Orioles Sign Free Agent Starter Chris Bassit (Which Carries Zac Gallen Implications) ...Middle East

What? You didn’t think we were going to make it through this day without at least one Zac Gallen headline, did you? Tsk, tsk. Do you know me at all?

Chris Bassitt to the Orioles

Tonight, Jeff Passan reports that the Baltimore Orioles are signing free agent starter Chris Bassitt to a one-year, $18.5 million deal, likely closing the door on any future free agent starter signings this offseason (hold that thought). Bassitt’s deal includes a $3M signing bonus and another $500K in incentives for starting 27 games, which he has done in each of the last five seasons.

Indeed, Bassitt has been pretty consistent for a while now, making at least 30 starts in four straight seasons with an ERA never lower than 3.42 or higher than 4.16 (and that was, by far, his worst season). That said, he’s also heading into his age-37 season, so we’ll see how much he has left in the tank. His velo has been on a steady decline over the last few years.

Okay, setting all of that aside, this has some fairly obvious Zac Gallen implications.

The Orioles were one of the last remaining teams interested in signing a free agent starter outside of any teams that may have a need arise as camp opens up and injuries are uncovered. So with them going another direction, Gallen likely did just lose a potentially prominent suitor.

Buuuuut like I said, injuries are already popping up all around the league. The Cubs were fortunate not to have any new pitcher injuries to report today, but the Braves, for one notable example, were not so lucky.

Spencer Schwellenbach is dealing with right elbow inflammation. The Braves are hoping he’s just dealing with bone spurs. But he’ll miss significant time. He’ll begin the year on the 60-day IL

When this news broke, most expected the Braves to dip back into free agency. After all, Spencer Schwellenbach had trailed only Chris Sale in the Braves’ 2026 ZiPS projections. Losing him for a significant period of time is going to hurt.

However, when this news first came down, most of the rumors connected the Braves to Bassitt, not Gallen. But now that Bassitt is off the table, you wonder if Atlanta is forced to pivot.

Either way, I’d say the odds of Zac Gallen “falling into the Cubs’ lap,” as Bruce Levine has put it, just ticked up a bit today. And once again, I’ll remind you: I am extremely on board.

Yes, the Cubs have both impact and depth in their 2026 rotation, but on a case-by-case basis, there are plenty of ways things can go sideways. Perhaps more to the point, three different members of the Cubs 2026 rotation are hitting free agency after this year (Jameson Taillon, Shota Imanaga, Matthew Boyd). Of course, that might also be part of the reason the Cubs haven’t signed Gallen yet.

Although it hasn’t been expressly reported, pretty much everyone expects Gallen to seek a contract that is either one year long or comes with an opt-out after the first season. Given his prior success, attachment to draft pick compensation, poor walk year, relative youth, and agent (Scott Boras), he’s basically the poster child for that sort of arrangement. The Cubs, by contrast, will almost certainly want to push back that opt-out until at least 2028 (i.e., after year 2) so Gallen can help cover the lost innings from the outgoing free agents. Plus, it makes the non-financial cost of signing a qualified free agent like Zac Gallen feel a little lighter.

And for whatever it’s worth, Levine just won’t drop this. He brought it up to Jed Hoyer (who smirked) at today’s press conference, and he mentioned it on the air this evening:

Do you think the Cubs will sign Zac Gallen? pic.twitter.com/xmnwl0AT5f

I am a big fan of the Cubs pushing the rest of their (financial) chips onto the table to get Gallen. Not only do I think he’ll be useful depth, but I actually think people are WAY too down on his 2025 season, which ended quite strong.

I just wrote about it the other day:

Yes, his first 17 starts in 2025 were brutal: 5.75 ERA, only 4 quality starts, a 20.8 K%, 9.9 BB%, 46.4 hard%, 12.7 barrel%, etc. But compare that to his final 16 starts of the season: 16 starts, 95.0 IP, 3.88 ERA (3.77 FIP), 22.3 K%, 6.2 BB%, 39.4 Hard%, 6.5 barrel%, plus a 45.8 groundball rate. Those are all very, very good numbers. So, bottom line, this is a guy with a 3.29 ERA through the first 143 starts of his career, who had a rough first half and immediately bounced back to more or less dominate down the stretch. Why aren’t we banging the table for him, again?

And there’s also the fact that Cubs catcher Carson Kelly has caught more Zac Gallen starts than any other catcher in baseball. And in those 55 starts, Gallen has a 2.81 ERA, while opposing batters are hitting just .202/.271/.337.

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