Arizona Diamondbacks’ Zac Gallen searching for old form, considering new tricks

Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen might not be coming off a bad year, but he is coming off one that was not up to his standards. He was largely healthy last year, and when that was the case in the past he tended to rank among the league’s better starters. He did not last season. Gallen has some theories, thoughts that tend to revolve around the same two areas of focus that typically occupy his mind: delivery and pitch selection. He thinks both help explain the hard contact he allowed last season, the damage incurred on his fastball and his ability to pitch deeper into games. And though he is only a couple of starts into spring training, he likes the way things are feeling. “Where we’re at right now,” Gallen said, “I feel pretty good.” Near the top of Gallen’s list of things to address is his fastball. It is a pitch that has seen its effectiveness diminish over the past two seasons. His velocity on the pitch is down a half tick, but not enough to explain how the opposition has gone from hitting .165 off the fastball in 2022 to .282 last year. Gallen believes the biggest problem has been an inability to command it away to right-handed hitters. The pitch, he said, leaks back over the plate, into parts of the strike zone that hitters can do damage. “That stems from just an inefficient delivery,” Gallen said. “I haven’t felt amazing with the fastball command because I’m moving inefficiently. I’m intending it to a certain place, but it’s missing.” Pitching coach Brian Kaplan described Gallen as having a “unicorn fastball” in previous years, and he thinks it might need only a “simple adjustment” to get it back to its previous levels. “We kind of talked about what’s maybe changing with the hand or the grip or the wrist a little bit to kind of get that shape back in a place where he feels a little bit better about it,” Kaplan said. “Just looking for a little more true backspin.” He added: “Sometimes the smallest little tweaks can have a much larger impact than guys imagine. I don’t think it’s anything more complex than that. Just kind of finding the shape he felt like he lost a year or so ago.” Gallen thinks his struggles with the fastball also can be traced to his pitches, namely his curveball, which he also had difficulty locating. He felt there were times he lacked conviction in his ability to land a breaking ball, which played into the hands of hitters hunting his fastball. “I think just getting those (secondary) pitches back to where I like them and I’m used to having them is a big thing,” Gallen said. “It’s not necessarily a big wholesale change, but getting things back to where they were when I felt like I was the most successful.” Gallen seemed most interested in the idea of redefining the way he pitches. He did not want to go into too many details of just what he was thinking, but he sounded open to rethinking some of his typical modes of attack. “This is now my seventh year in the big leagues and people know how I operate and what I’m trying to do,” he said. “I think it’s my turn to see how the chess pieces have moved and make a counter-movement to that, too.” When asked if that meant fewer first-pitch fastballs or maybe looking into his history to see counts in which he was predictable, Gallen was understandably coy. “That’s a good question,” Gallen said. “Even if I did know the answer, I don’t know if I would say. … Now we’re getting into answers that are the secret sauce.” Kaplan said he believes Gallen might benefit from those sort of tweaks, but he doesn’t think Gallen is at a point in his career where he needs a major makeover. His stuff is still more or less the same as when he was at his best in 2022 and 2023 – or, at least, getting it back to those levels is well within reach. “As a pitcher starts to age and get a little bit older, there are things they have to think about a little differently and ways to attack the zone and utilize different pitches,” Kaplan said. “I don’t think Zac is at that point yet. “I think Zac is at a point where he wants to kind of rediscover some of the stuff that made him that much more dominant two or three years ago. He didn’t really have a bad year, he just has high expectations. For me, it’s a little bit less about inventing something new, but maybe finding the one or two things that he held onto a year or two and might have lost track of.” Prior to last season, Gallen had received Cy Young consideration in each of the previous three years in which he made close to a full season’s worth of starts. From 2022-2023, Gallen logged a combined 3.04 ERA in 394 innings. Last season, he posted a 3.65 ERA in 148 innings, a year interrupted a couple of times by recurring hamstring issues. Manager Torey Lovullo pointed to those minor injuries as a reason Gallen had trouble keeping his delivery in sync. But Lovullo said he is excited about what this year will hold for Gallen, especially after hearing the way he and Kaplan have been interacting. “The conversations that he and Kap are having, it’s like calculus,” Lovullo said. “It’s definitely some really advanced stuff. I think you’re going to see the best version of Zac this year.” Gallen pointed to how three weeks remain until Opening Day but said he likes the way he feels, relatively speaking. “To be able to work with Kap and maybe try to right the ship on some of these things, it feels pretty good,” Gallen said. “It doesn’t feel 100 percent repeatable yet, but I’m not expecting it to because it’s still early. It’s still something I’m trying to break some bad habits and it takes a while to do that.” Right fielder Corbin Carroll, who exited Sunday’s game in Surprise with lower back tightness, still has yet to resume swinging but likely will do so on Thursday. There is an outside chance he will return to the lineup Friday. “Today was a target for him to play,” Lovullo said, “but I felt like if we could combine a bunch of different days to knock this totally out it just made a lot of sense.” Left-hander Jordan Montgomery will make his Cactus League debut Friday in Tempe. He has been delayed by a finger injury. Reliever Kendall Graveman said he is trending in the right direction after experiencing back discomfort over the weekend. He believes the issue stems from getting back to pitching at full intensity for the first time in more than a year. “The positive news is, my arm feels great,” said Graveman, who had shoulder surgery last year. “Now we’ve got to get the rest of the body ready to pitch and then we’ll be good to go.” Graveman said he played catch Wednesday and could throw a bullpen session this weekend. He said it’s too early to say whether he could start the season on time. “A lot will depend on the next seven to 10 days, how it responds, and then I think I’ll have a better feel,” he said. “I was in a great spot through that live (batting practice session last week), and then after that dealt with some of this, but we’ve gotten it to calm down and I think we’re on the right track.” Lovullo said he will remain at Salt River Fields on Thursday with bench coach Jeff Banister traveling to Goodyear with the split squad. The roles will be reversed this weekend when the Diamondbacks send a split squad to Las Vegas for two games against the Athletics on Saturday and Sunday. Joining Lovullo in Las Vegas will be second baseman Ketel Marte, shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, first baseman Josh Naylor, outfielder Jake McCarthy and catcher Adrian Del Castillo. The rest of the position-player group will be mostly less-experienced players, Lovullo said. Lovullo said he checked with several of his veterans to see who had interest before deciding on the group to send. “I asked a couple of guys and they said, ‘Nah, I need to stay home with my family,’” Lovullo said. “Some guys were like, ‘Hell yeah. Let’s go.’ I wanted guys who wanted to go. That’s where I started first. Other guys I asked to go. I needed them to go.” Lovullo said the group of pitchers going largely will be minor leaguers.

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