One reigning Cy Young Award winner has a firm grip on the top spot of the Starting Pitcher Power Rankings. The other? He’s making a charge.
The Tigers’ Tarik Skubal has not strayed outside the top four of our list all season, and he’s led it four times, including two straight. The Braves’ Chris Sale, on the other hand, was fourth on our ranking of Opening Day starters but quickly plummeted out of consideration with a rough first month. The veteran ace righted the ship, however, and now he is back in the top 10 for the first time since the season got underway.
These rankings are based on a formula constructed by MLB.com’s data team, which considers performance over the past 365 days but places greater weight on season-long and recent performance. It’s also worth noting that Sale is one of the three pitchers included in this edition of the rankings who pitched on Wednesday -- he nearly threw a shutout vs. the Mets -- but that those outings did not factor into the calculation. (All stats below are through Tuesday’s games.)
1. Tarik Skubal, Tigers (1)
How do you know you’re going well? When walking multiple batters in the same game is big news, and you can describe yourself as “kind of fighting myself a little bit early” after turning in a seven-inning, no-run outing. That’s what happened last Thursday at Baltimore, when Skubal issued two free passes for the first time in more than two months but still blanked the Orioles. Since losing Skubal’s first two outings of the season, the Tigers are 10-2 in his last 12, heading into Thursday's contest against the Pirates.
2. Paul Skenes, Pirates (3)
Skenes has not really dialed up the strikeouts in 2025 -- he is averaging about one per inning and still hasn’t reached double digits in a game. Instead, he’s just been incredibly difficult to hit. Opponents batted a meager .198/.257/.295 against Skenes as a rookie, and they have been even worse this year: .176/.230/.276. That’s the lowest batting average allowed by any qualified pitcher in 2025, while Skenes is just a tiny bit behind Skubal for the lead in OBP and SLG.
3. Zack Wheeler, Phillies (2)
Aside from a couple of tough outings against the Braves (April 8 and May 29), Wheeler has been close to unbeatable in 2025. He has allowed 11 earned runs across 10 2/3 innings while facing Atlanta, compared with just 16 earned runs across 77 1/3 innings (1.86 ERA) in his 12 other outings. Wheeler has taken the ball twice in June, allowing one total run, with a 16-to-1 K-to-BB ratio. At age 35, his 32.5% K-rate is easily a career high.
4. Hunter Brown, Astros (4)
Brown has cut his ERA from 5.09 to 3.49 to 1.88 over his three full big league seasons, ascending to elite status among MLB starters in short order. The 26-year-old has allowed no more than one run in nine of his 14 starts this year, and he struck out a career-high 12 batters in his most recent start, Saturday against the Twins. Brown’s 97-mph four-seamer has completely overwhelmed opponents, who are just 10-for-102 (.098) against it, with zero extra-base hits and 53 strikeouts. It’s baseball’s best pitch by run value in 2025.
5. Max Fried, Yankees (7)
Fried’s incredible first half-season with the Yankees has pushed his career ERA from 3.07 down to 2.96. That makes him one of only three active starters with a sub-3.00 career ERA (minimum 500 innings), along with Jacob deGrom and Clayton Kershaw. That accomplished duo boasts a collective total of five Cy Young Awards. Fried has none, but this could be the year. Since enduring a rare hiccup against the Dodgers on May 30, he has spun three straight gems.
6. Framber Valdez, Astros (8)
Valdez is normally an above-average but hardly elite strikeout pitcher, with his superb ground ball rates his calling card. His K-rate ranked between the 54th and 60th percentile in each of the past three seasons. But entering Wednesday’s outing against the A’s, two of Valdez’s eight career starts with 11 or more strikeouts had come the previous two times he took the ball (albeit against the Pirates and White Sox). In the start before that, he struck out nine in a complete-game victory against the Rays.
7. Chris Sale, Braves (not ranked)
“Frustrated would be a wild understatement,” Sale said after an April 13 loss to the Rays. “I just hate sucking, and I’m bad. It’s simple.” Talk about a harsh self-assessment. Between that date and Wednesday’s confrontation with the Mets, though? All Sale did was make 10 starts with a 1.61 ERA and 2.43 FIP, striking out 83 in 61 2/3 innings. The veteran left-hander did not allow more than two earned runs in any of those outings, and reached double-digit K’s four times, looking very much like the pitcher 2/3 who won last year’s NL pitching Triple Crown. (While it came after these rankings were settled, Sale dominated again on Wednesday, throwing 8 2/3 scoreless innings against the Mets.)
8. Garrett Crochet, Red Sox (5)
There’s a natural segue from Sale to Crochet, another nasty left-hander who has headlined a trade from the White Sox to the Red Sox. Sale took to Boston immediately in 2017, finishing as the AL Cy Young Award runner-up, and Crochet seems to be doing the same. Crochet, who will turn 26 on Saturday, allowed a season-high five runs on June 7 at Yankee Stadium. But he showed mettle in last Friday’s rematch (8 1/3 innings, one run), nearly tossing a shutout before Aaron Judge got him for a game-tying homer. (He was terrific again on Wednesday at Seattle, too.)
9. Logan Webb, Giants (not ranked)
Like Valdez, Webb has found success throughout his career much more with ground balls than strikeouts. But also like Valdez, he’s been ramping up the K’s in 2025. Webb already has four double-digit strikeout games this season, tying a career high, after never notching more than eight over 33 starts a year ago. Over Webb’s last four outings -- a tough stretch that saw him face the Tigers, Padres, Braves and Dodgers -- he has 31 strikeouts and four walks, plus a 2.33 ERA.
10. Jacob deGrom, Rangers (not ranked)
The last time we saw deGrom pitch a full season (and win a Cy Young), in 2019, he had a 2.43 ERA (169 ERA+). Through 14 starts this year: 2.19 ERA (170 ERA+). That’s not to say that deGrom remains the same pitcher after all those years and so many injuries. The strikeouts are way down -- in fact, it’s downright jarring to see him with fewer K’s than innings pitched. And yet, at 36, deGrom remains awfully tough to hit. Throw out his first three starts, and he has a 1.73 ERA.
Honorable mentions: Kris Bubic (Royals), Robbie Ray (Giants), Andrew Abbott (Reds), MacKenzie Gore (Nationals), Carlos Rodón (Yankees), David Peterson (Mets), Freddy Peralta (Brewers), Ranger Suárez (Phillies), Clarke Schmidt (Yankees), Spencer Schwellenbach (Braves)