Our rankings and tiers series continues, as we take a dive into fantasy baseball rankings and tiers for starting pitchers.
Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitchers Primer: Rankings & Tiers
Here are my starting pitchers fantasy baseball rankings and tiers for 2026.
Tier 1 & Notes
Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet and Paul Skenes are the consensus top three starters this year for a reason. Each has elite stuff and safe floors. They are all worth first-round picks, but what order you have them in your ranks is up to you. I have them ranked in the order above just because of team construct, but they are very interchangeable.
Tier 2 & Notes
Cristopher Sanchez has always been a good MLB starter, but with increased velocity last year, he took it to a new level. He has been amazing this spring and is well worth an early pick in drafts this season.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was fantastic in 2025, throwing 173.2 innings with a 2.49 ERA and 201 strikeouts. The skills are immaculate, and the only concern is innings. With the Dodgers running a six-man rotation and likely protecting their starters down the stretch, he may only pitch about 150 innings.
Jacob deGrom missed a lot of time between 2021 and 2024, but he finally came back in full in 2025, throwing 172.2 innings with a 2.97 ERA and 185 strikeouts. He isn’t the dominant force he was at his prime, but he is still a top-tier pitcher who can throw a lot of innings with great ratios.
Max Fried has been one of the most reliable starters in the game for years. He has thrown at least 165 innings in four of the last five seasons, and he hasn’t had an ERA worse than 3.25 in that span.
Tier 3 & Notes
When Logan Gilbert is on the mound, he is fantastic. The only problem is that he missed time with an elbow issue last season, and there is a risk that it will come back to haunt him once again.
Cole Ragans is elite when he is on the mound; however, he struggled with injuries in 2023 and 2025. He only threw 61.2 innings last season, and there is a risk that he only throws that many again. However, if Ragans can stay healthy, he could be one of the best pitchers in the game.
Nolan McLean is a former top prospect who came up and really impressed in 2025. He threw 48 innings with a 2.06 ERA and 57 strikeouts. He has good command and control, as well as amazing stuff with a full six-pitch arsenal. His average draft position (ADP) is high, but so is the upside.
Eury Perez had an uneven season last year in his return from Tommy John surgery. However, that was to be expected. He should be back to pre-surgery form — an emerging top-25 starter.
Tier 4 & Notes
Dylan Cease is one of the hardest pitchers to rank. He has been good and bad in alternating seasons going back to 2021. He is now in Toronto, and I worry about how he will adjust to a new park and team behind him. He will throw a ton of volume and get a lot of strikeouts, so there is a pretty decent floor as long as his ERA doesn’t get blown up again.
If not for two terrible starts in a row at the end of May and beginning of June, Jesus Luzardo may have won the National League Cy Young Award, but giving up 20 earned runs in 5.2 innings can crush a season. The upside for Luzardo is amazing, but he has struggled with inconsistency and injuries throughout his career. He is a high-risk/high-reward pitcher.
Spencer Strider is coming off a disappointing return from elbow surgery. He struggled with command and control, but that was to be expected. What hasn’t been as expected is the issues with his velocity. He was averaging 98 miles per hour (MPH) in 2022, which has dipped almost a mile per hour every year since, to the point where he is averaging 94.5 MPH this spring and facing players on backfields instead of in spring training games. The upside is that he returns to his previous form, and the downside is that he is a shell of his former self.
Cam Schlittler is coming off a fantastic rookie campaign where he threw 73 innings with a 2.96 ERA and 84 strikeouts. Schlittler has really good stuff, but can struggle with control at times. His command has been good, so he may be able to work around the walks and protect himself in a tough Yankee Stadium. There is a nice upside and a decent floor for the second-year player.
Tier 5 & Notes
Drew Rasmussen doesn’t have the massive upside of some of the other pitchers in this tier, but he has one of the safest floors. He has not had an ERA over 3.00 in a season since the 2021 season, and his worst WHIP is 1.08. He doesn’t get a ton of strikeouts, but that is by design because his stuff is nasty. He is a great No. 3 starter in fantasy that often gets overlooked.
Sandy Alcantara had an uneven return from Tommy John surgery last season. He struggled with command and control early, but looked like his old self in his last eight starts, throwing 53.2 innings with a 2.68 ERA and a .86 WHIP. Most importantly, he threw a ton of innings, which gives me hope he will be able to again.
Nick Pivetta is coming off his best season as a starter, throwing 181.2 innings with a 2.87 ERA and 190 strikeouts. However, he was very lucky. His xERA was just 3.97, and his HR/FB rate was under 10%, which is well below his career average. I think there is a good amount of regression coming here.
Shota Imanaga had a disappointing season in 2025, throwing 144.2 innings with a 3.73 ERA and 117 strikeouts. However, his velocity was down last season, but it is back and the highest it’s been since he came over from Japan. He looks like the 2024 version of himself, and I am buying back in.
Tyler Glasnow is elite when he is on the mound. However, he has never thrown more than 134 innings in a season, and he has only gone over 100 innings three times in his 10-year career. Glasnow is healthy now, so he is worth taking a gamble on, but know that he won’t get you the volume, and he needs to be paired with someone who will.
Tier 6 & Notes
When Brandon Woodruff was on the mound last season, he was fantastic. The problem was that he only threw 64.2 innings, and the last time he threw more than 67 innings in a season was 2022. He has already been dealing with issues this spring, so there is a lot of risk in the profile despite the massive upside.
Jacob Misiorowski has some of the nastiest stuff in the Majors, but he can struggle to control it and to repeat his mechanics. If he can find more control, he could be one of the top pitchers in fantasy, but that is a big if.
Emmet Sheehan is one of the trendiest pitchers in fantasy right now, and for good reason. He threw 73.1 innings with a 2.28 ERA and 89 strikeouts last season. He is also on the best team in baseball and seems to have a rotation spot locked down. I do worry that Sheehan is being overrated a little. He has dealt with injuries in the past, and he doesn’t have the best stuff or the deepest arsenal. I think he can be a very good starter this season, but his ADP is starting to get a bit out of control.
Zack Wheeler is elite when he is on the mound, but he had thoracic outlet surgery in the offseason and won’t be ready for at least a few weeks, if not longer. Thoracic outlet surgery has a poor track record for pitchers as well, which is scary. I hope he is great, but I can’t rationalize drafting him in most formats.
Tier 7 & Notes
Cade Horton is a former top prospect with a full five-pitch arsenal who was great last season, throwing 118 innings with a 2.67 ERA and 97 strikeouts. He has looked even better this spring. The results haven’t been great, but he has a 30% strikeout rate, which is being backed up by a 19% swinging strike rate. He has a good home park and a great team behind him. Horton could take a massive step this season.
Trevor Rogers was fantastic last season, throwing 109.2 innings with a 1.81 ERA and 103 strikeouts. Of course, he is going to regress some, but the question is how much. He had a 3.40 xERA, and his spring ERA is 2.51 over 14.1 innings. I would expect him to record a mid-to-low 3.00s era with close to a strikeout per inning.
Ryne Nelson quietly had a great season last year, throwing 154 innings with a 3.39 ERA and 132 strikeouts. This is the first time he will be cemented in the rotation at the start of the season, and the stuff is good enough for him to take a nice jump in strikeouts.
Tatsuya Imai is coming over from Japan, where he was an elite starter for years. He has looked great in spring, not allowing an earned run while striking out batters at a 35% clip. He won’t be that good, and there could be some control issues at times, but batters have to adjust to him. Imai could be a very valuable rotation piece.
Tier 8 & Notes
Ranger Suarez is moving to Boston, which is a good team, but the infield defense is much worse than it was in Philly. He should still be a reliable innings eater, but it is likely his ratios take a hit.
Matthew Boyd is one of my favorite pitchers this year. He has a history of injuries, but he was healthy last season and is healthy right now. The skills were great, and he looks good in spring training, so I will take the gamble that he will stay on the mound. If he doesn’t, he is an easy cut.
Zac Gallen has been slowly getting worse and worse over the last few years, but he is actually looking great in spring, and his velocity is the highest of his career. It’s a gamble, but you will get volume, and if he is back to being the pitcher he has been before, Gallen is a steal in drafts.
Jack Leiter has amazing stuff, but struggles with control. If he can pound the zone more and limit walks, the upside is amazing.
I love Connelly Early, but it seems unlikely he will be in the rotation to start the season. He is a bench stash because he could be an SP3 or SP4 once he’s up.
Tier 9 & Notes
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