Cardinals fans will love Cubs drama following latest MLB insider snafu

Zac Gallen, a third-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2016, never had a chance to torment the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central, seeing as he was involved in that ill-fated Marcell Ozuna swap back in 2017 alongside Sandy Alcantara.

However, he's finally delivered some Redbird devil magic to the North Siders — as a free agent. It was originally reported by Bob Nightengale of USA Today that Gallen was signing a multi-year deal with the Cubs for $22 million per season.

That sent the baseball world into a frenzy... only for Jeff Passan to serve as the voice of reason and offer some actual reporting shortly thereafter.

Nightengale quickly walked back his report, stating that the Cubs are "hopeful" to have a deal done with Gallen. Which, I mean, come on. I think all of us are hopeful the Cardinals trade Nolan Arenado for five Top-100 prospects, but that doesn't mean it's happening.

In all, this was a fun half-hour saga just prior to the Winter Meetings, at least if you're not a Cubs fan.

Zac Gallen free agency saga could prove disastrous for Cubs this offseason

The real question about this whole thing: Where on earth did Nightengale get the contract details from? It's one thing to falsely report a signing; it's another to pretend to know the actual hard number the deal is worth.

There's two reasonable explanations here, both equally hilarious.

The first is that Nightengale, known semi-affectionately as "Boob" in the online MLB community, simply pulled that number out of a hat. Perhaps that's he thinks that's what Gallen is worth, or maybe a false blue-check account floated it on his feed and he took it as gospel. Either way, he simply conjured up a number to make the report look more real.

The other (and probably more plausible) explanation is that the $22 million-per-year valuation is the actual contract offer the Cubs have on the table for Gallen. And now the rest of the league knows it. Which, as you can probably guess, is sure to piss off Chicago's front office — if that number is real, their negotiating leverage just went out the window.

The Cubs really needed this one — their rotation is a mess, even after Shota Imanaga accepted his qualifying offer, and their cost-cutting measures this offseason were likely done with a signing like this mind. If someone else swoops in and steals Gallen from them, it could prove disastrous for their 2026 plans.

In other words: Thanks, Bob.