Expect 'top-20 fantasy production' from Zac Gallen

Arizona Diamondbacks SP Zac Gallen recently made his return from injury, and NBC Sports EDGE's D.J. Short explains why fantasy managers should expect top of the line production from the 25-year-old.

Video Transcript

DJ SHORT: Welcome back, Zac Gallen. The 25-year-old was a top 20 starter off the board in early mixed drafts this spring. But he suffered a hairline stress fracture in his right forearm while swinging a bat in March and was forced to miss the start of the season. Do we really need the DH this badly?

Come on, people. While the injury sounded particularly scary, it was mostly a matter of pain tolerance for Gallen, mostly with his curve-ball Fortunately Gallen made a rapid progress though, and only managed to miss about two turns in the Diamondbacks rotation before returning with eight strikeouts over four innings, an one run ball in his return against the Athletics.

Gallen notched 12 swinging strikes in his 82 pitches and didn't miss a beat with his fastball velocity. He also mixed in some knuckle curves and had no ill effects. At this point, fantasy managers should be expecting that top 20 starter we thought he was going to be. And for those of you who had late drafts, might have a tremendous bargain on your hands. Congrats to you.