Ranking MLB’s 10 Best Starting Pitchers

MLB’s Top 50 Prospects: 2026 Midseason Update | Ranking MLB’s 15 Best Outfielders

Different pitchers excel at different things on the mound. Some are flamethrowers, regularly hitting triple digits with their fastball and using their overwhelming velocity to sit down opposing hitters. Others are corner painters, using their elite control to freeze batters. There are also pitchers that might not strike out a lot of batters, but rarely give up hard contact which makes it hard for batters to inflict much damage when they put the ball in play. While it’s en vogue for pitchers to prioritize velocity, every hurler has a different recipe for success.

We’re going to rank MLB’s 10 best starting pitchers, a list that consists of a blend of established veterans and up-and-coming stars.

10. Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

MLB — Shohei Ohtani owns a career 2.83 ERA on the mound. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Ohtani hasn’t pitched all that much in MLB, especially since joining the Dodgers, but when he’s on the mound, he can do it all. He’s made 114 starts in MLB and owns a career 2.83 ERA with 765 strikeouts and 208 walks in 614 ⅓ innings. Ohtani has effortless velocity on his fastball and boasts some devastating breaking pitches, too. Because of his two-way prowess, Ohtani doesn’t take the mound as often as some of his cohorts, preventing him from being higher on this list. But he’s elite as they come on the mound when available.

9. Paul Skenes, Pirates

The 2026 campaign hasn’t been a great one for Skenes, but he was one of the game’s most dominant pitchers throughout his first two years as a pro. He averaged 98.8 mph on his fastball as a rookie and 98.1 mph last season, though that figure has decreased a bit this year (96.6 mph). Skenes throws a quality mix of pitches, including a “splinker”––splitter/sinker hybrid–– that gives batters fits. Skenes had a sub-2.00 ERA in each of his first two seasons with the Pirates, and owns a career 2.56 ERA and 10.9 K/9. If he can make the mechanical tweaks needed to bounce back and return to his dominant form next season, there’s no reason Skenes shouldn’t move up this list.

8. Dylan Cease, Blue Jays

MLB — Dylan Cease is having an incredible season in his first year as a Blue Jay. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Cease hasn’t always been the most consistent pitcher, and only earned his first All-Star nod this season despite finishing in the top five in Cy Young voting twice. A strikeout machine, Cease has recorded 200-plus K’s in each of the last six seasons. He’s had an excellent debut season in Toronto, logging a 2.42 ERA and 201 strikeouts in 23 starts. His 13.1 K/9 is a career best and trails only Jacob Misiorowski. Cease leads on a high-velocity fastball and a slider with devastating break to rack up high whiff rates. If he was more consistent on a year-to-year (or month-to-month) basis, he’d be an undisputed top five pitcher in the league.

7. Zack Wheeler, Phillies

Wheeler has been one of the best arms in baseball for several years now. The 36-year-old has had a sub-3.00 ERA in six of the last seven seasons and has earned two second-place finishes in Cy Young voting during that span. Wheeler missed the first month of this season, but has been as reliable as any pitcher in MLB since returning. He owns a 2.92 ERA with 144 strikeouts and 33 walks in 120 ⅓ innings this year. His ability to regularly pitch deep into games helps to lighten the load of the Phillies’ bullpen. A three-time All-Star, Wheeler has recorded at least 4.2 bWAR in every single season since moving from New York to Philadelphia, excluding the shortened 2020 campaign. Throughout his Phillies tenure, which has spanned seven seasons and 178 starts, Wheeler owns a 2.91 ERA with 1,238 strikeouts in 1,099 ⅓ innings.

6. Chris Sale, Braves

Sale’s longevity has been a sight to behold. Despite finishing in the top five in Cy Young voting each year from 2013 to ‘18, the hard-throwing lefty didn’t win the award until his age-35 season in ’24. Sale’s career looked to be on the fritz after he missed the entire 2020 season and pitched in just 11 games the next two years. He returned to his best self in ’24 after joining the Braves, and has been dominant over the last three years, even as he gets up there in age. In all, Sale is a 10-time All-Star and has won both a Triple Crown and Cy Young. For his career, he has a 2.96 ERA and ranks second all-time in strikeout to walk ratio (5.32). He looks as good as ever at 37 years old, and could reasonably achieve 3,000 career strikeouts if he maintains this pace for a couple more seasons.

5. Cam Schlittler, Yankees

MLB, Yankees — Cam Schlittler is the favorite to win the AL Cy Young in 2026. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Schlittler may not have the longevity of some of the players on this list, but he’s been simply exceptional since debuting last season. Across 41 starts, Schlittler owns a 2.42 ERA with 277 strikeouts in 231 innings. He’s the favorite to earn American League Cy Young honors in ’26, having produced a 2.16 ERA in 27 starts. He also impressed in the postseason during his rookie year, making two starts and recording a 1.26 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 14 ⅓ innings. Schlittler has set various Yankees pitching records to start his career, and he looks set to anchor their rotation for the long term, having quickly developed into one of MLB’s most elite starting pitchers.

4. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers

After making the leap to MLB at the age of 25, Yamamoto has been sensational. Standing in at just 5'10", the Japanese superstar doesn’t have the build of most hard-throwing starting pitchers, but he regularly hits the high 90s with his fastball, and pairs it with some devastating breaking pitches to keep batters on their heels. Yamamoto enjoyed a dominant pitching display during last year’s postseason, when he pitched two complete games, including one in the World Series, and also helped save the Dodgers by pitching 2 ⅔ innings in Game 7, one night after delivering six strong innings in Game 6. Yamamoto has made 70 starts for the Dodgers in the regular season and owns a 2.64 ERA with 442 strikeouts and 115 walks in 409 innings, and has a 2.25 ERA across 10 postseason appearances.

3. Cristopher Sanchez, Phillies

Over the past two seasons, there’s arguably been no better pitcher in MLB than Sanchez. He had a solid 2024 campaign, but ascended into the upper echelon of pitchers last year. He’s racked up 15.1 bWAR over his last 58 starts, a span in which he’s recorded a 2.50 ERA with 399 strikeouts in 363 ⅔ innings. Sanchez finished as the runner-up for the National League Cy Young last year, and he should be in competition with Jacob Misiorowski for the award this season, too. Sanchez doesn’t have a deep bag of pitches to pull from, but he doesn’t need a large variety when he throws MLB’s best changeup, which he pairs with a quality sinker and an effective slider.

MLB, Dodgers — Reigning back-to-back AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal was traded to the Dodgers at the trade deadline. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

2. Tarik Skubal, Dodgers

Skubal won back-to-back Cy Young awards with the Tigers before being dealt to the Dodgers at this year’s trade deadline, where he’ll join MLB’s best roster in pursuit of a World Series title. Skubal battled some injuries this season, but he’s remained his dominant self, with 146 strikeouts and a 2.91 ERA across 20 starts. Skubal has an excellent pitch mix, headlined by his high-90s fastball and a brilliant changeup and sinker, but it’s his ability to attack the strike zone and avoid surrendering walks that makes him so good. Skubal has had a sub-1.00 WHIP in each of the last four seasons, surrendering a total of 103 walks across his last 588 ⅓ innings.

1. Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers

Perhaps he’s being crowned a bit too soon here, but Misiorowski is undoubtedly having the best season of any pitcher in the league. That’s due in large part to the otherworldly velocity of his fastball. Misiorowski’s fastball reached 105.5 mph this season, making it the single hardest pitch ever thrown by a starting pitcher. He regularly climbs above 103 mph on the radar gun with his four-seamer, which he throws 64% of the time. On the year, Misiorowski owns a 1.68 ERA and leads MLB with 216 strikeouts and a 13.4 K/9. He’s walked just 33 batters across 145 innings this season, and also leads MLB with a 0.759 WHIP. No other pitcher in MLB can bring to the table what Misiorowski does on a nightly basis, and he looks destined to win the NL Cy Young in just his second season in the league.

Add us as a preferred source on Google