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.

“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.