Cubs BCB After Dark: Should the Cubs sign Zac Gallen?

It’s another week here at BCB After Dark: the hippest spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. We’re open again for business. We’re so glad you decided to stop by. Come in out of the cold. We can check your coat for you. The hostess will seat you now. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

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Last week I asked you if, after the trade for Edward Cabrera and the signing of Alex Bregman, the Cubs were now the team to beat in the National League Central. Seventy-two percent of you agreed that the Cubs are now the favorites in the Central. Another 27 percent went with the defending champs, the Brewers. The Reds managed to eke out one percent of the vote, which was more than what the Pirates and Cardinals got.

Here’s the part where we listen to music and talk movies. The BCB Winter Science Fiction Classic is well underway, but you’re still free to join in the fun. But you’re also free to skip that. You won’t hurt my feelings.

Tonight we’re featuring the Charles Mingus Sextet in Norway in 1964 playing the Billy Strayhorn tune made famous by Duke Ellington, “Take the ‘A’ Train.”

Mingus is the bassist, of course, and Eric Dolphy plays bass clarinet. Jake Byard is on piano, Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, Johnny Coles on trumpet and Dannie Richmond is the drummer.

You voted in the BCB Winter Science Fiction Classic between Star Wars and Alien and Alien pulled off the upset. A mild upset, to be sure, but an upset nonetheless. I did call it the “Star Wars bracket” afterall. I do wonder if Star Wars’ reputation has suffered because of the uneven quality of all the recent intellectual property spinoffs. I’ve only seen a few of them and I haven’t really considered myself a “Star Wars fan” since I was about 14 years old. But I know that there are millions out there that still revere it. But the same is true of Alien, I guess.

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Tonight we have the second semifinal of the “Star Wars” bracket between the number-one seed Blade Runner and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

1. Blade Runner (1982). Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer and Sean Young.

Here’s what I wrote last time about Blade Runner.

Blade Runner is the one film that gets mentioned a lot as an alternative to 2001: A Space Odyssey when critics are naming the greatest science fiction film of all time. I guess Stalker and Metropolis might get a few mentions as well, but it’s those two that, it seems to me, get mentioned the most often. It’s not hard to see why. Both of them are science fiction films with ambition. They both are trying to transcend the genre and elevate it at the same time.

Here’s the opening scene of Blade Runner. I considered giving you the famous “tears in rain” speech as a clip, but since that’s a spoiler at the end of the film, I thought it best to avoid giving you that one for those of you who still haven’t seen it. But those of you already familiar with it can click on the link above if you want to relive it.

5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) Directed by Nicholas Meyer. Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Ricardo Montalban.

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Here’s what I wrote last time about The Wrath of Khan.

It’s entirely possible that I’ve seen The Wrath of Khan more than any other film. I don’t really keep track so I don’t know, but I’ve seen it a lot. If I just want a film for pure entertainment value, there’s not much better than The Wrath of Khan. There’s a saying that these kinds of films are only as good as their villain, and it doesn’t get much better than Montalban playing Khan here. But the film also takes advantage of our familiarity with the crew of the Enterprise and lets them play into their strengths as well. There’s also a video online where director Meyer explained how he made Shatner do take after take in order to tire him out and get a more subdued and world-weary Kirk. That somewhat explains the good job Shatner did here as well.

The scene where Khan reveals himself on Ceti Alpha Five.

Now it’s time to vote.

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You have until Wednesday to vote. Coming up next, Brazil (1985) takes on Terminator II: Judgment Day (1991).

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and the movies.

In the time between the Cubs failing to sign NPB-import Tatsuya Imai and the Cubs trading for Edward Cabrera, there was a lot of talk about the Cubs pivoting to free agent Zac Gallen to bolster their starting rotation. There was also a lot of talk about the Cubs interest in Zac Gallen earlier as Bob Nightengale erroneously reported, as Bob is wont to do, that the Cubs had come to terms with Gallen. Nightengale may have been wrong about the signing, but other writers did confirm that the Cubs were interested in the former Diamondbacks right-hander.

It did seem like the Cubs interest in Gallen was over after the recent moves. For one, trading for Cabrera lessens the need for a starting pitcher on the Cubs. Two, the signing of Alex Bregman puts the Cubs right up against the luxury tax threshold and it is widely assumed that even if the Cubs were willing to go a little above that, they wouldn’t go enough over it sign a major free agent.

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But the market for Gallen, 30, has not developed like he and his agent Scott Boras would have liked. There are a few reasons for that. The first is that Gallen, an ace in 2022 and 2023 and not much worse in 2024, had a poor season in 2025. We’ll get into that a bit later. The other reason is that Gallen turned down a qualifying offer from the Diamondbacks and teams are reluctant to give up a draft pick on top paying a lot of money for someone who isn’t elite. If you just base it on his 2025 season, Gallen isn’t an elite pitcher anymore. So it seems that Boras is pivoting to his normal tactic in such situations—have the player sign a short-term deal that would get him back on the market for a big payday while h’e still young.

Thus, Bruce Levine dropped a bit of a bombshell over the weekend when he reported that the Cubs and Boras are still talking about a deal that would bring Gallen to Chicago on a short-term deal. Such a deal would put the Cubs way over the luxury tax threshold that they’ve been reluctant to cross in recent years, but it’s also not something that ownership can’t afford, from everything we know.

So why might the Cubs bust the budget and lose a draft pick for Zac Gallen? The Cubs starting rotation currently looks like this:

Matthew Boyd

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Cade Horton

Shōta Imanaga

Jameson Taillon

Edward Cabrera

There’s also Justin Steele, who will return from elbow surgery sometime this year. Let’s pencil him in for June. The Cubs top pitching prospect, Jaxon Wiggins, could also be ready for the majors around mid-season or so.

There’s also Colin Rea and Javier Assad who can join the rotation or pitch out of the bullpen.

So if the Cubs already have 5 starters, two in reserve and two who could join the team midseason, why would they want Gallen so much they’d be willing to break the budget for him?

For one, the Cubs would hope that Gallen would be an improvement over one of the five pitchers currently in the rotation. If you have a chance to improve your team, you should. Yes, Gallen had a poor year last year with an ERA of 4.83. He had a career-low strikeout percentage. But he did improve greatly by the end of the season. In the final two months of the year, Gallen made 11 starts and put up an ERA of 3.32. His strikeout rate also increased back to what it had been from 2021 to 2024, when Gallen was good. If you think that Gallen figured out whatever was wrong from March to July, then Gallen is a near-ace pitcher who can be acquired for the price of a solid middle-of-the-rotation guy and for far fewer years.

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But the biggest reason to do so is to just add depth to the rotation. We all know that in the National League Division Series, through an injury to Horton and just general ineffectiveness of Imanaga, the Cubs ran out of starting pitchers. Horton has battled injuries throughout his career. So has Cabrera. Truth be told, Boyd isn’t far removed Tommy John surgery in 2023. While the Cubs hope Steele will be back sooner rather than later, there is no guarantee of that.

On top of that, Boyd, Imanaga, Taillon and Rea are all free agents after this upcoming season. The Cubs are going to have to find more pitchers for 2027 and beyond.

The big reason not to sign Gallen is, if you look at the totality of his 2025 season, that he’s a declining pitcher on who has just passed 30. I don’t think 30 is as old for a pitcher as it is for a position player, but Gallen does have a lot of innings on his arm. If you don’t think Gallen’s last two months truly represent a return to form, then you probably don’t want to sign Gallen for any price, considering the loss of a draft pick attached.

The other reason is that because Gallen rejected a qualifying offer, the Cubs would lose their second-round draft pick for signing him. The good news is that the Cubs are getting a pick after the second-round for losing Tucker. It’s better to have two draft picks than one here, but at least the Cubs would only be moving down a few picks had they just re-signed Tucker and signed no one who’d gotten an offer.

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Al wrote a piece earlier this winter on the Cubs interest in Gallen. It’s worth revisiting, even if the circumstances have change.

I’m going to propose that the Cubs offer Gallen a two-year deal worth $40 million, with a mutual option for a third year for another $20 million. If the Cubs decline the option, there’s a $4 million buyout. If Gallen declines it, there’s no penalty. In any case, Gallen can go back on the market in two years and if he pitches well, get one last big deal. If he doesn’t pitch well, at least he’s guaranteed $44 million.

So should the Cubs offer this deal?

Thanks for stopping by tonight. It’s always good to see you. Please get home safely. Stay warm out there. Tell your friends about us. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow evening for more BCB After Dark.