Bob Nightengale updates premature report that Cubs were signing Zac Gallen

The 2025 Major League Baseball season ended last month. In some ways, the 2026 season has already begun, as we have our first Bob Nightengale misreported free agency signing of the offseason.

It feels good to be back.

Around noon on Saturday, the USA Today baseball columnist and reporter broke a big one, reporting that the Chicago Cubs were close to signing free-agent starter Zac Gallen.

“The Chicago Cubs are close to finalizing an agreement with free-agent starter Zac Gallen on a multi-year deal that will pay him an average of $22 million a year,” wrote Nightengale on X at 11:59 p.m. ET. “Gallen, with three top-10 Cy Young finishes, has averaged 32 starts a year for the past 4 seasons.”

Now, Nightengale has a reputation, earned or not, of jumping the gun on breaking news or misreporting news altogether. So it was not entirely surprising to see ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan refute the news just 10 minutes later.

“Zac Gallen does not have a deal and is not close to finalizing one,” wrote Passan on X.

Nightengale must’ve gotten the memo around the same time as he updated his X post to add some context and dial back the immediacy of the transaction.

UPDATE: The Chicago Cubs are HOPEFUL of finalizing an agreement with free-agent starter Zac Gallen on a multi-year deal, but the deal is NOT DONE with others still in contention. Gallen, with three top-10 Cy Young finishes, has averaged 32 starts a year for the past 4 seasons.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 6, 2025

“UPDATE: The Chicago Cubs are HOPEFUL of finalizing an agreement with free-agent starter Zac Gallen on a multi-year deal, but the deal is NOT DONE with others still in contention,” read his updated post. “Gallen, with three top-10 Cy Young finishes, has averaged 32 starts a year for the past 4 seasons.”

Gallen, who was an All-Star in 2013, went 13–15 with a 4.83 ERA and 175 strikeouts in 192 innings last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks.