Get Yer Red Hots!

As we head into June, this is a good time to take stock. You probably haven’t had time to keep up with every team in the big leagues, so let me give you one player on each team who is having a great season and/or seems set up to have a monster rest of the year.

Arizona Diamondbacks: Zac Gallen

Coming out of the COVID season, Gallen looked to be a potential star. He had come over from the Marlins in 2019. He has five or six pitches, all of them pretty darned good, particularly his curveball — the league so far is hitting .133 without a home against that curve. Gallen has a 2.32 ERA and a sub-1.000 WHIP, and at 26 he seems to be pretty happily settling into the role of ace, which, alas, in Arizona these days generally means putting an end to extended losing streaks.

“I told him it’s an honor to have that role of ‘you’re the guy that they’re going to give the ball to right out of a skid,’” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.