MLB
Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Starting Pitcher

Opening day is right around the corner, so you know what that means -- it's draft season.

Season-long fantasy baseball Twitter is abuzz with nightly draft boards and threads, and perhaps you've already gotten in on the action or have a draft right around the corner.

I've been posting positional rankings for 12-team, standard-scoring roto leagues this month, with brief notes highlighting notable players and situations. These are by no means strict and rigid rankings, as roster construction should play a big role in who you draft, so I've also included tiers to show which players have comparable values.

Any references to average draft position (ADP) are from March NFBC drafts. Additionally, numberFire's season-long projections are now live, too, so be sure to check those out!

We also have rankings for first base, second base, third base, shortstop, outfielder, and catcher.

Finally, let's take a look at starting pitchers.

RankPlayerTier
1Jacob deGrom1
2Gerrit Cole1
3Shane Bieber1
4Yu Darvish2
5Lucas Giolito2
6Trevor Bauer2
7Aaron Nola2
8Max Scherzer2
9Walker Buehler2
10Luis Castillo2
11Jack Flaherty2
12Brandon Woodruff2
13Clayton Kershaw2
14Tyler Glasnow2
15Blake Snell2
16Kenta Maeda2
17Corbin Burnes2
18Lance Lynn2
19Stephen Strasburg3
20Jose Berrios3
21Kyle Hendricks3
22Max Fried3
23Hyun-Jin Ryu3
24Zach Plesac3
25Sonny Gray4
26Jesus Luzardo4
27Chris Paddack4
28Ian Anderson4
29Zack Wheeler4
30Zack Greinke4
31Charlie Morton4
32Lance McCullers Jr.4
33Dylan Bundy4
34Joe Musgrove4
35Julio Urias4
36Pablo Lopez4
37Sandy Alcantara4
38Sixto Sanchez4
39Kevin Gausman4
40Patrick Corbin4
41Zac Gallen4
42Dinelson Lamet4
43Shohei Ohtani5
44Corey Kluber5
45Frankie Montas5
46Tyler Mahle5
47Aaron Civale5
48Jameson Taillon5
49Mike Soroka5
50Eduardo Rodriguez5
51Chris Bassitt5
52Marcus Stroman5
53Zach Eflin5
54Triston McKenzie5
55Marco Gonzales5
56Jose Urquidy5
57German Marquez5
58Elieser Hernandez5
59David Price5
60Domingo German5
61John Means5
62Andrew Heaney5
63Michael Pineda5
64Dallas Keuchel5
65James Paxton5
66Cristian Javier5
67Jordan Montgomery5
68Drew Smyly6
69Tony Gonsolin6
70Dustin May6
71Nathan Eovaldi6
72Freddy Peralta6
73Robbie Ray6
74Zach Davies6
75Sean Manaea6
76Brady Singer6
77Taijuan Walker6
78Jake Odorizzi6
79Ryan Yarbrough6
80Yusei Kikuchi6


Jacob deGrom is the consensus top dog this season, and you might even see him go first overall in some drafts. That may seem surprising at first glance, but with the starting pitching ranks looking that much shakier after last year's pandemic-shortened season, I can definitely see the appeal. Innings are at a premium these days, and few -- if any -- can bring you both elite volume and rate stats like deGrom can.

In fact, it's easy to poke holes in just about any hurler once you get out of that first tier. Trevor Bauer is typically the fourth pitcher off the board, but excluding last year's abridged campaign, he's produced an ERA below 4.00 just once in his career (2018). Max Scherzer is 36 years old and saw a down year by his standards in 2020. Walker Buehler has workload concerns, while teammate Clayton Kershaw seems like an annual risk at this point and is showing reduced velocity this spring.

The risks only grow as you go deeper into the draft, so despite it all, you'll probably still want to snag at least one pitcher in those first two tiers and perhaps even two. The "pocket aces" strategy of picking back-to-back aces with your first two picks is becoming more and more popular.

Speaking of risk, Stephen Strasburg is coming off hand surgery from August and is also dealing with a recent calf injury. None of that is great, and it's not like he has an iron man injury history to begin with. However, he's expected to be ready for opening day, and given some of the aforementioned red flags of those listed before him, I don't mind taking a chance on him as a guy with ace upside outside the top 60 picks.

The rest of tier three is mostly made up of high-floor guys like Jose Berrios and Kyle Hendricks, where we can feel fairly confident in the stats we're drafting. Zach Plesac is the exception after posting vast improvements across the board in 2020 with a 3.41 SIERA, 27.7% strikeout rate, and 2.9% walk rate -- but over only eight starts. The upside is there, but the small sample keeps him from being placed higher.

Sonny Gray is dealing with a back injury, putting him in a similar situation as Strasburg except he's expected to start the season on the injured list. It isn't considered to be a serious issue, although Gray also dealt with back issues in 2020. The injury pushes him down a bit more, but the ceiling he showed in 2019 makes him intriguing.

From tier four onward, it's about weighing risk versus reward, and it's probably in your best interest to find a balance between less exciting volume guys and pure upside.

Zac Gallen and Dinelson Lamet are two more injury concerns. Gallen was scratched with arm soreness on Monday, while Lamet is slowly recovering from an elbow issue that dates back to last season. Perhaps we get a positive update on Gallen later this week, but for the moment, I'm wary of selecting either player. However, if you're willing to roll the dice, this feels like the right area to take a shot.

Shohei Ohtani's ranking is entirely dependant on your league format, as he could be immensely valuable as a dual-eligible pitcher/hitter in leagues with daily lineups. But he could still be plenty good strictly as a pitcher, albeit one in an expected six-man rotation. In 2018, Ohtani produced a 3.65 SIERA, 29.9% strikeout rate, and 10.4% walk rate over 10 starts. If nothing else, he could be a fun player in both roles for DFS.

The Dodgers' rotation could be a headache this year because they're so deep. Julio Urias, David Price, Dustin May, and Tony Gonsolin are all being drafted despite concerns about their respective roles and innings. They could all be valuable on a per-inning basis, but barring injuries to this staff, the innings and starts will be spread out. This makes me less likely to consider Urias at his 120 ADP, but I don't mind snagging whoever drops from the other three, which is typically Gonsolin (ADP 250).

Freddy Peralta and Robbie Ray have been late risers in drafts. Peralta has impressed this spring (15 strikeouts over 8.1 innings) and still has a chance to earn a rotation spot. While Peralta hasn't enjoyed as much success as a starter, he's posted a 28.7% strikeout rate over 23 career starts, so there's potential upside if he can put it all together. Ray has performed well in spring training, too, and despite last year's poor results, there are reasons to be optimistic that he can bounce back.

Related News

Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Shortstop

Kenyatta Storin  --  Mar 23rd, 2021

Fantasy Baseball Slack and Forth: Bounce-Back Pitchers for 2021

Kenyatta Storin  --  Mar 23rd, 2021

Fantasy Baseball Rankings: First Base

Kenyatta Storin  --  Mar 23rd, 2021