of “me and I”. I’ve never heard another manager talk about himself so much. I think this is why he messes with the lineup so often. He likes being the decision maker. If he just runs the same lineup out every day with his best players, that’s boring and nobody will talk about him.