Zac Gallen Earns Highest Pre-Arbitration Bonus For National League Players

As part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, pre-arbitration players can receive an additional bonus based off play. The total pool is $50 million and pays players based on how well they performed in that season. According to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com, the Diamondbacks' Zac Gallen received the highest bonus of any pre-arb National League player and fourth highest in total at $1.67M. Only Alex Manoah, Yordan Alvarez, and Dylan Cease, all American League players, earned a higher bonus.

Eight more earned at least $1M from the pre-arb performance bonus plan:

Zac Gallen $1,670,875
Julio Rodriguez $1,550,850
Michael Harris II $1,361,435
Emmanuel Clase $1,354,962
Andres Gimenez $1,308,805
Adley Rutschman $1,177,555
Kyle Tucker $1,146,555
Spencer Strider $1,077,294
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) December 9, 2022

Gallen, 27, is coming off a breakout season in which he went 12-4 with a 2.54 ERA (158 ERA+), 192 strikeouts, and just 47 walks in 184 innings. He had the lowest WHIP amongst all pitchers at 0.913 thanks to a very low hits per nine innings at 5.9. Gallen finished fifth in the National League Cy Young race. The highlight of his season was a 44.1 consecutive inning scoreless streak, which broke Brandon Webb's previous record of 42 back in 2007.