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Skubal, who has had two Cy Young-caliber seasons in a row, is the obvious choice for No. It is the first time in several years I have considered drafting a starting pitcher in the top round of a 12 team league.
Crochet’s 1A is Skubal’s 1. Crochet might have an edge over Skubal when it comes to strikeouts, especially now that he has proven he can handle a heavy workload. Skubal is the clear winner, as he has accomplished twice what Crochet did only once.
Skenes is the third player in this top tier, and he looks every bit as bankable after delivering two consecutive seasons with an ERA under 2.00. He’s just a little bit behind those two pitchers in terms of strikeouts, and has the unfortunate misfortune of playing for a Pirates squad that is abysmal.
He’s not even close to the top. Sale was ranked No. 4 before fracturing a rib in mid-June on a diving stop. Sale struck out nine batters in each of his five starts following the injury. He looked just as good as the ace that he had been before. However, he has struggled to stay healthy and will turn 37.
Yamamoto’s second season was much more successful in the States. He was every bit as good as he was advertised to be. He worked seven innings and over five times, recording double-digit strikes. The main knock against him is the fact that he will be working in a six-man rotating system most of time. This may cost him around four starts over the year.
Gilbert’s reputation for being a hard-working athlete took a knock when he had to miss seven weeks due to a flexor sprain. After he returned to the game, he continued to have shorter starts, but his K/9 (11.9) rate was higher than that of Skubal and Crochet. There is a lot of good to be said about this. Just how it will look is hard to predict.
In 2025, Sanchez’s ascent reached new heights as he was able to maintain peak speeds without compromising the elite strike-throwing abilities. With his love of ground balls and his ability to throw fastballs, Sanchez excels in the three main areas of a pitcher’s control. He worked more than 6 innings in over half of his 32 starting appearances. It sounds like a pitcher ace.
Woo was known for both his brittleness and his efficiency in 2025. Woo is one of only 13 pitchers who have thrown 185+ innings. Woo was also arguably the ace among a talented Mariners pitching team. The pectoral problem he developed late in the year affected his ability to participate in the playoffs. But we now know he isn’t a fragile flower who will not be able follow through with his considerable talent, highlighted by his pristine control.
Fried had a great first year as a Yankee, achieving career highs in wins and innings while delivering a lower than 3.00 ERA, for the third time within four years. Fried can sometimes get lost in his arsenal of six pitches, which happened during a rough eight-start midseason stretch. He is also not the most prolific strikeout pitcher. He’s now as safe as it gets in terms of ERA, having answered the durability questions.
Brown’s bat-missing ability isn’t what his 10.0 K/9 suggests. This number actually dropped to 8.8 by the end of the second half. In the second part of the season, his ERA (2.43) remained the same because he was able to induce weak contact. Fried and Healy are both aces, so it makes sense that they’re ranked together.
Greene would have been ranked fourth in the world if his arm had held up for 180 innings. However, as he is currently the fastest-throwing pitcher in baseball with a fastball that averages 99.5 mph in 2025, he’s not even close. Greene’s time was lost due to a groin problem in 2025, but when he was fully recovered, he proved to be an ace.
Ragans is a hard sell to many, given his 4.67 ERA and the fact that he was out of action for most of 2025 due to a strained rotator cuff. The small sample size is what is responsible for Ragans’s outlandish ERA. However, his jaw-dropping numbers of strikeouts reveal that he is an ace in the highest sense. It’s possible that Twelfth is too low.
Snell’s reputation is one of frustration and injury. But we can put to rest the second idea, as he has a 1.17 WHIP, a 2.76 ERA and 11.8 K/9 in the last four seasons. How does his health issue differentiate him from those two players ahead of him or behind him?
He was still winning Cy Young awards at lower speeds, so it’s understandable that deGrom would have to reduce his fastball velocity. DeGrom is no longer the dominant pitcher he was in his prime and won’t ever be one again. However, we can still draft with confidence.
Schwellenbach, who was establishing himself as an ace pitcher in late June, had his elbow break while he delivered a pitch. He has admitted that it’s possible that his arm cannot handle the high speeds he was hitting. This raises the issue of how dominant he will be if he slows down a bit. He was equally good as a 2024 rookie with slightly lower velocity, flourishing on elite control and an arsenal.
Note that Luzardo’s season numbers are inflated because of a two-start span in which his pitches were clearly tipped. Take those out, and he ends up with a 3.03 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP. These are numbers more in line for the 16th ranked starting pitcher, and are also more in line his ERA estimates. He was top 10 in xERA, xFIP, and FIP.17
Webb’s WHIP is harmful to Rotisserie for the second consecutive year. He is an established workhorse and has just finished his third season in a row with over 200 innings. He struggled with his changeup’s consistency in the second part of the season, making him particularly vulnerable.
Valdez, like Webb, is an innings eater. This helps smooth out the rough edges of his Head-to-Head point totals, but in 5×5 Leagues, it can be a bit more difficult. He can compete with aces when his curveball performs well, but is more vulnerable when not. You can expect the ERA to be a bit high.
Peralta has just given us his best-case scenarios with a 2.70 ERA. This was about a half run lower than his previous three years, even though all his peripherals remained constant. Without a substantial improvement in his strikeout rate or walk rate or a change from being a flying-ball pitcher to ground-ball pitching, I am inclined to believe he will regress to mean. This would justify a selection this high, but not higher.
Kirby’s 2025 began in IL, his first stint of the career, due to shoulder soreness. From there, things went awry. His ERA grew to 4.21 despite no apparent signs of decline, despite some highs like two 14-strikeout performances. He may have never felt quite right. Perhaps he was a little too cute in his pitch selection. He’ll be selected with some caution in 2026.
Glasnow, who is now in his 30s, has not yet reached 140 innings of a season. This time, he missed more than two month due to shoulder inflammation. The fact that he returned to pitch like a pro is the only reason we can discount his injuries. I say “basically,” because he has a tendency to make hard contact which can cause the ERA run a bit high.
Bradish was fourth in the AL Cy Young voting for 2023, and he looked even better when he had Tommy John surgery 2025. It’s therefore surprising that his return in August last year didn’t spark more excitement. I could be underselling a player whose 2.53 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 13.2 K/9, as well as his 14.6% swinging-strike percentage, would all have ranked in top 10 if he’d contributed over a whole season, rather than only six starts.
Perez was hot and cool during his first year back after Tommy John surgery. He made 20 starts. Throughout it all he displayed the same arsenal that made him such a sensation as a rookie in 2023. He’s still not far from delivering despite the fact that his hype has waned.
Cease’s ERA, particularly xERA and xFIP, remained essentially unchanged from one year to the next. This suggests that Cease’s performance is less dependent on factors he can control than BABIP. Cease’s fluctuations in performance are less linked to factors he controls than to BABIP.
Pivetta’s first season with the Padres was a success, but in a way no one expected. He was able to strike out more than one batter per inning and achieve a higher ERA. A certain amount of regression can be expected.26
Ryan’s ERA is high because of his vulnerability to the long ball. However, he has a good WHIP and should deliver a good strikeout number, provided he throws enough innings. He’s prone to long balls, which keeps his ERA high, but he is reliable in terms of WHIP, and should be able to deliver a decent strikeout number if he throws enough innings.
Woodruff’s season was prematurely ended by a lat strain, raising further injury concerns. However, he proved enough in 12 starts to merit a pick this high. His season was prematurely ended by a lat strain, which raises more injury concerns. However, he showed enough in his 12 starts to warrant a high pick.
It’s not just the postseason of 2025 that has shown the versatility of the two-way player. Although he may be the Dodgers’ best pitcher in reality, because of his bat, his use as a fantasy pitcher can be frustrating.
Gausman had a good season after a disappointing 2024, which put him at the edge of Fantasy irrelevance. Gausman’s strikeout rate did not return to previous levels but he played a key role for the Blue Jays, particularly in the second-half with a 2,81 ERA, WHIP, and 9.2 k/9.30.
Rogers’ return to his former glory after three years of failure was one of the most surprising developments in 2025. It is largely due to his improved velocity and command. While the 1.81 ERA may seem too good to be real, it’s largely because of the good luck he had with home runs. His strikeout and walking rates are about the same as Gausman.
Bieber returned from Tommy John surgery in 2024 with a mostly successful recovery. He was able to maintain the velocity gains he had made during the short time he was fit, but some issues that led him towards pursuing more velocity reappeared. He averaged fewer than one strikeout an inning, and he allowed some of hardest contact from any starter. He’s a wild card on the free-agent market, but one that has plenty of potential.
Strider was unable to throw his fastball with the same velocity or carry after an elbow brace procedure. For the middle part of 2025, his slider seemed to be more than enough. Final numbers indicate that there is still more work to be completed, either by expanding his arsenal, or by hitting the laboratory to regain his fastball form.
Burns may not have lived up to his billing as the top pitching prospect when he was promoted in late June. But in the eight starts that he made, before straining his arm, he struck out double-digits four times. That’s more than Paul Skenes did in his entire professional career. The small sample size can cause the ERA to be distorted, but the positive impact was clear.
Sheehan’s final six outings as the bulk pitcher (not all of them starts, technically) had a 1.93 ERA, 0.72 WHIP and 11.8 K/9 with a 19 percent swinging-strike rate. He had a 1.93 ERA over his last six appearances (not all starts, technically) as the bulk pitching.
Williams was the only pitcher to issue more walks than any other in 2025, and he is fortunate that he has a 3.06 ERA, considering all of his advanced statistics. Williams was significantly better in the second half, with a 2.18 ERA (1.05 WHIP) and 10.0 k/9, and he was especially dominant in his last five starts. This could indicate a break-out for a top prospect in his early career.
Eovaldi’s ERA was no lower than 3.63 over the course of 11 years, but he managed to turn in a mark of 1.73 at 35. As is expected of a pitcher this age, he had a few stints in the IL, but his performance was almost unaffected during those periods when he was healthy. His history is against him but there aren’t many downsides to taking him.
Schlittler, who is so fastball-reliant and gave up a fair amount of hard contact, didn’t seem like a rookie in the Yankees’ final nine starts. Five of those lasted six innings or longer, and that doesn’t include his playoff debut with 12 strikeouts over eight shutout inning. I’m being careful because he relies heavily on his fastball and has given up a lot of hard contact. But it feels like Schlittler is about to do something great.
It’s a fine line, though, and McLean may have the higher floor given his knack for putting the ball on the ground (his 61.1 percent rate would have ranked second among qualifiers). McLean, however, may have the better floor, given his ability to get the ball down (his rate of 61.1 percent would have been second among qualifiers).
I was initially inclined to rank Rodon as 17th because of his similarity with Jesus Luzardo. However, after hearing that he will be having elbow surgery in 2026 (loose body), which could delay his debut until April or May, it is prudent to take a more conservative approach. He is still the top pitcher expected to start the year in the IL, a few places ahead of Zack Wheeler or Gerrit Col. Their timelines are similar, but their recovery times are more uncertain.
Ray appeared to be on track for a Cy Young-caliber year in 2025. He was riding a new pitch and an improved health regime that led him to Cy Young results. Ray faltered at the end in a manner we should have expected given his struggles with hard contact and control. It is possible that he can still be an excellent rotation player. However, given his age and injury history, as well as his obvious weaknesses, it would be prudent to take a cautious approach.
2025-10-25 06:06:41
