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Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
2025 Fantasy Baseball rest-of-season rankings: Infielders
After covering the starting pitchers and outfielders over the past few weeks, the Shuffle Up series rolls on. Our job is to try to rank the players as if we're drafting starting from scratch today (something you can still do at Yahoo, by the way). Use this list for self-scouting, pickups, trades, any kind of player evaluation you like. [Smarter waivers, better trades, optimized lineups — Yahoo Fantasy Plus unlocks it all] Today we are raking the infield — everyone with infield eligibility should be here, other than any dual-position catchers (they get their own day). Advertisement Everything to this point is an audition. Assume a 5x5 scoring system. Players at the same salary are considered even. Tier 1: The Big Tickets $41 Bobby Witt Jr. $36 Elly De La Cruz $34 Mookie Betts $34 Francisco Lindor $34 José Ramírez $31 Bryce Harper $31 Oneil Cruz $29 Rafael Devers $29 Freddie Freeman $25 Alex Bregman $25 Trea Turner $25 Austin Riley $25 Matt Olson $24 Peter Alonso $24 Manny Machado Witt has future MVP written all over him, especially when he stops chasing at pitches outside the strike zone. Keep in mind, he's just shy of his 25th birthday. He's as fast as anyone in baseball and has no platoon deficit. It would be nice if the Royals could build an A to Z lineup, but one step at a time. Despite being tied to the No. 26 scoring offense in baseball, Witt would be the standard No. 3 pick in pretty much any league starting fresh today, after Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Cincinnati's De La Cruz and Pittsburgh's Cruz no longer play the same position, but they're still young, ascending, jumbo-sized stars in the same division, so it's fun to link them. Advertisement De La Cruz is on pace for 200 strikeouts and his hard-hit metrics are down, but he still has the athleticism to outrun his mistakes — he's projected for 25 home runs and 55 steals, with an average that won't crush you. Cruz has almost doubled his walk rate this year and he's running liberally — after stealing 15-for-15 in the second half of last year, he's 18-for-19 this season (only a brief back problem slowed him down). Cruz strikes out even more than Elly, but when the category juice is this tasty, you live with the empty at-bats. We still haven't seen the peak of either player, which is scary. One reason Bregman came to Boston on his make-good contract was a dreamy career split at Fenway Park; so far, that hasn't registered in 2025 (.330 average on the road, .263 average at home). Still, it all hashes to his best OPS+ since 2019, and a regaining of his power stroke. Bregman has excellent zone judgment and he knows when to look for his pitch, pulling the ball a whopping 55% of the time. Even if the bat speed might be slightly down, his experience makes up for it. He's still close to peak in his age-31 season. Tier 2: Legitimate Building Blocks $21 Vladimir Guerrero $21 Ketel Marte $20 CJ Abrams $19 Gunnar Henderson $18 Zach Neto $16 Paul Goldschmidt $15 Dansby Swanson $15 Cody Bellinger $14 Matt Chapman $14 Josh Naylor $13 Ozzie Albies $13 Spencer Torkelson $13 Eugenio Suárez $13 Tyler Soderstrom Advertisement The Blue Jays paid up for Guerrero, it felt like they probably had to. But a superstar contract doesn't guarantee superstar returns. Guerrero still hits too many ground balls and for all of his batting skill, he's merely headed for around 20 home runs. The supporting cast isn't floating him, either — Toronto ranks 21st in runs scored. Guerrero's name is still a little juicier than his game. Fading injury optimism has been good to me through the years but I'd like a mulligan on Neto, who was nicked in March and wound up being a gigantic bargain. It's interesting that Neto's plate discipline has actually fallen off this year but with 25.3% line drives and the willingness to run aggressively, it hasn't mattered. The .342 BABIP will likely fall a little, but remember he's ripping line drives and is a fast runner; he owns a fair amount of that stat. Neto is also locked into the leadoff spot for the balance of the year, and we love a volume play in fantasy. Tier 3: Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down $12 Geraldo Perdomo $12 Brice Turang $12 Isaac Paredes $12 Jose Altuve $11 Maikel Garcia $11 Jeremy Peña $11 Bo Bichette $11 Mark Vientos $10 Brendan Donovan $10 Ben Rice $10 Anthony Volpe $10 Christian Walker $10 Bryson Stott $10 Vinnie Pasquantino $9 Willy Adames $9 Jorge Polanco $9 Nico Hoerner $9 Jackson Holliday Advertisement The Diamondbacks obviously have a future star shortstop in Jordan Lawlar, but Perdomo isn't giving up the job without a fight. He's been one of the surprise stars of the year, currently the No. 3 shortstop in banked 5x5 value. His pitch-recognition skills are outstanding and he's squaring the ball 36% of the time, an elite rate. His 11 steals are tied to his Baseball IQ; his sprint speed is below average. Perdomo is the most underrated offensive player in the National League right now. Adames came with all the caveats — big contract, new park, team might not run — and so far those fears have been realized. Maybe he's pressing to justify the big deal the Giants gave him. We know San Francisco doesn't want to run much. Adames hasn't hit much at home but it's been even worse on the road (.189/.271/.305). I'll buy the dip next year, steer into the back class. I'm out for 2025. When it comes to steal-focused players, we're always looking where they slot in the lineup. Turang's excellent walk rate and improving average have pushed him to the top of the Milwaukee lineup, a major sea change for his fantasy value. We need that extra at-bat, gamers. He's also not a zero in the power department — he'll knock 10-12 homers while offering that plus average. He's jumped about 40-50 slots from his March ADP. Tier 4: Some Plausible Upside $8 Rhys Hoskins $8 Xander Bogaerts $8 Marcus Semien $8 Jacob Wilson $8 Gleyber Torres $7 Michael Busch $7 Yandy Díaz $7 Kyle Manzardo $7 Josh Jung $7 Alec Bohm $7 Jake Burger $6 Dylan Moore $6 Tommy Edman $6 Trevor Story $6 Zach McKinstry $6 Masyn Winn $6 Nolan Arenado $6 Chase Meidroth $6 Ryan McMahon $5 Ryan O'Hearn $5 Wilmer Flores $5 Brandon Lowe $5 Junior Caminero $5 Josh Smith $5 Luis Arráez $5 Kristian Campbell $5 Tyler Fitzgerald $4 Javier Báez $4 Jonathan Aranda $4 Nathaniel Lowe $4 Carlos Santana $4 Gavin Sheets $4 Ceddanne Rafaela $4 Matt McLain $4 J.P. Crawford $4 Nolan Schanuel $4 Miguel Vargas $4 Miguel Andújar $4 Spencer Steer $4 Isiah Kiner-Falefa $4 Ezequiel Tovar $4 Royce Lewis Advertisement The Tigers are a hot story with the best record in baseball, but Torres isn't getting much of the attention. He's been a nifty addition. The .281 average is supported by his batted-ball profile, and he's one of the hardest players to strike out (9.4 %). Heck, Torres rarely offers at a pitch outside the strike zone. He's one of the slower players in baseball but he has enough guile to grab 10-13 steals, too. Torres figures to bat second in this plus lineup for the remainder of the year. The White Sox are a fantasy wasteland but make an exception for Meidroth, who gobbles up three spots, can hit for a plus average and is willing to run aggressively. He's been a little lucky with his average thus far — Baseball Savant suggests a .264 number — but Meidroth excels with plate discipline and rarely swings outside the zone. Chicago doesn't have much to cheer for this year, but Meidroth is a welcome exception. Tier 5: Bargain Bin $3 Trey Sweeney $3 Jose Caballero $3 Luis García Jr. $3 Gabriel Arias $3 Pavin Smith $3 Gavin Lux $3 Colt Keith $3 Michael Toglia $3 Connor Norby $3 Jake Cronenworth $3 Willi Castro $3 Hyeseong Kim $3 Jonathan India $3 Nick Kurtz $3 Ty France $2 Daniel Schneemann $2 Otto López $2 Ernie Clement $2 Matt Shaw $2 Jordan Lawlar $1 Kyren Paris $1 Enrique Hernandez $1 Luisangel Acuña $1 Tim Tawa $1 Luis Urias $1 Lenyn Sosa $1 Ke'Bryan Hayes $1 Eric Wagaman $1 Brett Baty $1 Christopher Morel $1 Max Muncy $1 Santiago Espinal $1 Luis Rengifo $0 Amed Rosario $0 Rowdy Tellez $0 Yoán Moncada $0 Cam Smith $0 David Hamilton $0 Kody Clemens $0 Zach Dezenzo $0 Andrew Vaughn $0 Michael Massey Advertisement Injured Players — Not For Debate
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
2025 Fantasy Baseball rest-of-season rankings: Starting Pitchers
We're over 20% of the way through the 2025 MLB season, so it's a good time to kick off the Shuffle Up series. And we'll start with the position everyone asks about the most: starting pitchers. Pitchers are the sirens of fantasy baseball, forever teasing us and misleading us. Most pitchers, even the best of them, are constantly tinkering with their approach, their arsenal, their mechanics. And of course, throwing a baseball is a very unnatural act, so you never know who's the next pitcher to need downtime — or a lost season. You want to make the fantasy baseball gods laugh? Rank the pitchers. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement And that's what the Shuffle Up series aims to do. What's below is a set of salaries that reflect how I would price the starting pitching market if I were entering a fresh draft today, or considering pickups or trades. What's happened to this point is merely an audition. [Smarter waivers, better trades, optimized lineups — Yahoo Fantasy Plus unlocks it all] The salaries are a combination of stats to this point, observations, gut feel and special sauce. You'll have many disagreements, of course, because that's why we have a game. I did a courtesy rank of the currently-injured pitchers at the bottom, but I will not discuss or debate that part of the list. Everyone can decide for themselves what a hurt pitcher is worth. In the weeks to follow, we will shuffle other positions. Assume a 5x5 scoring system, and away we go. The Big Tickets $29 Tarik Skubal $27 Paul Skenes $25 Zack Wheeler $24 Michael King $24 Garrett Crochet $23 Hunter Brown $23 Yoshinobu Yamamoto $23 Bryan Woo $22 Hunter Greene $22 Cole Ragans $21 Logan Webb $21 Jacob deGrom $20 Max Fried $20 Joe Ryan $20 Chris Sale ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement So far, so good with the new version of deGrom, the so-called "dial it back" ace. His fastball is down a tick to 96.9 mph, which is intentional. The Rangers have been proactive in getting deGrom out of games, only pushing him past 90 pitches once. I know there's no universal way to save the pitcher in the modern game, but when Texas quickly lifted deGrom with huge leads in his last two starts, I nodded my head. It's prudent. The strikeout rate has dropped and the walk rate is up, though 2.13 BB/9 is still excellent. There's also been an uptick in ground balls. If this is the trade-off that has to happen, and we merely accept deGrom as a strong pitcher and not a demigod who separates himself, I can live with that. I'm just glad we can watch him every five days, and he hasn't had any setbacks. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Fried has been a godsend for the Yankees thus far, but see the story for what it is. His expected ERA is 3.27, much higher than the 1.01 on the back of the card. His ground-ball rate bails him out of trouble and he doesn't walk many batters, but the strikeout rate is merely average. He's getting positive results from his four primary pitches, with the cutter notably improved this year. His ratios from his last two Atlanta years are still the way to bet. Legitimate Building Blocks $19 Freddy Peralta $18 Nick Pivetta $18 Carlos Rodón $18 Framber Valdez $17 Nathan Eovaldi $17 Dylan Cease $17 MacKenzie Gore $16 Jesús Luzardo $16 Seth Lugo $15 Kodai Senga $15 Luis Castillo $15 Pablo López $14 Bailey Ober $14 Kris Bubic $13 Spencer Schwellenbach $13 Zac Gallen Gore has long been viewed as a future ace; maybe that future is now. His walk and strikeout rates are moving in the right direction. The batted-ball profile validates his early ratios, and his Savant page is a glorious display of red sliders pushed to the right. It's interesting that, for his career, he has reverse splits — lefties hit him better than righties — but it's nothing to be alarmed about. I wish the Washington defense were better, but Gore misses so many bats, he doesn't need as much help as the average pitcher. He's occupying a slot much higher than whatever you projected in March. This feels legit. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Is Lugo the most underrated starting pitcher in baseball? He's been a full-time rotation guy since 2023, with these returns: 3.57/1.20 in 2023, 3.00/1.09 last year (where he was quietly Cy Young runner-up) and a 3.07/1.05 push to this season. The K/BB rate isn't as tidy this year as what we're used to, and the batted-ball profile says he's about a run fortunate on the ERA. I'm not sweating any of that. This breakout story is 66 starts deep now, I'm trusting the results. Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down $12 Aaron Nola $12 Sonny Gray $12 Jack Flaherty $11 Tyler Mahle $11 Tanner Bibee $11 Drew Rasmussen $11 Bryce Miller $10 Casey Mize $10 Robbie Ray $10 Clay Holmes $10 Kevin Gausman $10 Tony Gonsolin $9 Tylor Megill $9 Reese Olson $9 Brady Singer $9 Nick Lodolo $9 Matt Liberatore $9 Chris Bassitt $9 Brandon Pfaadt $9 Cristopher Sánchez $9 Shane Baz $9 Taj Bradley ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Maybe we're firmly in "what you see is what you get" territory with Nola. His fastball has dropped down to 90.9 mph, after living in the 92s for eight straight years (for what it's worth, velocity often lags in the early part of a season and Nola feels that's the case here). His 4.61 ERA is basically what he's earned from his batted-ball profile. The Phillies might have the worst defense in the National League, so Nola pitching to contact comes at a price. He should be good enough to start for a mixed-league contender, but I've stopped expecting ace things from Nola. Because Mize is a sturdy 6-foot-3 and 212 pounds and he was the top pick in his draft class, it's easy to imagine we're looking at a horse in the Roger Clemens/Zack Wheeler mode. That's never going to be Mize. He's not a strikeout guy. Plus control and a decent ground-ball rate have sparked his quasi-breakout so far, and his expected ERA (2.91) is right in line with the front-door 2.70. Detroit's defense isn't exactly airtight, but it's better than average. Stay grounded with the upside dreams, but Mize has shown enough to be considered a full-season story. Some Plausible Upside $8 Roki Sasaki $9 Griffin Canning $8 José Berríos $8 Max Meyer $8 Yusei Kikuchi $7 JP Sears $7 *Ben Casparius $7 Dustin May $6 Jackson Jobe $6 José Quintana $6 Gunnar Hoglund $6 Sandy Alcantara $6 Ryan Pepiot $6 Luis Severino $6 Matt Boyd $5 Tyler Anderson $5 Andrew Heaney $5 David Peterson $5 Hayden Wesneski ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement The Dodgers are looking to stretch out Casparius; he was the secondary pitcher Monday (four innings, one run) after a one-inning opener. That gloriously K/BB rate speaks for itself (28 punch outs, five walks) and the fastball pops at 96.0 mph. The Chavez Ravine infrastructure is a plus, too. So many Japanese pitchers have seamlessly onboarded to the majors, perhaps I was unrealistic with my initial Sasaki expectations. The strikeout rate is low, the walk rate a screaming problem at the moment. Remember: the ball is different in America, not to mention the cadence of a rotation. His NPB success is what's keeping me from collapsing his salary completely. I wish I had a good theory for Alcantra's struggles. Walks are way up, of course, and the strikeout rate is low — and he was never a strikeout dominator anyway, even in his Cy Young season. Miami wants to trade Alcantara at some point this year, but you need something to sell. Maybe drawing the White Sox on the weekend and Tampa Bay next week will improve the story, but whatever ceiling we might have dreamt about in March, it's long gone now. I would not be averse to selling low. Bargain Bin $4 Shane Smith $4 Andrew Abbott $4 Tomoyuki Sugano $4 Brayan Bello $4 Ronel Blanco $4 Merrill Kelly $4 Justin Verlander $4 Gavin Williams $4 Mitch Keller $4 Jameson Taillon $4 Michael Wacha $3 Tanner Houck $3 Grant Holmes $3 Jake Irvin $3 Mitchell Parker $3 Jeffrey Springs $3 Lance McCullers $3 Nick Martinez $3 AJ Smith-Shawver $3 José Soriano $2 Clarke Schmidt $2 Bowden Francis $2 Jack Leiter $2 Lucas Giolito $2 Erick Fedde $2 Michael Lorenzen $2 Zack Littell $2 Ben Lively $2 Taijuan Walker $1 Stephen Kolek $1 Luis L. Ortiz $1 Landen Roupp $1 Jordan Hicks $1 Logan Allen $1 Osvaldo Bido $0 Eduardo Rodríguez $0 Ben Brown $0 Miles Mikolas $0 Will Warren $0 Tobias Myers $0 Sean Burke $0 Andre Pallante $0 David Festa $0 Dean Kremer -$1 Chase Dollander -$1 Patrick Corbin ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Burke and Sugano are near the top of the good luck leaderboard, with ERAs that should be a couple of runs higher. Burke is also supported by the worst set of teammates in the American League, of course, and Sugano's Baltimore club is probably the biggest disappointment in the A.L. this year. It will be interesting to see how patient the Giants are with Hicks — he has an ERA over six, but the expected number is a reasonable 3.51. Hayden Birdsong has been excellent in long relief — Monday's hiccup to the side — and is ready if anyone in the rotation has an extended slump or an injury. Landen Roupp, the team's No. 5 starter, could be on notice, too. Courtesy Injury Ranks — Not for Debate
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
2025 Fantasy Baseball rest-of-season rankings: Starting Pitchers
We're over 20% of the way through the fresh MLB season, so it's a good time to kick off the Shuffle Up series. And we'll start with the position everyone asks about the most: starting pitchers. Pitchers are the sirens of fantasy baseball, forever teasing us and misleading us. Most pitchers, even the best of them, are constantly tinkering with their approach, their arsenal, their mechanics. And of course, throwing a baseball is a very unnatural act, so you never know who's the next pitcher to need downtime — or a lost season. You want to make the fantasy baseball gods laugh? Rank the pitchers. And that's what the Shuffle Up series aims to do. What's below is a set of salaries that reflect how I would price the starting pitching market if I were entering a fresh draft today, or considering pickups or trades. What's happened to this point is merely an audition. [Smarter waivers, better trades, optimized lineups — Yahoo Fantasy Plus unlocks it all] The salaries are a combination of stats to this point, observations, gut feel and special sauce. You'll have many disagreements, of course, because that's why we have a game. I did a courtesy rank of the currently-injured pitchers at the bottom, but I will not discuss or debate that part of the list. Everyone can decide for themselves what a hurt pitcher is worth. In the weeks to follow, we will shuffle other positions. Assume a 5x5 scoring system as always, and away we go. The Big Tickets $29 Tarik Skubal $27 Paul Skenes $25 Zack Wheeler $24 Michael King $24 Garrett Crochet $23 Hunter Brown $23 Yoshinobu Yamamoto $23 Bryan Woo $22 Hunter Greene $22 Cole Ragans $21 Logan Webb $21 Jacob deGrom $20 Max Fried $20 Joe Ryan $20 Chris Sale So far, so good with the new version of deGrom, the so-called "dial it back" ace. His fastball is down a tick to 96.9 mph, which is intentional. The Rangers have been proactive in getting deGrom out of games, only pushing him past 90 pitches once. I know there's no universal way to save the pitcher in the modern game, but when Texas quickly lifted deGrom with huge leads in his last two starts, I nodded my head. It's prudent. The strikeout rate has dropped and the walk rate is up, though 2.13 BB/9 is still excellent. There's also been an uptick in ground balls. If this is the trade-off that has to happen, and we merely accept deGrom as a strong pitcher and not a demigod who separates himself, I can live with that. I'm just glad we can watch him every five days, and he hasn't had any setbacks. Fried has been a godsend for the Yankees thus far, but see the story for what it is. His expected ERA is 3.27, much higher than the 1.01 on the back of the card. His ground-ball rate bails him out of trouble and he doesn't walk many batters, but the strikeout rate is merely average. He's getting positive results from his four primary pitches, with the cutter notably improved this year. His ratios from his last two Atlanta years are still the way to bet. Legitimate Building Blocks $19 Freddy Peralta $18 Nick Pivetta $18 Carlos Rodón $18 Framber Valdez $17 Nathan Eovaldi $17 Dylan Cease $17 MacKenzie Gore $16 Jesús Luzardo $16 Seth Lugo $15 Kodai Senga $15 Luis Castillo $15 Pablo López $14 Bailey Ober $14 Kris Bubic $13 Spencer Schwellenbach $13 Zac Gallen Gore has long been viewed as a future ace; maybe that future is now. His walk and strikeout rates are moving in the right direction. The batted-ball profile validates his early ratios, and his Savant page is a glorious display of red sliders pushed to the right. It's interesting that, for his career, he has reverse splits — lefties hit him better than righties — but it's nothing to be alarmed about. I wish the Washington defense were better, but Gore misses so many bats, he doesn't need as much help as the average pitcher. He's occupying a slot much higher than whatever you projected in March. This feels legit. Is Lugo the most underrated starting pitcher in baseball? He's been a full-time rotation guy since 2023, with these returns: 3.57/1.20 in 2003, 3.00/1.09 last year (where he was quietly Cy Young runner-up) and a 3.07/1.05 push to this season. The K/BB rate isn't as tidy this year as what we're used to, and the batted-ball profile says he's about a run fortunate on the ERA. I'm not sweating any of that. This breakout story is 66 starts deep now, I'm trusting the results. Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down $12 Aaron Nola $12 Sonny Gray $12 Jack Flaherty $11 Tyler Mahle $11 Tanner Bibee $11 Drew Rasmussen $11 Bryce Miller $10 Casey Mize $10 Robbie Ray $10 Clay Holmes $10 Kevin Gausman $10 Tony Gonsolin $9 Tylor Megill $9 Reese Olson $9 Brady Singer $9 Nick Lodolo $9 Matt Liberatore $9 Chris Bassitt $9 Brandon Pfaadt $9 Cristopher Sánchez $9 Shane Baz $9 Taj Bradley Maybe we're firmly in "what you see is what you get" territory with Nola. His fastball has dropped down to 90.9 mph, after living in the 92s for eight straight years (for what it's worth, velocity often lags in the early part of a season and Nola feels that's the case here). His 4.61 ERA is basically what he's earned from his batted-ball profile. The Phillies might have the worst defense in the National League, so Nola pitching to contact comes at a price. He should be good enough to start for a mixed-league contender, but I've stopped expecting ace things from Nola. Because Mize is a sturdy 6-foot-3 and 212 pounds and he was the top pick in his draft class, it's easy to imagine we're looking at a horse in the Roger Clemens/Zack Wheeler mode. That's never going to be Mize. He's not a strikeout guy. Plus control and a decent ground-ball rate have sparked his quasi-breakout so far, and his expected ERA (2.91) is right in line with the front-door 2.70. Detroit's defense isn't exactly airtight, but it's better than average. Stay grounded with the upside dreams, but Mize has shown enough to be considered a full-season story. Some Plausible Upside $8 Roki Sasaki $9 Griffin Canning $8 José Berríos $8 Max Meyer $8 Yusei Kikuchi $7 JP Sears $7 *Ben Casparius $7 Dustin May $6 Jackson Jobe $6 José Quintana $6 Gunnar Hoglund $6 Sandy Alcantara $6 Ryan Pepiot $6 Luis Severino $6 Matt Boyd $5 Tyler Anderson $5 Andrew Heaney $5 David Peterson $5 Hayden Wesneski The Dodgers are looking to stretch out Casparius; he was the secondary pitcher Monday (four innings, one run) after a one-inning opener. That gloriously K/BB rate speaks for itself (28 punch outs, five walks) and the fastball pops at 96.0 mph. The Chavez Ravine infrastructure is a plus, too. So many Japanese pitchers have seamlessly onboarded to the majors, perhaps I was unrealistic with my initial Sasaki expectations. The strikeout rate is low, the walk rate a screaming problem at the moment. Remember: the ball is different in America, not to mention the cadence of a rotation. His back class from NPB is what's keeping me from collapsing his salary completely. I wish I had a good theory for Alcantra's struggles. Walks are way up, of course, and the strikeout rate is low — and he was never a strikeout dominator anyway, even in his Cy Young season. Miami wants to trade Alcantara at some point this year, but you need something to sell. Maybe drawing the White Sox on the weekend and Tampa Bay next week will improve the story, but whatever ceiling we might have dreamt about in March, it's long gone now. I would not be averse to selling low. Bargain Bin $4 Shane Smith $4 Andrew Abbott $4 Tomoyuki Sugano $4 Brayan Bello $4 Ronel Blanco $4 Merrill Kelly $4 Justin Verlander $4 Gavin Williams $4 Mitch Keller $4 Jameson Taillon $4 Michael Wacha $3 Tanner Houck $3 Grant Holmes $3 Jake Irvin $3 Mitchell Parker $3 Jeffrey Springs $3 Lance McCullers $3 Nick Martinez $3 AJ Smith-Shawver $3 José Soriano $2 Clarke Schmidt $2 Bowden Francis $2 Jack Leiter $2 Lucas Giolito $2 Erick Fedde $2 Michael Lorenzen $2 Zack Littell $2 Ben Lively $2 Taijuan Walker $1 Stephen Kolek $1 Luis L. Ortiz $1 Landen Roupp $1 Jordan Hicks $1 Logan Allen $1 Osvaldo Bido $0 Eduardo Rodríguez $0 Ben Brown $0 Miles Mikolas $0 Will Warren $0 Tobias Myers $0 Sean Burke $0 Andre Pallante $0 David Festa $0 Dean Kremer -$1 Chase Dollander -$1 Patrick Corbin Burke and Sugano are near the top of the good luck leaderboard, with ERAs that should be a couple of runs higher. Burke is also supported by the worst set of teammates in the American League, of course, and Sugano's Baltimore club is probably the biggest disappointment in the A.L. this year. It will be interesting to see how patient the Giants are with Hicks — he has an ERA over six, but the expected number is a reasonable 3.51. Hayden Birdsong has been excellent in long relief — Monday's hiccup to the side — and is ready if anyone in the rotation has an extended slump or an injury. Landen Roupp, the team's No. 5 starter, could be on notice, too. Courtesy Injury Ranks — Not for Debate
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
2025 Fantasy Baseball rest-of-season rankings: Starting Pitchers
We're over 20% of the way through the fresh MLB season, so it's a good time to kick off the Shuffle Up series. And we'll start with the position everyone asks about the most: starting pitchers. Pitchers are the sirens of fantasy baseball, forever teasing us and misleading us. Most pitchers, even the best of them, are constantly tinkering with their approach, their arsenal, their mechanics. And of course, throwing a baseball is a very unnatural act, so you never know who's the next pitcher to need downtime — or a lost season. Advertisement You want to make the fantasy baseball gods laugh? Rank the pitchers. And that's what the Shuffle Up series aims to do. What's below is a set of salaries that reflect how I would price the starting pitching market if I were entering a fresh draft today, or considering pickups or trades. What's happened to this point is merely an audition. [Smarter waivers, better trades, optimized lineups — Yahoo Fantasy Plus unlocks it all] The salaries are a combination of stats to this point, observations, gut feel and special sauce. You'll have many disagreements, of course, because that's why we have a game. I did a courtesy rank of the currently-injured pitchers at the bottom, but I will not discuss or debate that part of the list. Everyone can decide for themselves what a hurt pitcher is worth. Advertisement In the weeks to follow, we will shuffle other positions. Assume a 5x5 scoring system as always, and away we go. The Big Tickets $29 Tarik Skubal $27 Paul Skenes $25 Zack Wheeler $24 Michael King $24 Garrett Crochet $23 Hunter Brown $23 Yoshinobu Yamamoto $23 Bryan Woo $22 Hunter Greene $22 Cole Ragans $21 Logan Webb $21 Jacob deGrom $20 Max Fried $20 Joe Ryan $20 Chris Sale So far, so good with the new version of deGrom, the so-called "dial it back" ace. His fastball is down a tick to 96.9 mph, which is intentional. The Rangers have been proactive in getting deGrom out of games, only pushing him past 90 pitches once. I know there's no universal way to save the pitcher in the modern game, but when Texas quickly lifted deGrom with huge leads in his last two starts, I nodded my head. It's prudent. The strikeout rate has dropped and the walk rate is up, though 2.13 BB/9 is still excellent. There's also been an uptick in ground balls. Advertisement If this is the trade-off that has to happen, and we merely accept deGrom as a strong pitcher and not a demigod who separates himself, I can live with that. I'm just glad we can watch him every five days, and he hasn't had any setbacks. Fried has been a godsend for the Yankees thus far, but see the story for what it is. His expected ERA is 3.27, much higher than the 1.01 on the back of the card. His ground-ball rate bails him out of trouble and he doesn't walk many batters, but the strikeout rate is merely average. He's getting positive results from his four primary pitches, with the cutter notably improved this year. His ratios from his last two Atlanta years are still the way to bet. Legitimate Building Blocks $19 Freddy Peralta $18 Nick Pivetta $18 Carlos Rodón $18 Framber Valdez $17 Nathan Eovaldi $17 Dylan Cease $17 MacKenzie Gore $16 Jesús Luzardo $16 Seth Lugo $15 Kodai Senga $15 Luis Castillo $15 Pablo López $14 Bailey Ober $14 Kris Bubic $13 Spencer Schwellenbach $13 Zac Gallen Gore has long been viewed as a future ace; maybe that future is now. His walk and strikeout rates are moving in the right direction. The batted-ball profile validates his early ratios, and his Savant page is a glorious display of red sliders pushed to the right. It's interesting that, for his career, he has reverse splits — lefties hit him better than righties — but it's nothing to be alarmed about. I wish the Washington defense were better, but Gore misses so many bats, he doesn't need as much help as the average pitcher. He's occupying a slot much higher than whatever you projected in March. This feels legit. Advertisement Is Lugo the most underrated starting pitcher in baseball? He's been a full-time rotation guy since 2023, with these returns: 3.57/1.20 in 2003, 3.00/1.09 last year (where he was quietly Cy Young runner-up) and a 3.07/1.05 push to this season. The K/BB rate isn't as tidy this year as what we're used to, and the batted-ball profile says he's about a run fortunate on the ERA. I'm not sweating any of that. This breakout story is 66 starts deep now, I'm trusting the results. Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down $12 Aaron Nola $12 Sonny Gray $12 Jack Flaherty $11 Tyler Mahle $11 Tanner Bibee $11 Drew Rasmussen $11 Bryce Miller $10 Casey Mize $10 Robbie Ray $10 Clay Holmes $10 Kevin Gausman $10 Tony Gonsolin $9 Tylor Megill $9 Reese Olson $9 Brady Singer $9 Nick Lodolo $9 Matt Liberatore $9 Chris Bassitt $9 Brandon Pfaadt $9 Cristopher Sánchez $9 Shane Baz $9 Taj Bradley Maybe we're firmly in "what you see is what you get" territory with Nola. His fastball has dropped down to 90.9 mph, after living in the 92s for eight straight years (for what it's worth, velocity often lags in the early part of a season and Nola feels that's the case here). His 4.61 ERA is basically what he's earned from his batted-ball profile. The Phillies might have the worst defense in the National League, so Nola pitching to contact comes at a price. He should be good enough to start for a mixed-league contender, but I've stopped expecting ace things from Nola. Advertisement Because Mize is a sturdy 6-foot-3 and 212 pounds and he was the top pick in his draft class, it's easy to imagine we're looking at a horse in the Roger Clemens/Zack Wheeler mode. That's never going to be Mize. He's not a strikeout guy. Plus control and a decent ground-ball rate have sparked his quasi-breakout so far, and his expected ERA (2.91) is right in line with the front-door 2.70. Detroit's defense isn't exactly airtight, but it's better than average. Stay grounded with the upside dreams, but Mize has shown enough to be considered a full-season story. Some Plausible Upside $8 Roki Sasaki $9 Griffin Canning $8 José Berríos $8 Max Meyer $8 Yusei Kikuchi $7 JP Sears $7 *Ben Casparius $7 Dustin May $6 Jackson Jobe $6 José Quintana $6 Gunnar Hoglund $6 Sandy Alcantara $6 Ryan Pepiot $6 Luis Severino $6 Matt Boyd $5 Tyler Anderson $5 Andrew Heaney $5 David Peterson $5 Hayden Wesneski The Dodgers are looking to stretch out Casparius; he was the secondary pitcher Monday (four innings, one run) after a one-inning opener. That gloriously K/BB rate speaks for itself (28 punch outs, five walks) and the fastball pops at 96.0 mph. The Chavez Ravine infrastructure is a plus, too. Advertisement So many Japanese pitchers have seamlessly onboarded to the majors, perhaps I was unrealistic with my initial Sasaki expectations. The strikeout rate is low, the walk rate a screaming problem at the moment. Remember: the ball is different in America, not to mention the cadence of a rotation. His back class from NPB is what's keeping me from collapsing his salary completely. I wish I had a good theory for Alcantra's struggles. Walks are way up, of course, and the strikeout rate is low — and he was never a strikeout dominator anyway, even in his Cy Young season. Miami wants to trade Alcantara at some point this year, but you need something to sell. Maybe drawing the White Sox on the weekend and Tampa Bay next week will improve the story, but whatever ceiling we might have dreamt about in March, it's long gone now. I would not be averse to selling low. Bargain Bin $4 Shane Smith $4 Andrew Abbott $4 Tomoyuki Sugano $4 Brayan Bello $4 Ronel Blanco $4 Merrill Kelly $4 Justin Verlander $4 Gavin Williams $4 Mitch Keller $4 Jameson Taillon $4 Michael Wacha $3 Tanner Houck $3 Grant Holmes $3 Jake Irvin $3 Mitchell Parker $3 Jeffrey Springs $3 Lance McCullers $3 Nick Martinez $3 AJ Smith-Shawver $3 José Soriano $2 Clarke Schmidt $2 Bowden Francis $2 Jack Leiter $2 Lucas Giolito $2 Erick Fedde $2 Michael Lorenzen $2 Zack Littell $2 Ben Lively $2 Taijuan Walker $1 Stephen Kolek $1 Luis L. Ortiz $1 Landen Roupp $1 Jordan Hicks $1 Logan Allen $1 Osvaldo Bido $0 Eduardo Rodríguez $0 Ben Brown $0 Miles Mikolas $0 Will Warren $0 Tobias Myers $0 Sean Burke $0 Andre Pallante $0 David Festa $0 Dean Kremer -$1 Chase Dollander -$1 Patrick Corbin Advertisement Burke and Sugano are near the top of the good luck leaderboard, with ERAs that should be a couple of runs higher. Burke is also supported by the worst set of teammates in the American League, of course, and Sugano's Baltimore club is probably the biggest disappointment in the A.L. this year. It will be interesting to see how patient the Giants are with Hicks — he has an ERA over six, but the expected number is a reasonable 3.51. Hayden Birdsong has been excellent in long relief — Monday's hiccup to the side — and is ready if anyone in the rotation has an extended slump or an injury. Landen Roupp, the team's No. 5 starter, could be on notice, too. Courtesy Injury Ranks — Not for Debate
