Starting Pitcher Power Rankings features all-new top 3

Change has come to the Starting Pitcher Power Rankings. Since our last edition two weeks ago, the entire top three has turned over, and five new pitchers have joined the list.

As always, the rankings are based on a formula constructed by MLB.com’s data team, one that considers performance over the past 365 days but places greater weight on season-long and recent performance.

Rankings and stats are based on results through Tuesday’s games.

1. Tarik Skubal, Tigers (Previously: 4)
When Skubal won the AL Cy Young Award and Pitching Triple Crown a year ago, he had a 2.39 ERA, 2.49 FIP, 30.3% K-rate and 6.5 K-to-BB ratio. Through seven starts this season, he has a 2.21 ERA, 2.44 FIP, 30.0% K-rate and 9.6 K-to-BB ratio. In other words: Here we go again? After a couple of so-so outings to begin 2025, the lefty has allowed three total runs over his past five starts, with 38 K’s and one walk.

2. Hunter Brown, Astros (6)
In case you missed it, Brown has emerged as an elite starter. His six-pitch arsenal is both deep and high-powered, and his command makes it all work. Brown was excellent last season after a tough April (2.51 ERA the rest of the way), and he’s been even better in 2025 (1.67 ERA, MLB-best 1.80 FIP). The 26-year-old righty is 7-for-7 in quality starts, and opponents have a .504 OPS against him.

3. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers (7)
All the offseason buzz was about Roki Sasaki, but it’s the pitcher the Dodgers signed out of Japan the previous winter who is truly lighting it up so far in 2025. Coming off a solid but injury-shortened rookie campaign, the 26-year-old Yamamoto is showing exactly why L.A. made him such a hefty financial commitment. The MLB ERA leader (0.90) hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his first seven outings, and three of his past four have been scoreless.

4. Logan Webb, Giants (3)
Webb’s first clunker of the season (five runs and nine hits allowed at San Diego on April 29) dings him a bit, but he bounced right back with seven strong innings his next time out to drop his ERA back to 2.61. (Albeit, it was a home start against the Rockies). As always, Webb is providing the Giants with solid, dependable innings, but the twist in 2025 has been one of the largest jumps in strikeout rate (8.3 percentage points) among regular starters.

5. Max Fried, Yankees (Not ranked)
Fried doesn’t have a gaudy strikeout rate, and some of his advanced metrics are more good than great. But a pitcher’s job is to log innings and keep the opposition off the board, and there is no arguing the fact that Fried has done exactly that, with an AL-best 1.01 ERA in roughly 6 1/3 innings per start. Even better, the Yankees entered Wednesday 7-0 when Fried has taken the ball, a big reason why they’re in first place despite injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Marcus Stroman.

6. Paul Skenes, Pirates (1)
It’s nitpicking, to be sure, but Skenes has not been quite the same dominant force in his second season. Now, to be clear: He’s been very good, with a 2.77 ERA and 3.02 FIP in eight starts. On the other hand, Skenes has gone from a 33.1% K-rate (third in MLB, minimum 100 innings) to a 24.7% K-rate (27th among qualifiers). That’s a drop from the 95th percentile to the 66th. While his overall numbers are still strong, Skenes’ May is off to a tough start with back-to-back losses in which he’s allowed eight hits, eight walks and three homers over 11 innings.

7. Garrett Crochet, Red Sox (2)
This is what Boston wanted when it traded for Crochet over the offseason: The lefty sports a 2.02 ERA and 2.82 FIP across his first eight Red Sox starts. A bit like Skenes, Crochet has been enjoying plenty of success in 2025, just in less overpowering fashion than he showed a year ago. Free passes in particular have bitten Crochet, with his walk rate almost doubling, from 5.5% to 10.2%. On the other hand, opponents are slugging just .251 against him.

8. Zack Wheeler, Phillies (NR)
Since a slight rough patch in mid-April, Wheeler has gone right back to normal, pitching at least six innings and allowing exactly two runs in each of his past four outings, with a total of 38 strikeouts and three walks. In fact, he now leads the NL with a 7.3 K-to-BB ratio (and 51 innings pitched) for the season. Wheeler has a strong case as the best pitcher in baseball since joining the Phillies in 2020 -- both major versions of pitching WAR have him first by a wide margin over that span -- and he doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

9. Nathan Eovaldi, Rangers (NR)
Speaking of pitchers who have been significantly better in their 30s than they were in their 20s, we have Eovaldi. The 35-year-old has two All-Star selections, two World Series rings and a fourth-place AL Cy Young finish (2021), but it’s possible he’s never been better -- in the regular season, at least -- than he’s been so far in 2025. Eovaldi leads the Majors in WHIP (0.80), walks per nine (0.7) and K-to-BB ratio (13.3), and he’s allowed two runs over 18 innings across his past three starts.

10-T. Jesús Luzardo, Phillies (NR)
Philadelphia bought low on Luzardo when it pulled off a trade with Miami in December, with the lefty coming off a season in which he made just 12 starts and posted a 5.00 ERA. But not only has Luzardo bounced back in Philly, he’s looking better than ever. The 27-year-old has a 1.94 ERA and a 1.93 FIP and sits top three in MLB in both major versions of pitching WAR.

10-T. MacKenzie Gore, Nationals (NR)
This is the version of Gore that was expected when he was selected third overall in the 2017 Draft by the Padres and became a consensus top-10 prospect. The lefty’s pro career has been far from a smooth ride, but after showing improvement over his first few big league seasons, Gore seems to be in full-on breakout mode at age 26. He leads the Majors in both strikeouts (68) and K-rate (36.4%), with his dynamic curveball standing out as an elite weapon (26 K’s, 53% whiff rate).

Honorable mentions: Hunter Greene (Reds), Tyler Mahle (Rangers), Nick Pivetta (Padres), Cole Ragans (Royals), Michael King (Padres), Bryan Woo (Mariners), Chris Sale (Braves), Carlos Rodón (Yankees), Joe Ryan (Twins), Matthew Liberatore (Cardinals)