D-backs preserving Gallen for another deep run

This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Zac Gallen made his final start of the 2023 season on Nov. 1, tossing 6 1/3 outstanding innings against the Rangers in Game 5 of the World Series. It wasn’t enough to keep the D-backs’ hopes alive as Texas prevailed 5-0.

It was a long year for Gallen -- the longest of his career.

During the regular season, Gallen threw 210 innings, easily eclipsing his previous career high of 184 from 2022. Then came the postseason, during which he logged another 33 2/3 innings.

Even prior to knowing how long his season would go, Gallen decided he would take a different route with his offseason throwing program this past winter. Rather than take weeks off before ramping up in December, he took all of 10 days off, then started playing catch from 60 feet.

“I always was concerned with getting the rest, the time off,” Gallen said. “And then, just the last couple years with taking that time off, I feel like I've started behind the eight-ball because I've had the cobwebs, the rust -- whatever you want to call it. It just sucks to deal with and your arm just feels like junk, and you just can't really put in the work you want to.”

Understand this about Gallen: Throwing is extremely important to him because he’s a feel pitcher; he wants to have just the right feeling of the ball coming out of his hand. For him, syncing up his mechanics is a never-ending process.

Gallen posted another stellar season in 2023, finishing third in National League Cy Young Award voting while also earning his first All-Star Game appearance and start. Still, when the season ended, he wasn’t satisfied with where he was at with his mechanics, so he went right to work.

“It allowed me to still work on things, even while I was throwing at a very low intensity,” Gallen said. “It was like, 'Let me try this one day, [then] let me try this because that didn’t feel right. OK, I'll just try something else the next day.' There wasn't really much at stake as opposed to like when I’m ramping up to get ready for the season. I was able to use that time when I would be resting for almost like a trial period, I guess, for certain things.”

Gallen then did his usual ramp-up for the season in December, and when he got to Spring Training, he and manager Torey Lovullo agreed to bring him along a little slower. Gallen threw more bullpen sessions and live hitting sessions as opposed to getting into Cactus League games right out of the gate.

Lovullo also told Gallen that he was going to give him and the other starters an extra day of rest when possible once the regular season started. So in Gallen’s four starts since his Opening Day assignment, he was pitching on an extra day of rest in three of them. He's 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA and 23 strikeouts over 16 innings in those three outings, but he's 3-1 with a 3.00 ERA overall.

One other thing Lovullo warned Gallen about was that he wasn’t going to push his pitch count early in the season, and if the D-backs had a comfortable lead, he may even pull him early. All with the idea that Gallen would be fresh and strong down the stretch when Arizona would (hopefully) be pushing for a postseason spot.

When he was younger, Gallen would fight to stay on his regular five-day routine, but at 28, he sees the wisdom in the extra rest.

“Early in the season, I feel like you probably don't feel like you need the extra day’s rest,” Gallen said. “But I think you really do, just because you're still ramping up the intensity. Obviously, you'd rather have the off-days toward the end of the year when you're probably -- I don't want to say running out of gas -- but you're hitting that limit of like, 'I’ve got to find a second or third wind.'”

A prime example of cutting Gallen’s workload came on Opening Day, when he had thrown 90 pitches through five innings and the D-backs had a 16-1 lead over the Rockies. Lovullo told Gallen he was taking him out -- and Gallen didn’t fight it.

As Lovullo explained at the time, any innings he can save Gallen early in the season can be used later in the season.

So far, Gallen has reached 100 pitches just once.

“In the past, I might have said, ‘No, I’m good,’” Gallen said. “But now, let’s be smart about this. There will come a time -- maybe in August against a divisional opponent or in September, when we’re hopefully fighting for a playoff spot -- where we’ll take some of those innings we put in the bank early and use them.”