Fantasy Baseball 2026 – 120+ Starting Pitchers – Tiers & Commentary
Last Update: January 27, 2026. More pitchers added. Now 123 starting pitchers with commentary. For full update log, please scroll all the way tf down.
Hello! Welcome to this here my rankings of starting pitchers for fantasy baseball 2026. Allow me to explain my methodology, as I would like to avoid being yelled at for having your favorite player lower than everyone else does. I play in a weird-ass league of 13 teams carrying 26 players that scores Wins, Saves, Strikeouts, ERA, and WHIP for pitchers. There are nine (9) slots for any pitchers, with no qualifiers of starters or relievers. If we so choose, we can start nine (9) relievers, tho that will not do us many favors as far as maxing out our 1,300 IP cap.
With all this in mind, I prioritize two things when it comes to evaluating starting pitchers for fantasy: strikeouts and WHIP. It is very very hard to chase wins in the draft, because as we all know, that shit is team-dependent based on how much run support they get and if their manager leaves them in the game long enough to get the W. It’s also hard to draft for ERA, as it can fluctuate and vary so much that we had to invent stats like xERA and FIP and xFIP to account for its flaws. I personally believe it’s much easier and practical to draft for WHIP because pitchers who control walks have a proven and stable skillset, as opposed to controlling hits, where the batted ball luck and defense can vary like hell. My go-to under-the-hood stat here is BB%.
Also, please note these tiers are more like buckets. Like tiers, they are grouped by quality and similarities, but there are many many starting pitchers everyone else loves that I won’t touch with a 10-foot pole. For instance, I have no plans at all to draft Blake Snell under any circumstances because of his history of double-digit BB%, but I’m not trying to insult anyone’s intelligence by saying he’s not one of the best pitchers in baseball so I’ll batch him with the rest of the aces.
Bookmark this page and my Fantasy Baseball 2026 Preview page because I’ll be updating it and adding as much as I can until Opening Day. Here we go! Let’s baseball.
Tier 1: The Best Pitchers in Baseball
These are the four best pitchers in baseball. Everyone else has the top three in their own order, but I think Yoshinobu Yamamoto cemented himself in this tier with his 31.1 innings of dominance in the 2025 playoffs. Wins are flukey and we can’t really draft or plan for them, but any of these four arms should give you 190ish innings while striking out over one batter an inning, and give you an ERA around 3.00 and a sterling BB% that helps keep the WHIP under 1.10. They are all worth at least a second round pick, and you may get them a bit later. Draft with full confidence.
1. Paul Skenes
Pittsburgh will obviously keep his win totals down and he’s not quite as strikeout-heavy as Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet but this is my vote for the Best Pitcher in Baseball (BPIB). Even tho Skenes just won the Cy Young unanimously, I don’t think he’s peaked, while the two guys below him may have already had their career years. That’s my reasoning for Paul Skenes being SP1 going into Draft Day 2026, even tho Skubal has the better BB%.
2. Tarik Skubal
Skubal’s BB% has been in the mid-4% range for his last 465 IP, whereas Skenes has been 5.9% in 320 career IP so far. Both are obviously fantastic but if you’d rather have a better WHIP anchor, go with Skubal.
3. Garrett Crochet
We’re just nitpicking the BPIB here, and Crochett has about a 5.5% BB% in his 351 IP as a starting pitcher the last two seasons. He has the best K stuff of the candidates for BPIB and while we can’t bet on 18 wins again and the Red Sox aren’t exactly the juggernaut they used to be, he’ll probably get a few more than Skenes, at least.
4. Yoshinobu Yamamoto
After Yamamoto’s playoff run, it’s a Top 4, not a Top 3. In his second season stateside, he struck out 234 in 211 IP, counting the playoffs. Though he’s in the conversation for BPIB, his BB% has a bit of variance in his two MLB seasons (6% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2025) and I think we need another year before we have a better idea of what kind of WHIP anchor her can be. I know the Dodgers are talking about a six-man rotation but the 165 IP that Fangraphs is projecting suddenly seems low.
Tier 2: Ace Starting Pitchers I’ll Be Happy With
These guys should also give you a lot of innings and great strikeout rates, and could very well perform well enough to win a Cy Young and be counted among the BPIB for 2027. They also all projected by Steamer to have a WHIP of at least 1.10, tho there are guys on this list with BB% as good or better than the top 4.
5. Cristopher Sánchez
You typically see the Tampa Bay Rays trade a player of this caliber after they break out and not years before, but on November 20, 2019, that’s exactly what they did, getting Curtis Mead from the Philadelphia Phillies. While Mead posted a -0.6 bWAR for the lowly Chicago White Sox last year, Sánchez finished second in the National League Cy Young voting while leading the NL (and all pitchers) in bWAR with 8.0. He’s already broken out and leveled up for two seasons in a row, and he also slashed his BB% from 9% in the first half to 3% in the second half while seeing a jump in strikes from his slider and changeup. He’s the BPIB by at least one measure and if that 2H BB% plays all of next year, he may be the BPIB by many more measures. Buy.
6. Bryan Woo
Nick Pollack at PitcherList thinks Bryan Woo is another Zach Wheeler and has him SP4, which is very interesting. Woo had some elbow and forearm owies in 2024 and a pec injury in 2025, and idk if he’s distanced himself long enough from the former to call him a safe pick. The BB% also ticked up from elite in 2024 (2.8%) to slightly less elite in 2025 (4.9%), with projections projecting like 5.5%. If the TJ monster can wipe the drool off his chin over Woo’s elbow and Woo gets that BB% closer to 2024, watch out. As far as the home/away splits that has infested his rotation mates in Seattle, Woo’s splits are not nearly as drastic, with a 3.40 ERA and 1.04 WHIP on the road.
7. George Kirby
He did not have his best season last year, with a 4.52 FIP and an uptick in HR/9 and BB/9, but he had dominant games and posted a career-best 10.5 K/9, perhaps helped by borrowing Bryan Woo’s sinker grip that added lotsa spin RPM. His bad starts may dampen his ADP enough to be a bargain because this guy is a Cy Young candidate if he gets his BB% back down to the 2.5-3% range as opposed to the still-excellent 5.5% last year. But jeez, those home/away splits! In 66.2 IP in SEA, Kirby had a 3.38 ERA and 1.11 WHIP and 73 strikeouts. On the road, he had a 5.16 ERA and 1.28 WHIP and 64 strikeouts in 59.1 IP. Tho I will be holding my breath for his road starts, I do plan on targeting him because he’s got the best command in the game and therefore, the deepest WHIP anchor with his horse IP.
8. Max Fried
Last year he had lingering forearm issues from the year before, and it appears that may be behind him. As a Yankee, Max Fried can grab more wins than most SP tho the K/9 has been a bit less than 9 the last few seasons, which is a tad lower than we like our fantasy aces. He’s firmly entrenched in the ace tier but while Baseball Reference is projecting a 1.17 WHIP, the Fangraphs Steamer projection of 1.23 WHIP feels like a warning sign because that would easily be his highest of the decade.
9. Cole Ragans
Had a rotator cuff issue that sidelined him for three months over the summer, but made three starts in September where he K’d 22 guys in 13 IP so the gas is just fine. Less fine is the 9% BB% over 384 IP of his young career, but this mf has strikeouts a-plenty and if you value strikeouts over ratios, you’ll be plenty pleased with Cole Ragans in 2026. Ofc, I don’t love the WHIP or BB% but he had a 14.3 K/9, which would’ve been the best in baseball by more than 2.5 if he had enough innings to qualify (just 61.2).
Tier 3: Dominant Arms with Innings Limitations
The pitchers on this list are aces, no doubt, but the elite production they will provide may be heavily abbreviated due to injury risk, team context, and/or ballpark factors. You’ll be pleased with these guys but you probably shouldn’t expect 180+ IP of Cy Young-caliber numbers. Make sure you have a contingency plan to make up for the lost IP if you roster any of these guys.
10. Shohei Ohtani
I mean, you’re already drafting this guy for his 50 home runs and the big-ass boatload of runs he scores leading off for the best team in baseball so whatever the best baseball player to ever baseball can give you on the mound is just gravy, right? He’s in this bucket because at least in ESPN leagues, you’ll have to sacrifice his plate appearances if you elect to bank his pitching stats on days Ohtani starts on the mound, and the Dodgers’ six-man rotation plans put a cap on his IP. So yeah. Limitations.
11. Jacob deGrom
deGrom threw 172.2 IP last year, 80 more than any season since he threw 204 IP in 2019. He will be 38 and while he certainly has the stuff to be a top 15 SP again, how many IP will that come with given his history? It’s definitely high risk, and probably not a higher reward than the more dependable SP in this tier for whatever his ADP will be on draft day. I have no idea why Steamer is projecting even MOAR innings for 2026 (185). Also, the writer/editor in me is a lil tickled at starting a sentence with a lower-case letter.
12. Chris Sale
Chris Sale is still elite, right? His IP are probably closer to bb-ref’s 140 than Steamer’s 160, and I may even take the under on that 140 IP. In 2025, he pitched 125.2 IP with a 11.8 K/9 — and that was higher than when he led the National League the year before when he won the Cy Young with a 11.8 K/9. Sale may not have enough IP to qualify for leading the league in anything, but he has perhaps the best strikeout ratios in the game and his BB% hasn’t been under 7% since he was a White Sox in 2011. You can get an elite reliever off the wire to cover his IP when he inevitably goes on the IL.
13. Tyler Glasnow
The whole number in Tyler Glasnow’s K/9 was still double-digits (10.56) last year, but it was also the lowest of his career since he was in Pittsburgh (remember that?). Ditto his K%, which had been well above 30% since his Tampa Bay days but fell to 29% last year. Glasnow has also typically kept his BB% better than the league-average (which was 8.4% last year) but it exploded to 11.7% in 2025. And ofc, we all know about the innings limitations, as he’s never started more than 22 games nor thrown more than 134 innings in a season. I’d like to say you know exactly what you’re getting when you draft and roster Glasnow, but a declining strikeout rate and rising walk rate gives me pause.
Tier 4: I’m Not Drafting These Aces Because They Walk Too Many Hitters and/or Other Reasons
These starting pitchers are aces or near-aces for sure, but they all come with a glaring flaw that has me taking my big fat red marker and crossing off their name with a big fat red line. The industry will be pounding the table for these guys and everyone loves their strikeouts but I will be staying away.
14. Logan Gilbert
Allow me to explain my other reasons for not drafting Logan Gilbert! Logan Gilbert had a 4.74 ERA and 1.32 WHIP starting 12 away games last year out of 25 total starts. Even his strikeouts took a big hit on the road. That wasn’t quite the case in 2024; while his road ERA (3.94) was a whole 1.5 points above his home ERA, his WHIP was still an elite 0.94. Idk wtf is going with that but I don’t think he can be a top 10 SP unless he corrects whatever’s messing with his pitching on the road. He’s obviously elite in Seattle proper and could be worth his ADP if he does something about the splits but are you really going to take that chance this early? DND. Pass. Do not spend a high pick on this guy. With those home/away splits, you may as well draft Luis Severino, and Severino’ll probably go undrafted. I don’t even like ranking Gilbert as high as I have him here even tho PL has him SP8, but I’m not sure he’s an ace because aces don’t shit the bed in half the games they start, do they? At least with oft-injured arms, you can stash them on the IL to open a roster spot for a substitute but it’s hard to just up and bench an ace for half his starts. Idk man. I’m avoiding him.
15. Blake Snell
This guy is a 2x Cy Young winner and 2x ERA title winner, but I still dgaf as far as fantasy is concerned. Snell is excellent at surpressing hits and the pile of strikeouts is very nice but I personally cannot fw a DDBB% because if he gets the slightest bit unlucky with batted balls dropping in for hits, that WHIP will explode. I won’t be drafting him. That has nothing to do with his talent level or predicted output and everything to do with my weak stomach for high BB%.
16. Dylan Cease
Dylan Cease has very nice strikeout totals ofc, but an SP with just two pitches and a history of DDBB% isn’t a fit for WHIP-centric plans. While Cease led all of MLB with a 11.52 K/9, he was also third in MLB with 3.80 BB/9. Now in Toronto with the Blue Jays, maybe his new team will help expand his repertoire, but let’s let someone else bet on that.
17. Jacob Misiorwoski
I imagine Jacob Misiorwoski will be very popular on draft day but jfc, look at that 11.4% BB%. Ranking him among SP20 like some industry lists presumes a lot of faith in him shaving several points off that BB%. For where I’ll suspect he will be ADP’d, I’d rather have the production of Sale or deGrom for whatever IP they will give, and play the wire for their IL stints.
18. Hunter Greene
I really really like Hunter Greene and if you were on Baseball Twitter like ten years ago when he was sharing footage of his high school bullpen sessions, you’ve had the pleasure of watching this guy get drafted second overall in 2017 and witnessing his ascension to MLB ace-dom. But even though he submitted a 6.2% BB% last season, it was a career-best by like three whole points, as it’s been at least 9% the previous three seasons. He is also not exactly a horse, with a career-high of 150.1 in 2024 and just 107.2 last year, and I think drafting him where his ADP will be is a bet that he has established a new level with his BB% and that he will establish a new level with IP and also keep the two mph velocity gain on his four-seam fastball (97.6 in 2024 and 99.6 in 2025). I’m absolutely thrilled for Hunter Greene and it’s been a true joy to watch him evolve and I hope he wins a million Cy Youngs but I just cannot stomach the BB% history right now.
19. Michael King
The BB% is a tad bit higher than I like my pitchers, but the real issue with Michael King is his durability, with only one full season of being a starting pitcher going into his Age 31 season. His xERA was 4.26 last year and his HR/9 jumped from 0.88 to 1.47, helped by a career-high barrel rate of 11.4%. He’s a free agent so a good landing spot can influence his ADP, but this is a flawed pitcher who left-handed hitters slugged .814 against, with more signs of implosion underneath the hood. If I’m going to draft a non-elite BB% from an SP this early then I’d rather have Cole Ragan’s strikeouts and not a dude who saw his HR spike in a pitcher’s park. The San Diego Padres resigned him to run it back for another three seasons, so he will remain in that pitcher’s park.
20. MacKenzie Gore
MacKenzie Gore will turn 27 in February and across four seasons and 532.1 innings, he’s demonstrated a lot of strikeout stuff with a 9.96 K/9 career rate so far. Gore also made at least 27 starts the last three seasons, demonstrating a bit of durability for a Washington Nationals team that needs all the innings their pitchers can eat. Unfortunately, a near-DDBB% and poor barrel% (14th percentile last year) and hard-hit% (20th percentile) last year says he’s still a work-in-progress. Now a Texas Ranger, MacKenzie Gore can eek out a few extra wins from his new team.
Tier 5: Heck Yeah, Draft These Established Starters With Stable Floors
21. Kyle Bradish
Maybe you forget about this guy! Kyle Bradish broke out in 2023 and placed 4th in the American League Cy Young voting. He continued to deal in 2024 but then the Tommy John monster came for his elbow and he underwent surgery in June. Bradish made his post-TJ debut in late August 2025 and picked up his dealing where he left off, with 47 strikeouts in 32 IP over six starts to end the year on a very encouraging note. The K/9 he’s been posting before and after the TJ (12.13 in 2024 and 13.22 in 2025) are elite. This is probably as good a post-TJ arm you can get so keep an eye on his ADP and you should pounce if he’s not treated like an ace on draft day.
22. Logan Webb
A horse. Logan Webb has tossed at least 192 IP for the last four seasons. His 2H featured a WHIP of 1.34 across 13 starts where he apparently ditched his fastball after an awesome 1H that came with more strikeouts. With BB% and GB% both in the 91st percentile, I’ll be keeping an eye on his ADP and hoping for a buy-low opportunity. Whinny!
23. Jesús Luzardo
2023 and 2025 are Jesús Luzardo’s only full seasons so far, with 200+ Ks and a WHIP in the low 1.20s. He had a couple disaster starts thanks to tipping his pitches and if you take away those two GS (5.2 IP with 20 ER) then his season ERA drops all the way down from 3.92 to 3.08. He’ll be 28 and theoretically starting his peak and should scrounge an extra few wins being a Phillie. This is a pretty good buy when you’re not peaking thru your fingers watching his starts.
24. Hunter Brown
This dude was a popular breakout choice last year, and he delivered by placing 3rd in the Cy Young voting. The strikeout rate is more than a batter per inning, and his BB% is like exactly league-average. Hunter Brown won’t turn 28 years old until late next August, and he has steadily increased his IP the last three seasons from 155.2 in 2023 to 170 in 2024 to 185.1 last year. If you like him, go get him.
25. Eury Pérez
Some encouraging signs over 20 starts as Eury shook off the TJ rust, as his fastball velo was in the 98th percentile with a 9.9 K/9. However, the HardHit% was in the bottom 8% of MLB pitchers, and MIA is not known for their defense so I feel like the fantasy numbers may not be where we’d like them to be even if he pitches well. However again, he’s entering his Age 23 season and with his TJ surgery that much further in the rear-view mirror, he could break out.
26. Joe Ryan
I am tempted to drop Joe Ryan to Tier 6 because of his trouble with the long ball. Ryan gave up 26 of them in 2025, but that was the same as Bryan Woo and Jacob deGrom so maybe I shouldn’t be that concerned. Pitching nerds think his four-seam fastball is elite, and I love the 5.7% BB%, which puts him in the 87th percentile, and his strikeout rate is where you want your fantasy aces to be.
Tier 6: Near-Ace Starting Pitchers with Too Much Risk for My Tastes
So I don’t love these arms in 2026. You’re going to see a lot of these names in the SP17 – SP30 range on other industry lists so I’m going to bunch them up here, but I won’t be going after them because they may be aging out of their prime with BB% that I’m afraid may bloat with age, or they don’t have a long enough track record of quality IP in MLB. They’ll still likely to help your team, and are still likely to provide plenty of innings and strikeouts and their share of wins but with these arms, you’re betting on either a repeat or a return to form and either way, the WHIP won’t help me win that category so I’m redirecting my focus on other arms.
27. Pablo López
The Minnesota Twins said that Pablo López is in “full offseason mode” after a season that included a 60-day IL stint for his shoulder and ended due to a “mild” forearm strain, and when I hear about mild forearm strains, I can hear the TJ monster salivating. What a shame to put him on my Do Not Draft list because this is a really good starting pitcher, I just don’t like the TJ risk I feel that forearm strain is portending. I don’t blame you if you take him on but do not overpay and be prepared to cut bait quickly. I’m tempted to put him on the Recovering list.
28. Shane Bieber — (note update!)
Now that’s what’s up. 37 strikeouts in 40.1 IP with a 3.57 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in his post-TJ return to acedom. All systems point to go in 2026 and it is time to be a Belieber again, lol. Personally, I am taking the way under on Steamer’s projected WHIP of 1.23. Bieber has thrown 200+ innings twice (2019 and 2022) and he had a BB% under 5% both times. I love post-TJ arms who demonstrate gas as soon as they’re all the way healed. Buy.
UPDATE: Oh no! Turns out Shane Bieber dealt with some forearm fatigue at the end of 2026, and suddenly him picking up his option rather than try his hand in free agency makes a whole lot more sense. Also suddenly, he’s a lot more riskier going into Draft Day, so he’s getting bumped down to this tier of risk.
29. Freddy Peralta
Freddy Peralta’s very tidy 1.08 WHIP last year feels like an abnormality considering his below-average 9% BB% (which was 30th percentile last year). Still, he’ll give you a big pile of strikeouts (10.39 per 9 IP) and horseman-like IP entering his Age 30 season as a New York Met, and I suppose there’s an outside chance he can come close to winning 17 games again. Neigh!
30. Framber Valdez
Framber Valdez’s season was a tale of two halves. 1H was his usual ace self but he imploded in the 2H, with a 5.20 ERA and 1.45 WHIP and a lower K/9. According to PitcherList, his curveball hit a wall after dominating from 2H 2024 to ASB 2025. A free agent, his new landing spot will influence his ADP but he dropped too many stinkers last summer for me to get excited about targeting him.
31. Nick Pivetta
Nick Pivetta has felt like a work in progress for a long time and sure enough, he had his best and most valuable season at 32 years old, submitted a 2025 that was worth 5.3 bWAR and 3.7 fWAR. Pivetta shaved a whole run+ off his best ERA (2.87) but xERA (4.00) and xFIP (3.85) says it was a mirage, if not terrible. He was also able to slash his HR/9 in SDP and while he may have unlocked a new level going into his Age 33 season, it’s hard to get excited about that kind of breakout from a fantasy perspective. The strikeouts are certainly excellent, but his ranking presumes the slashed BB% he demonstrated the last two seasons hold. Me personally, I still remember those BB% over 9% seasons that he had in Boston not very long ago.
32. Shōta Michael Imanaga II
Imanaga had an excellent stateside debut but his follow-up season left a terrific deal to be desired. He gave up 31 HR and his K/9 fell from 9 to 7.28, and his uneven season and unusual contract has made him a surprise free agent who can have a very big range of outcomes in 2026. I have no idea how his ADP will shake out but that sterling 4.6% BB% will keep me interested if he falls.
33. Luis Castillo
Like Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo’s home/away splits are extreme. In SEA, he had a 2.60 ERA with a 0.97 WHIP and 98 strikeouts in 100 IP. On the road, he had a 4.71 ERA and 1.46 WHIP, with 64 strikeouts in 80 IP. It’s one thing to roster an injury-prone but super-talented arm that you can put on the IL and grab another guy when he’s hurt but it’s another thing to carry and SP whom you sit on all road starts.
34. Robbie Ray
Robbie Ray was tied for 5th in MLB with a 3.6 BB/9 and I don’t fw that on draft day. Still, he delivers strikeouts by the boatload and while he won’t win another Cy Young, he’s a very good volume arm in the later rounds for those who don’t value WHIP as much as I do. Robbie Ray is what I call a VK arm: volume innings + strikeouts that are often found on the wire.
35. Trevor Rogers
It took a change of scenery from Miami to Baltimore but there was that breakout we’d been waiting for. He’s probably not as good as he was last year…right? While I think his level-up bodes well for when Sandy Alcántara and Eury Pérez are finally liberated from the Marlins I’m not a believer in Trevor Roger yet, at least not enough to spend a draft pick on him.
36. Bryce Miller
Bryce Miller had multiple IL stints bc of elbow inflammation, not a good sign. Will NOT have surgery to remove a bone spur, also not a good sign. He only pitched 90 IP in 2025 and unlike his SEA rotation mates, he sucked equally at home and on the road. Personally, I think he is in the denial stage of the TJ grief process because his Statcast profile is depressing af. If you want to get the blues, man, go look at Bryce Miller’s page, there’s a whole lotta blues there.
Tier 7: Baby Aces with Serious Growing Pains
Okay, I’m not especially interested in drafting these arms, as I suspect their ADP price will be higher than I’d like to invest. I like my starting pitchers boring and reliable, and all these arms are exciting and unreliable.
37. Emmet Sheehan
The growing pain for Emmet Sheehan entering his Age 26 season is his Dodgerness, as Los Angeles currently plans to employ a six-man rotation to accommodate Shohei Ohtani and Roki Sasaki. If the Dodgers go through with this plan all year long, it will put a cap on Emmet’s production, at least volume-wise. Otherwise, this kid has great gas, striking out over 30% of all hitters he faced last year with a better-than-average BB%. In the meantime, he’s the least risky pick in this tier.
38. Roki Sasaki
Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Brandon Gomes said Roki Sasaki will “absolutely” be in the team’s rotation next season. He sure was pretty good as a closer for the Dodgers in the playoffs, nabbing three saves, but has he figured enough out to throw a lot of good innings in 2026? It’ll be fun to find out.
39. Chase Burns
Chase Burns showed us lots and lots of things to be excited about, striking out at least 10 dudes five times in 13 starts last year with an average fastball velocity in the 97th%. He was put back in his case and babied down the stretch during September, making five appearances out of the bullpen for 9 IP and 10 strikeouts. With only 66 IP in the minors, idk about his BB% yet (8.5% last season but Steamer is projecting a much more palpable 7.6%) and his home park won’t do his HR/9 any favors and we sure don’t know how many innings he can give us. Exciting! But risky. I don’t blame you if you go for him because betting on young guns like this can help you win your league.
40. Cam Schlitter
Holy cow, what a coming-out for Cam Schlitter. Eleven strikeouts and zero walks in Game 3 of the American League Wild Card Series against the Boston Red Sox, and it kinda sorta came out of nowhere, as the prospect nerds completely missed the three-year velocity progression from sitting 90/91 in 2022 to sitting 98 today. If you’re suddenly throwing that kind of gas in like less than three years then it’s hard to have confidence his am sustaining that for all of 2026, especially with the possibility of the TJ monster looking at Cam’s right elbow thru binoculars from afar. In any case, his DDBB% in MLB discourages me from investing in him on draft day but young arms like these are fun af and I don’t blame any Yankees fan who treats him like a Top 30 SP.
41. Trey Yesavage
Trey Yesavage showed signs of dominance in the playoffs, with more career starts in the postseason than he had in the regular season. He’s got a fastball, slider, splitter, curveball combo that can give you K’s a-plenty but has trouble with the BB. Fun arm but no thanks to the DDBB%.
42. Nolan McLean
Nolan McLean has a the six-pitch mix with an elite GB% and oodles of strikeouts so that certainly makes him appealing, and so does the added win potential of being a Met. I personally can’t deal with his history of DDBB% in the minors but he’s another young fun arm that will likely be at least slightly overrated on draft day.
43. Bubba Chandler
Another fun young gun. Bubba has a 4SFB, changeup, slider are all above-average offerings, but 12% BB% in AAA says his control needs improvement, plus he’s a Pirate who may continue to be babied by the team so you may not get wins even with a longer leash. He will be popular on draft day like Jacob Misiorowski and Chase Burns and Cam Schlitter, which may be an opportunity to draft more established and less risky arms while everyone else is distracted by shiny new toys.
Tier 8: Relatively Safe Floors With Draft Day Profit Potential
I am pretty interested in these arms, at least at the rate I suspect they will go for on draft day. This is a mix of reliable and established veterans with known floors, and younger arms that I think have established a pretty decent floor, mixed in with post-injury upside. Almost everybody here has a recent history of walk rates that are well above-average, ideal for keeping WHIP down.
44. Sonny Gray
Sonny Gray is a good starting pitcher! Idk his ADP yet but there are few SP who can give you high-quality volume as consistently as this guy. How he gives you that volume is a different story, as he’s slashed his BB% the last two seasons and posted elite K-BB%. The Boston Red Sox traded for him and he’s kinda perfect for their no-fastball philosophy, as Sonny’s four-seam fastball has gotten hammered. I imagine he will be throwing it a lot less in Boston, and focus on the rest of his six-pitch arsenal.
45. Brandon Woodruff
Honestly, idk what to make of Brandon Woodruff. His average fastball velocity hasn’t been in the 90th percentile since the pandemic season, but he’s still strikeout out more than 10 batters per 9 innings. Woodruff missed all of 2024 after getting an operation on his right shoulder in November 2023, but was fantastic in 12 starts in 2025, with 83 strikeouts in 64.2 IP and a phenomenal xERA of 2.20, despite an average fastball velocity of 93mph that puts him in the 28th(!) percentile. He ended up missing the NLDS with a lat strain that the team was quick to point out has nothing to do with his reconstructed right shoulder and while that may be concerning because it’s the same lat muscle located behind his right shoulder, I’m willing to bet that Brandon Woodruff has reinvented himself going into his Age 33 season and will provide great value for his ADP.
46. Spencer Schwallenbach
When Spencer Schwallenbach hit the IL for an elbow issue, it was for a good old-fashioned fracture that should presumably heal cleanly, as opposed to a worn-down ligament that would require TJ. His BB% is in the 99th percentile so I am obviously high on the guy and I’m hoping people shy away from his elbow and dampen his ADP for me. PL has him SP60, and I like him a lot more than many guys ahead of him. Check out his Statcast page, it’s pretty dreamy. Target.
47. Nick Lodolo
Nick Lodolo had a BB% of 4.8% last year, easily a career-best, and that came with an xERA of 3.47 and xFIP of 3.66. If that guy shows up again with a couple dozen more IP, then Nick Lodolo may be a Cy Young candidate in 2026. Mind the dingers in Cinncinatti, tho, he was 13th in the National League with 22 of them.
48. Nathan Eovaldi
That 4.2% BB% and 0.85 WHIP and 1.73 ERA from Nathan Eovaldi was fucking tasty from a 20th round pick yum yum yum. His brilliant season ended with hernia surgery and rotator cuff injury, and he will likely be eased back into action in 2026. The BB% was something of a return to form after posting 8.1% and 6% the last two years, but he should be another late-round target for you.
49. Ryan Pepiot
The Tampa Bay Rays pitchers will go back to Tropicana Field in 2026, and Ryan Pepiot may be their biggest beneficiary, as he apparently builds his game around the park. He had 82 strikeouts in 71.2 IP with a 1.07 WHIP at home in 2024, when Eno Sarris called his changeup the 6th best pitch in MLB by Stuff+. His walk rate has been 8.9% to 9% from 2024 to 2025, so yeah, not super ideal but Ryan Pepiot is an interesting pitcher for sure and he’s certainly young enough to level up in his Age 28 season.
50. Kevin Gausman
A Cy Young candidate a few seasons ago, Kevin Gausman will be entering his Age 35 season with an established history of volume IP and strikeouts, averaging 204 strikeouts and 185 IP the last five seasons. PitcherList points out that he found his lost splitter in July and sure enough, he had a 2.81 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in the second half. He consistently posts BB% in the 70th percentile, well above-average. Watch his ADP, this could be a nice pick for 2026.
51. Tatsuya Imai
Tatsuya Imai is the latest Japanese ace expected to transition to Major League Baseball and even tho he’s just like 155lbs, Imai is a 2x All Star in Japan who posted a 1.92 ERA in 163.2 IP last year. He also improved his walk rate from seven years of DDBB% or near-DDBB% all the way down to 7%. At 27 years old and a Boras client, lots of interest is expected in the RHP once he is posted by the Saitama Seibu Lions. Some analysts think his delivery is lacking and he may have a level-up in him if a team with good pitching development ends up with him. Eno Sarris thinks his fastball is just like Joe Ryan’s. If Tatsuya Imai’s ADP is in the later rounds, I’m definitely interested.
52. Joe Musgrove
The TJ monster came for Joe Musgrove in October 2024, which puts him on track for spring training 2026, and I am personally a fan of betting on dudes 16 months removed from Tommy John surgery to reestablish their skill set more or less to where it was before. Though Musgrove has not pitched more than 100 innings since 2022, he has posted walk rates under 6% and has struck a man per inning in three consecutive seasons. Monitor how he’s doing in spring training.
Tier 9: Quality Fantasy Starting Pitchers with Built-in Limitations
This is the tier where my interest in starting pitchers start to wane. I don’t super love these starters as fantasy assets, as they all have a meaningful ingredient or two that holds them back from the tiers above them, be it workload or strikeout ceiling or WHIP drag or team usage or general volatility or their development is still in progress. I’m not specifically targeting these guys, but I’ll consider them to round out my rotation if they fall far enough.
53. Sandy Alcántara
Sandy Alcántara had a 3.89 FIP and 3.33 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in the second half to salvage an otherwise pretty disastrous season coming back from TJ surgery. That sounds like a pretty good baseline for this former Cy Young winner in 2026 and if the Marlin gtfo of Miami, so much the better. His 7.7% walk rate was right in line with his 7.5% career BB%, and they were in the 5.6% to 6.3% in 2021-23 before the TJ monster came for him, so there’s room for more rebound in the unsightly 1.27 WHIP he posted last year. He’s never quite posted a K/9 of one full strike out per inning, but he’s struck out over 200 batters twice since the pandemic thanks to throwing more than 200 innings those years.
54. Ranger Suárez
Man, what a good pitcher who keeps keeping it up, It’s very hard to hit the ball hard off Ranger Suárez, who will be 31 in late August and posted elite exit velocity (95th%) and hard-hit% (98th%) and barrel% (89th%), and can even help his own defense by fielding those weak-ass ground balls back to the pitcher pretty well. Idk how to explain the relatively higher WHIP, tho, he hasn’t been under 1.20 in his last 588 IP.
55. Drew Rasmussen
The Tampa Bay Rays are weird with their pitching usage and Drew Rasmussen had six starts of 4.1 IP or less, and none more than 6.0, even though he made 31 starts all year. He’s only pitched more than 100 innings twice (146 in 2022 and 150 last year), so he’s not exactly a horse, and in those seasons, his K/9 was in the 7.6 to 7.7 range, so he doesn’t exactly give you a boatload of strikeouts. Rasmussen will be 31 in late July, and his walk rates and WHIPs have been great, and he’s demonstrated an excellent ability to limit barrels so there’s plenty to like here. But the team will continue to be weird with their pitching, and it’s hard to draft an SP for where he’ll go when his team uses him as an opener as often as they do.
56. Tanner Bibee
It’s a lil hard what to make of Tanner Bibee after 498 career MLB IP. He’s got five pitches and decent strikeout and walk rates, and will be entering his age 27 season. He had a really good 2024 with a 3.47 ERA and 1.12 WHIP and more strikeouts than his 173.2 IP, but in 2025, the ERA jumped to 4.24, the WHIP jumped to 1.23, and he had just 162 strikeouts in 182.1 IP. There’s a foundation being built here, and pitching growth often isn’t linear.
57. Cade Horton
How much does the Chicago Cubs’ elite defense help Cade Horton? Horton’s ERA was a sparkling 2.67 but xERA was 3.92. His FIP was decent enough at 3.58 but his xFIP is 4.27. His K/9 is also a bit less than ideal for fantasy, and I’d like to see the BB% stabilize a lil before I invest but his secondary pitches have swing-and-miss stuff so there’s upside here. Cade Horton will be 25 in August, and the 7th overall pick of the 2022 Draft will look to build on a very good rookie season.
58. Shane Baz
The strikeouts from Shane Baz (176 in 166.1 IP) certainly play, and xERA 3.81 says he didn’t earn his actual 4.87 ERA. Now with the Baltimore Orioles and away from Steinbrenner Field where he gave up 18 of 26 home runs and with his TJ surgery that much further behind him, the 12th overall pick of 2017 may finally get going. But if you were rostering him during his very messy 2025 that included a 7.92 ERA August and 5.40 July and an ugly 1.33 WHIP that was earned from his 64 walks that was 9th in the American League, you’d be forgiven for passing.
Tier 10: Proven Veterans with Diminishing Fantasy Ceilings
I just don’t love these veteran arms for the 2026 fantasy baseball season, though I’m sure I could be talked into taking one or two them if they fall far enough. The difference between this tier and the tier above is that all these dudes have almost certainly submitted their best fantasy seasons, while the (mostly) younger guys in the above tier still have a theoretical ceiling I don’t think they’ve hit yet.
60. Aaron Nola
Yikes! You probably weren’t expecting a 6.01 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP in under 100 IP from Aaron Nola, with at least 5 earned runs in 7 of the 17 games he started. That includes two September starts of six earned runs apiece so it’s not like he ended the year strong. His average fastball velocity — never elite to begin with — slipped to 91.4mph into the 12th% and if that doesn’t get corrected — perhaps a big if at 33yo — then we’ll continue to see shit-the-bed starts. I’ll be avoiding him while also hoping he looks like his old self again.
61. Jack Flaherty
Jack Flaherty has seen his K/9 nudged to 10+ the last two seasons but he’s also posted DDBB% in 2022 and 2023, and that scares me. That walk rate was 8.7% last year and 5.9% the year before. I’d be a lot more interested if the 2024 BB% held, as it contributed to a 1.07 WHIP that year but last year Flaherty’s WHIP was 1.28, way too high for my blood pressure to tolerate.
62. Matthew Boyd
Matthew Boyd will be 35 next year and 2025 was the first time he started 30+ games since 2019. His 5.8% BB% was easily the best of his career by half a point and the CHC defense did him lots of favors. His 14 wins were actually 4th in the National League and while he can get double-digit wins again, you can’t draft him and count on him to be 4th in the league again and I’d be drafting him with the hopes that the BB% is a new level, and I’m not assured that it is.
63. Zac Gallen
Zac Gallen gave up 31 HR, that’s no bueno ofc. Also clocked an BB% over 8% for the second year in a row after clocking 5.6% in 2023 and 6.6% in 2022. That’s no bueno, neither. His xERA (4.39) and xFIP (4.12) were better than his actuals (4.83 ERA and 4.50 FIP) so he didn’t earn alllllll of that ratio bloat but he posted a 1.26 WHIP for the second year in a row. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a late-round flyer who will probably be drafted in the middle rounds by someone thinking 2023 can happen again. Don’t pay that price.
64. Seth Lugo
Seth Lugo had a pretty valuable 2024, with bulk innings and superficial 3.00 ERA (xERA 3.74 and xFIP 4.53), but his 2025 was not, with his lowest K/9 since 2017 and a very ugly 5.30 xERA and ugly .474 xSLG. The silver lining is that he was much much better in the first half (2.67 ERA and 1.08 WHIP) and the crappy second half (7.51 ERA and 1.78 WHIP) was the result of a back issue that shut down his season in September. He will be entering his Age 36 season, another data point against a quality season.
65. Chris Bassitt
Chris Bassitt a fantasy viable accumulator who can chew innings and give you decent K/9, and also had a dominant run in the playoffs as an RP (1.04 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 8.2 IP). However, he will be 37 and he has some back issues, and his BB%/WHIP is a bit too volatile for my taste. Chris Bassitt is a very good late-round target for passive fantasy players who settle for bulk innings to round out their pitching staffs, but I do not plan on being passive.
66. Jameson Taillon
I kinda like Jameson Taillon a lot right now! He has a history of excellent walk rates and he’s pitching in front of that fantastic Chicago Cubs defense. With Nico and PCA and friends gobbling up hits, Taillon had WHIPs under 1.00 in every month but June last season. He’s had a K/9 under 7 the past two seasons so he won’t help with your strikeouts but keep an eye on Cubs opponents for Jameson Taillon streaming opportunities.
Tier 11: Volatile Fantasy Pitchers With Some Upside
I’m kinda afraid of all the walks and hits and runs these guys are going to give up. There’s some guys that I would be interested in trading for if I were a real-life General Manager or President of Baseball Operations, but these profiles are too risky to expose my fantasy baseball team to, especially when I’m prioritizing WHIP and BB%.
67. Edward Cabrera
Edward Cabrera has a five-pitch mix and 87th percentile gas that averages 96.9 mph and he’ll be 28 not long after Opening Day. Cabrera has a lot going for him, and now that he’s been traded to the Chicago Cubs, he’ll have their well-regarded defense behind him.
68. Will Warren
Will Warren brings a five-pitch mix to the mound and in his first full season pitching 162.1 innings in MLB, the results were promising (24.1% strikeout rate despite below-average fastball velocity) but mixed (4.58 xERA to go with pretty low-percentile barrel% and hard-hit%. The second half saw a huge decline in strikeouts (59 in 67 IP) from the first half (112 in 95.1 IP), and the 1.37 WHIP over the whole season isn’t going to win you any ratio titles. Will Warren could be among the league leaders in wins just chewing up innings for the Yankees all season, so there’s certainly fantasy upside here.
69. Luis Gil
Luis Gil spent a lot of 2025 dealing with a strained latissimus dorsi, whatever that is, and only pitched 57 innings with a 6.47 K/9 that was way way way under than it was in his 2024 breakout (10.15). But even if his swing-and-miss stuff comes back in 2026, there is still the matter of his history of obscene DDBB%. Which was 13.5% last year! I can’t let that anywhere near my team. Pass.
70. Gavin Williams
Gavin Williams has been on breakout lists for a couple seasons now, and he’ll be 27 in late July. He continues to tinker, added a cutter and sinker this year to expand his arsenal to five pitches, but led MLB with a 4.46 BB/9 with a big fat bloating DDBB%. No thanks.
71. Kris Bubic
A rotator cuff owie in late July ended Kris Bubic’s season, which was going pretty well by fWAR standards, 3.3 in 116.1 innings pitched that included a much-improved K/9 (8.97) over the last time he threw over one hundred innings (7.67 in 129 IP in 2022). However, the combined 46.1 IP he accumulated in 2023 and 2024 gives me pause about handling a full workload after recovering from a shoulder injury.
72. Ryan Weathers
The New York Yankees think Ryan Weathers is interesting enough to give up four players for, with his 86th percentile average fastball velocity of 96.8mph. He’s still a work in progress, having never thrown more than 86.2 innings in his five big-league seasons, and the Yankees have plans for him to tweak his arsenal. There’s a lot of there there, but it’s worth pointing out that he began 2025 on the IL with a forearm strain, and we all know what they can be a precursor to.
Fun fact! David Weathers is Ryan’s father and he also played ball and he, too, was once traded from the Marlins to the Yankees.
Tier 12: Younger Lower-Ceiling Starting Pitchers
73. Chad Patrick
Chad Patrick has had more strikeouts than innings the last three seasons using a cutter-heavy approach, and his strikeout stuff puts him at the top of this tier, but his lack of a true secondary pitch to go with his mix of fastballs hints that his longer-term future may be in the bullpen or some other abbreviated innings role the Brewers tend to do with their pitchers. In the short term, he’s averaged 27 starts those last three seasons with all those strikeouts to go with it. Chad Patrick could be a pretty good fantasy asset, he just might not be the starting pitcher in every single game he’ll appear in next year.
74. Andrew Abbott
Andrew Abbott will be 27 on June 1st, and with 75 career starts and 413.2 innings pitched over three seasons, he’s practically a veteran. Like many dependable veterans, Abbott is a bit more reliable and boring than he is exciting and impactful, and it’s hard to imagine a pitcher with an average fastball velocity of 92.8 (26th percentile) being much better than he is right now. However, his hard-hit% of 33.7% is in the 93rd percentile and he’s shaved more than three points of walk rate since he entered the big leagues in 2023 (9.6% to 8.9% in 2024 to 6.3% last year), a very encouraging sign.
75. Noah Cameron
I guess I’m not sure what it is about Noah Cameron (27 in July) that’s supposed to have me excited as a fantasy asset. Noah has a five-pitch mix but just 138.1 innings pitched in the major leagues with a K/9 that dropped to 7.42 from the double-digits in the minor leagues, so he’s still figuring it out on the job. In the meantime, his 20th-percentile fastball velocity (92.3) isn’t going to give me the strikeouts I like from starting pitchers going into their second MLB season.
76. Landen Roupp
There are some who are excited about Landen Roupp, and with good reasons. Roupp has a good curveball and a good sinker and the San Francisco Giants play in a good park for pitchers, indeed all good reasons to be high on him going into 2026. But I do not care for the near-DDBB% he posted, nor do I care for the 26th percentile average fastball velocity.
77. Reese Olson
If Reese Olson and the shoulder strain that limited him to 68.2 innings in 2025 is healthy and pitches all season, he could provide fantasy value on a volume (if not ratio) basis, but eh. Reese Olson has chase rates and whiff rates that are well above-average, and his Statcast profile and 7.1% walk rate and 3.17 FIP from 2024 are encouraging reasons to think that a step forward is pretty possible in his fourth season. Olson won’t even turn 27 until the end of July.
78. Brayan Bello
The Red Sox had enough confidence in Brayan Bello (and their own pitching development) to give Bello a 6 year and $55 million contract before the 2024 season. In 543.1 innings since debuting in 2022, Brayan Bello hasn’t shown much beyond durability, nor signs of improvement from the league-averageness he started with. His 17.7% K% was in the 16th percentile last year, dashing a lot of hope for Bello to at least rack up the strikeouts the should come with averaging 29ish starts and 162 innings the last three seasons. Brayan Bello won’t turn 27 until May and all that experience should suggest a step forward, but you’d have to be a Red Sox fan to be optimistic enough to spend a draft pick on him.
79. Jack Leiter
The son of Al Leiter and nephew of Mark Leiter and cousin of Mark Leiter Jr., Jack Leiter certainly has the pedigree of a big-league pitcher, and he was advanced enough to be the 2nd overall pick in the 2021 Draft after a well-regarded collegiate career at Vanderbilt University. Jack’s professional career hasn’t been great so far, tbh. Though the strikeouts have been a constant, so have DDBB% and bloated ERAs and xFIPs. The 187.1 innings Jack Leiter has thrown in the big leagues since 2024 have been more of the same, except that the 35.1 innings he threw in 2024 were so bad (-1.6 bWAR) that the 151.2 innings Jack threw in 2025 were not enough to make up for it, meaning that Jack Leiter enters the 2026 season with a career -1.2 bWAR. Not an encouraging use to spend a draft pick!
80. Kumar Rocker
Speaking of pedigrees, did you know that Kumar Rocker’s dad is currently the defensive line coach for the Tennessee Titans? And speaking of well-regarded collegiate careers at Vanderbilt University, Kumar Rocker was so well-regarded that he was a first-round pick twice: in 2021 (10th overall by the New York Mets) and again in 2022 (3rd overall by the Texas Rangers). His 2025 is not so well-regarded, posting an unsightly 5.81 xERA that came with xBA and xSLG and hard-hit% and barrel% and average exit velocity that were all within the 5th percentile of all pitchers. Dudes really hit the shit out of Kumar Rocker last year, and his strikeout numbers are too pedestrian for me to consider him on Draft Day.
81. Reid Detmers
Reid Detmers was fantastic out of the bullpen in 2025, but will be penciled back in as a starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels for now. It’s hard to quit gas like this, and it’s also hard to expect that the extra two mph Detmers gained on his fastball in the bullpen last year will carry back over to the starting rotation. Even if it works out to the best-case scenario, there’s still the matter of his career 9.3% walk rate.
82. Mike Soroka
Remember when Michael Soroka was a 21 year-old All-Star, way back in 2019? He’ll be 28 next year, and I’m still holding out hope that he can have his career back after missing all of 2021 and 2022. Soroka had bicep and shoulder owies last year, but that didn’t stop him from a career-best K/9 of 9.54. Pitcher List has him SP215 right now, which seems really really low considering his talent level. He’ll be 29 in August. An interesting arm for sure, and the Arizona Diamondbacks seem to agree.
Tier 13: Leftover Starting Pitchers with Some Fantasy Relevance
We are probably way beyond the starting pitchers I’m interested in on Draft Day, but this is still a tier from which fantasy value can still be derived in-season. They don’t really have much in common with each other besides the fact that I couldn’t figure out how to bucket them in the other tiers.
83. José Berríos
José Berríos has made at least 30 starts five seasons in a row with a career 8.48 K/9, but the K% has been under 20% in three of his last four seasons, and the 5.8 BB% he posted in 2021 has been creeping upward to the 8% he posted last year. He can give you innings and strikeouts and the Toronto Blue Jays will help his wins, but he has a recent history of outperforming his xERA so all the hits (often top 10 in the AL) and home runs (ditto) and walks (top 20 last two years) he gives up may cause some ratio bloat.
84. Yusei Kikuchi
The strikeouts and bulk innings pitched that Yusei Kikuchi provide are great, but his BB% has been all over the place and he needs it under 7% for a full season from him be palatable from a fantasy option. Not draftable for me, but I will be keeping him in mind as a streamer.
85. Jeffrey Springs
Home/away split alert! Jeffrey Springs had a 4.81 ERA and 1.28 in 82.1 IP within his joke-ass “home” ballpark, and was much better on the road, with a 3.45 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 88.2 IP. Definitely keep him in mind when you’re in need of SP streamers throughout the year.
86. Luis Severino
Luis Severino has some durability, with 60 games started in last two seasons. He started attacking the zone with his fastball more in the second half and got his shit back together with 17 ER for his last 49.1 IP for a 3.10 ERA. The “home” ballpark is a problem (6.01 ERA and 1.3 WHIP), but his away (3.02 ERA and 1.07 WHIP) says Luis Severino could be a very nice streaming option. He’s certainly a lot cheaper than the Seattle arms with huge splits.
87. Justin Verlander
Justin Verlander is a future Hall of Fame who probably has something left in the tank going into his Age 43 season, even if it’s just eating league-average innings. I mean, he made 29 starts last year, that’s kinda baller for his age. With an average walk rate and below-average strikeout rate, Justin Verlander may not be super fantasy viable this season, but he deserve flowers for what he’s able to do at this stage of his career.
88. Max Scherzer
Max Scherzer started Game 7 of the World Series last year and when the game ended, he was unemployed. He remains unemployed as of this writing, and the latest scuttlebutt is that he may bide his time and sign with a team after Opening Day, perhaps a while after Opening Day.
89. Lucas Giolito
Elbow issues came up late in the season for Lucas Giolito, but with no UCL damage discovered. Giolito said he would’ve been available to pitch in the playoffs if the Red Sox made a deeper run, but otherwise his return from TJ was productive (145 IP) if not inspiring (5.01 xERA and 4.59 xFIP).
90. Mitch Keller
Mitch Keller can chew up all the innings you need (176+ average last four seasons with at least 29 games started) but with a K/9 of less than 8. Plus he’s a Pittsburgh Pirate so not exactly a great streaming option for wins.
91. Christian Javier
Christian Javier started 8 games for the Houston Astros last year after his recovery from TJ with mixed results that included a 3.33 xERA but 4.97 xFIP. The strikeouts were more or less back (34 in 37 innings), but Javier has had BB% rates varying from 8.9% to 12.5% the last five seasons. He’s got too many walks and is too inconsistent for my tastes but I don’t see why he can’t at least provide strikeouts.
92. Brady Singer
Nom nom nom, more innings-eating averageness. Brady Singer will turn 30 in August and has pitched at least 153 innings for the last four seasons with a strikeout rate a hair under one-per and curious road splits away from Cincinnati, with a 4.88 ERA and 1.39 WHIP last season but 3.29 ERA and 1.11 WHIP at home. Starting pitchers on the Reds always give me pause because of their home park but that weird split just puts me further off.
Tier 14: Surplus of Red Sox Starting Pitchers
The Boston Red Sox have interesting (if not weird) taste in starting pitchers, and with the rotation set with Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suarez, Sonny Gray, and Brayan Bello, there are several candidates for the fifth option. Let’s talk about them!
93. Kutter Crawford
Kutter Crawford led Boston in innings in 2024 with 183.2, but 2025 was a lost season, between a patellar tendinopathy in his right knee and an off-field incident where he was doing housework or something that resulted in a pop in his wrist and season-ending surgery to repair the subsheath. How he’ll rebound after missing a whole year going into his Ag 30 season from such a gnarly and unusual injury is anyone’s guess.
94. Connelly Early
Connelly Early pitched all of 19.1 innings in MLB last year, but all that 90th-plus percentile looks pretty elite (if unqualified), that included a 36.7% strikeout rate. Of course, less than twenty innings in the big leagues isn’t much to hang your hat on, especially when he hasn’t thrown more than 103.2 innings in a professional season, and didn’t even match that last year. I also can’t put too much faith in the 5.1% BB% he posted in the four games he started with the Boston Red Sox when it was a tad under DDBB% in the minors.
95. Payton Tolle
Topping out at 98-99 after throwing 90-92, Payton Tolle took a tremendous step forward last season that culminated in three starts at the big league level. The Boston Red Sox plan on having him develop his secondary pitches in the minor leagues, but with the way he’s been improving, I would not be surprised to see him back up before summer begins.
96. Johan Oviedo
Dude is 6’5″ and touches 98, and had 9 encouraging starts to end the year in August and September, with 42 strikeouts in 40.1 IP. The DDBB% is certainly ugly and the 4.90 xFIP certainly wasn’t great and he’s still learning how to pitch going into his Age 28 season and the Pirates won’t help him very much but he’s an interesting arm for sure. I imagine Johan Oviedo will be talked-about in 2026 because he’ll probably give you a strikeout an IP no matter how well he pitches.
97. Kyle Harrison
Kyle Harrison came to Boston in the Rafael Devers trade and added a cutter that saw good results, as well as a new changeup grip. Pitcher arsenal changes are almost always worth keeping an eye on (tho you’d be right to be suspicious of the Red Sox’s no-fastball policy), especially for young arms with good pedigrees like Kyle.
Tier 15: Messy Braves Starting Pitchers
The Atlanta Braves have some surprisingly messy starting pitching options going into 2026. This could actually be a great rotation if everybody here (plus Spencer Schwellenbach) hits their upside but between injuries and inconsistencies, these are messes that I would prefer not to deal with on Draft Day.
98. Spencer Strider
Not long ago at all, Spencer Strider was perhaps the most dominating starting pitcher in baseball but now he looks like a work in progress, as he has not seen his fastball velocity return since his second elbow procedure, and he has now had both TJ surgery and that internal brace procedure. The strikeouts are still there, but there is just not enough precedent at all to have any confidence in his game going forward.
99. Reynaldo López
The Atlanta Braves signed Reynaldo López to be a full-time starter, and he was impressive over 135.2 innings in 2024, striking out a batter an inning and submitted a 3.5 fWAR season that included a lucky 1.99 ERA (3.92 xERA). He lost almost all of 2025 after undergoing arthroscopic surgery, but the Braves plan to stretch him out in spring training to resume his starting pitching duties.
100. Hurston Waldrep
Hurston Waldrep reportedly added a cutter and sinker to round out a six-pitch repertoire centered around his split-finger fastball, so I’m sure he’s intriguing to some folks since he will turn 24 in March and was the 24th overall pick of the 2023 Draft. However, the history of DDBB% in the minors says no way for me.
101. Grant Holmes
Grant Holmes will turn 30 in March. He experienced right elbow inflammation and “hopes to avoid elbow surgery” but we all know how that shit turns out. He had a live batting practice session in October that the Atlanta Braves were encouraged about, but I am not encouraged at all, no sir. In fact, I am so discouraged that I’m tempted to preemptively put him in the tier of hurt pitchers, however premature that would be.
102. Bryce Elder
Bryce Elder will be 27 in May, and he had a curious September that was much much better than the rest of his 2025, with a 3.13 ERA and 1.07 WHIP and 32 strikeouts in 31.2 innings. Elder even slashed his walk rate all the way down to 3% for the month while adding a couple mph to his fastball. This might be worth monitoring.
Tier 16: Not-Great Starting Pitchers with Very Good BB%
The guys in this tier are interesting to me because they do not walk very many hitters. That doesn’t mean they are great fantasy pitchers, of course, but I’ll be keeping an eye on a lot of these dudes throughout the summer to look for streaming opportunities against teams with shitty offenses.
103. Merrill Kelly
Merrill Kelly is a plenty useful starting pitcher IRL with all the bulk innings he offers, but he’s not really a target on draft day unless he lands with a team that can give him wins. It’s very hard to hang your fantasy hat on a guy whose average fastball velocity is in the 16th percentile and gets hit harder than most starting pitchers. Merrill Kelly’s BB% have been 6.4 or below the last two seasons, though.
104. Bailey Ober
What a disaster of a season for Bailey Ober last year. His average fastball velocity was 90.3, which put him in the 6th%(!) of all pitchers, and he had a 5.10 ERA and 4.90 FIP with a 4.46 xERA. Ober was also one of 8 pitchers to give up at least 30 home runs. I love love love his sub-6% walk rate but it is not good for my anxiety to spend my summer getting irrationally and unnecessarily annoyed an extra thirty times.
105. Zach Eflin
It was a lost year for Zach Eflin. He wasn’t very good (5.93 ERA and 4.53 xERA) and then in August he went lumbar microdiscectomy surgery, whatever that is. He still kept his elite BB%, tho and if he signs with a team that has good defense, he could be a decent streamer option vs. shitty-hitting teams.
106. Zach Littell
The definition of an innings eater, with all the meh that comes with it. The only thing Zach Littell has going for him from a fantasy perspective is his elite BB% that lent itself to a 1.10 WHIP last year with a BB/9 of 1.54, just a hair behind the leader Tarik Skubal, but that came with 130 strikeouts in 186.2 IP and also 36 HR. Monitor his landing spot because he can be a pretty useful streamer.
107. Ryne Nelson
Ryne Nelson has a very uninspiring K/9 and not-great rations, tho he has a nice BB% and a posted a 1.07 WHIP last year. Some love his four-seam fastball and say it is elite, but until he finds a second pitch, Ryne Nelson belongs in the bucket of low BB% and low K/9 and IP-eating guys like the Zachks Littell and Eflin.
108. Brandon Pfaadt
Brandon Pfaadt was 4th in MLB in BB/9 with 1.88, which is very encouraging, but his K/9 dropped from 9.17 to 7.49. Pfaadt still just 27 with six pitches in his arsenal and an elite BB% to work with so while he’s not really draftable for me right now, he’s interesting enough to keep an eye on.
109. Michael Wacha
Michael Wacha has got a known innings-eating floor, I’ll say that much. Wacha has also posted some very good BB% the last few years so while he won’t help much with the hits part of WHIP, he can certainly help with the walks part of the formula. If you’re short on SP and the Kansas City Royals have a string of shitty offenses to face then maybe he can be useful as a streamer a few times a year.
110. Tomoyuki Sugano
Tomoyuki Sugano gave up 33 home runs for the Baltimore Orioles in his stateside debut with an xERA of 6.05(!). Love the excellent 92nd percentile BB% ofc, but it’s not nearly enough to make this guy draftable going into his Age 36 season, especially . PitcherList doesn’t even have him in their Top 236 so idk why tf I bothered here. I guess I’m a sucker for a low-ass BB%.
Tier 17: These Starting Pitchers Are Hurt
I do not plan on drafting these guys at all. I really dislike drafting someone hurt and stashing them on the IL hoping for a short wait and then getting burned in the meantime while other guys I drafted get hurt and I have one less IL spot to use. It’s frustrating! So I typically just avoid all hurt guys on Draft Day, but I still need to study up on them so I’m ready when they are. This tier is more or less in the order I expect them to come back in 2026.
111. Shane McClanahan
Man oh man what are we going to do with this guy. Shane McClanahan hasn’t started a game since all the way back in August 2023. The TJ monster wiped out his 2024 and then he had a nerve problem that led to a radial nerve decompression surgery (whatever tf that is) in August. McClanahan is expected to start the season in the rotation for the Tampa Bay Rays but I feel like he’s burned us so many times that I can’t confidently place him in another tier. Let’s hope he’s finally fully healthy.
112. Zach Wheeler
It’s very nice to hear that Zach Wheeler “feels no pain” in recovering from thoracic outlet surgery and ig it’s good that he had the “good” kind of TOS but that’s the shit that brought down Matt Harvey and Chris Carpenter. The list of guys successfully recovering from this is pretty short and uninspiring (Merrill Kelly, Alex Cobb, and Frankie Montas), so keep that in mind if you’re considering drafting Wheeler at all in 2026, let alone with a high pick. I don’t want to make any projections at all here and even tho he is expected to be ready by spring training, I’m putting him with the rest of the INJ guys until we at least see some bullpen sessions or something. The latest is that he will be ready end of May. Stash him at your own risk.
113. Justin Steele
Justin Steele had the fancy UCL procedure on April 18th, 2025, and is optimistic for “early season” return after resuming a throwing program in October. Indeed, as of January, Justin is “ahead of schedule” and thinks he will be back “early in the season,” but between the Chicago Cubs’ small surplus of starting pitching and any restrictions Steele may have, idk how many IP we can expect from him in 2026. Justin Steele was a very good pitcher before his surgery and it stands to reason that he will be very good afterwards once he shakes off the rust. Temper your expectations if you draft him tho, if only on the quantity of innings as opposed to the quality.
114. Carlos Rodón
Carlos Rodón had surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow and shave down a bone spur and will not be ready for Opening Day 2026. Carlos has been throwing this offseason, though, and as of December, he expects to be back in the New York Yankees rotation “early in the season” and expects to pitch in the Grapefruit League during Spring Training.
115. Gerrit Cole
Gerrit Cole is fantastic but he won’t be “ready to throw sometime after Opening Day,” and is not expected to rejoin the New York Yankees until late May or early June. This will be Cole’s Age 35 season, and he hasn’t struck less than a man per 9 innings since he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017.
116. Grayson Rodriguez
The Baltimore Orioles said Grayson Rodriguez will be ramping up his throwing in October (Update: Throwing as of Nov. 12) after having bone chips removed for his elbow debridement surgery in August. He’ll be on this here our IL list until we get news of progress but in the meantime, he was traded to the Los Angeles Angels. The next MLB pitch he throws will be his first since July 31, 2024.
117. Jared Jones
Apparently Jared Jones had the non-TJ internal brace surgery in May 2025 and was playing catch from 60 feet in September but idk, smells like a Spencer Strider sequel. If the gas is on in spring training, go for it but I personally think the brace surgery thing is still way too new to place confidence in recoveries, certainly not nearly as confident as we generally with TJ recoveries. If I am wrong, I would love to be corrected because I feel like a lot of baseball writers are using Tommy John surgery and that internal brace deal interchangeably when they are two different things.
Tier 18: Starting Pitchers From the Pacific Rim
The Nippon Professional Baseball league (NPB) in Japan and the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in South Korea seem to generate more interest stateside during the offseason than when they actually play baseball, for all the new-to-us players that want to (re)test their skills at the highest level. None of the pitchers here are new to Major League Baseball, but all but one of these are probably names that are new to us this offseason.
118. Cody Ponce
Now here’s an interesting starting pitcher. Cody Ponce was overseas for a bit, and the 31yo posted a 1.85 ERA and 252 Ks in 180.2 IP in the KBO after three years in Japan that included breaking Hyun Jin Ryu’s (remember him?) record with 18K in a 9 IP game. He added velocity and a cutter in Korea and started striking out everyone. Idk if that’ll carry over to MLB but Cody Ponce could be an interesting IP-eater in a Miles Mikolas and Merrill Kelly kinda way, perhaps with more gas.
119. Foster Griffin
A first-round pick way way back in 2014, Foster Griffin last saw MLB action in 2022, pitching just 6.1 innings between stints with the Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays before plying his trade in Japan. In three seasons in NPB, Griffin struck out 318 in 315.2 innings that came with a pretty tidy 1.03 WHIP for all three seasons and xFIPs between 1.93 and 2.44. Now with the Washington Nationals, he’ll be 31 in July, and I have my doubts that he will replicate that success and give us better-than-average walk rates and at least a strikeout per inning.
120. Kodai Senga
Kodai Senga said his body “changed” after his hamstring injury and now he is “not the same.” Senga will turn 33 in January with a history of DDBB%, and now he’s got some vague-ass issue we need to be worried about. Pass.
121. Anthony Kay
Way back in 2016, Anthony Kay was drafted in the first round by the Mets and after bouncing around MLB, he went to NPB to lead their league in GB% (57.8%) with a 1.74 ERA. Now a Chicago White Sox and already limited by the wins he’ll give you, his 7.6 K/9 further limits his fantasy upside even with a 2.4 BB/9.
122. Drew Anderson
Drew Anderson had a great year in the KBO, making 30 starts with 245 strikeouts in 171.2 IP and shaving more than 3 points off his walk rate from the year before. It’s a tall order to expect a pitcher to do in MLB what he did in the KBO, but the Detroit Tigers gave him a one-year deal for $7 million to find out if he can.
123. Ryan Weiss
According to Houston Astros General Manager Dana Brown, KBO signee Ryan Weiss, who is entering his Age 29 season, will get an opportunity to crack the starting rotation. Weiss spent two years with the Hanwha Eagles where he struck out 305 batters in 270.1, but many of the projection systems are not optimistic that he will continue to strike out one per inning.
Coming soon! More tiers and commentary for the next batch of starting pitchers. Please bookmark and return often!
Where are the rest of your Fantasy Baseball 2026 rankings by position?
Stay tuned! I’ll be adding all the positions and updating them throughout the winter. Don’t forget to bookmark this page and stay tuned for updates throughout the offseason until Opening Day!
UPDATE LOG
- November 14, 2025: Published
- November 16: Top 23 starting pitchers with commentary.
- November 18, 2025. Tier 6 added. Top 32 starting pitchers with commentary.
- November 22, 2025: Tier 7 added. Top 41 starting pitchers with commentary.
- November 29, 2025: Tier 8 added. Top 47 starting pitchers with commentary.
- December 30, 2025: Tier 9 added. Top 56 starting pitchers with commentary.
- January 3, 2026: Tiers 10 and 11 and 12 added. Top 81 starting pitchers with commentary.
- January 9, 2026: Updated Edward Cabrera after trade to Chicago Cubs.
- January 24, 2026: Added more tiers. Top 120 starting pitchers with commentary.
- January 27, 2026: Added three more arms. Top 123 starting pitchers with commentary.
Cover Image: Unknown author via Wikimedia Commons
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