Zac Gallen Discusses His Off-season Ahead of Spring Training

It was a long, marathon of a season for Arizona's right-handed ace. Zac Gallen pitched a career-high 233 2/3 innings (including the postseason) in 2023, more than he had ever thrown before. 

Coming off a dominant 2022, his numbers took a bit of a dip last year, but he was a crucial arm in Arizona's trip to the World Series, and delivered a number of ace-caliber outings. He pitched to a 3.47 ERA and a 17-9 regular season record.

Now, as pitchers and catchers finally report for the first time, Gallen's short off-season comes to a close, and the right-hander spoke to the media about both his time off and the journey ahead, including decompressing from a World Series loss, and what it looked like to have less recovery time than normal. 

"I know I took a good couple weeks to kind of digest it, as the off-season went on it’s stopped popping out more and more. You’ve got to digest it… turn the page and kind of put your focus on trying to get better for this year," Gallen said. 

The ace noted that he only took a short time off following the end of the postseason to rest and recover, even after a career high in innings pitched. While he admitted that the plan was to continue throwing in the off-season anyway, the shortened break forced him to recover in a smaller time frame.

"I think I started maybe 10 days after the season, so all the way to Thanksgiving it was just like 60 feet for like 10 minutes, just to keep the arm moving. It was like active recovery essentially,” said Gallen, "Once Thanksgiving passed... I started my actual throwing program, and kind of did that in a slow process."

Coming in cold can be rough on a pitcher, and can extend the amount of time needed to get back into a proper pitching rhythm. The ace noted that this plan to reduce his down time had been in the works for a while.

"I’m getting a little older, it’s going to take a little bit longer to kind of warm up. So we went, last year, with kind of a shortened off-season. Just kind of a five week shutdown, and just realized that I still didn’t feel great about that."

"A lot of guys don’t stop throwing and tend to be fairly healthy, so I figured, you know, let’s just try it," said Gallen, "you know I’m always trying to work on something, so to shut down for x amount of weeks and then try to build back up, it’s like starting anew, and my thought was like ‘I’m not losing time this time,' I’m starting where I was at and I feel good about what I was doing, and just trying to build off that."

Recovering from any season can prove to be a tough task for a pitcher, especially one coming off the ace workload that Gallen had to provide in an unsteady rotation. He mentioned that going into next year, the team might look to shave off an inning or two at times, in order to help him be fully prepared for another postseason run. 

"[Manager Torey Lovullo] and I have such a good relationship to where I can go to him with something. It’s a good ebb and flow between us. I know the training staff here and the management they’re going to be precautionary about it, just making sure I'm healthy, because it’s a long season. Just throwing 200 innings doesn’t really win you anything, you’ve got to throw quality 200 innings, so I’m excited."

But Gallen himself isn't the only member of the D-backs hungry to start 2024 off well. The right-hander noted that the majority of the team showed up early to spring training.

"It’s been feeling like spring training for the last week or so if you ask me," Gallen said.

While it's important to leave the unsatisfying nature of Arizona's World Series exit in the past, the ace also sees it as fuel for the upcoming year.

"I think if you get hung up on what you did and not what you plan to do it can be really detrimental," said Gallen, "It’s another 162, we’re going to have a target on our back for sure. I’m sure a lot of people across the league thought what we did was a fluke, so, I think for us to have the mindset that we need to prove it again, nobody's going to hand it to us." 

Gallen noted that with so many young players on the D-backs squad, the team stands to benefit from guys who still have personal career points to prove, and with the addition of Eduardo Rodríguez, the return of LHP Tommy Henry and the hopeful resurgence of RHP Ryne Nelson, Arizona's pitching staff is going to be "a lot of fun" going into 2024. Regardless, Gallen shared the belief in a new standard, and dedication around the squad.

"We have the feel in this clubhouse that we should make the postseason every year, that that’s the goal we’re striving for, and I hope guys in here are holding themselves accountable to that, that's our goal. Give us a chance to actually finish the job," Gallen said. 

"But I feel like we have a really good ecosystem here in the clubhouse, there hasn’t been really much resting on our laurels, so I'm excited in that sense."

The D-backs will face an uphill battle as they look to return to the World Series. With some new faces, and some old ones determined to make improvements, Gallen, and the rest of the squad, appear to be locked in and ready to get Spring Training into full gear.

“There’s a little bit different buzz, little more energy around the team. It’s still same thing, it’s back to work.”