Zac Gallen’s wife called him in a panic following Bob Nightengale’s incorrect Cubs report

USA Today baseball columnist and reporter Bob Nightengale confused a lot of people in December when he reported that the Chicago Cubs were close to signing free-agent pitcher Zac Gallen. 

That includes Gallen’s now-wife.

“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 on the morning of December 6, a report that ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan completely refuted a few minutes later.

Nine minutes after the initial report, Nightengale edited his X post, changing it to read “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.”

A lot happened in those nine minutes as the initial version went viral. So viral, in fact, that it started getting back to Gallen and his family.

Zac Gallen’s family members thought he signed with the Cubs without telling them after a report dropped during his wedding weekend 😭 @zacgallen23 pic.twitter.com/Tvl8roYCtR

— MLBFITS (@_mlbfits) April 21, 2026

“So I was sitting there at breakfast with my dad,” Gallen told MLBFits. “A family friend of ours came over, and he’s like, ‘Oh nice, you’re going to Chicago,’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ So there was a hectic kind of 20 minutes or so there. I was getting calls from family, and then from my now-wife, was like ‘We’re going to Chicago?’ I’m like, ‘No, I would let you know if we’re going to Chicago.'”

Gallen and his wife actually got married the weekend after that news broke (and un-broke), which only amplifies how wild that report must have seemed in the moment.

The pitcher ended up re-signing with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the 2026 season on a one-year, $22.025 million contract.