Top 101 Starting Pitchers: Rest-Of-Season Rankings for Fantasy Baseball Week 2 (2026)

April 8, 2026

Nick Mariano's updated fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings for Week 2 (2026). Baller Ranks is a weekly rankings list for the top-101 starting pitchers.

Kudos to those of you who are fighting the good fight against small-sample devils yelling at you to rage-drop all slow starters. We've got new information flying at us with every turn, and each data point comes with its own matchup, health, weather, etc., to fold in. Let's take some temperatures with the FSWA-award-winning Best Baseball Series, our weekly updated "Top 101 Starting Pitchers", where my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks look to assist in constructing a champion.

Readers will find my SP thoughts with tiered ranks (the tiers matter more than individual ranks), complemented by a rest-of-season auction value orientation point ($), their Previous Week's Value (PV), the trend between the two, and a (+/-) column denoting the rank shift compared to the previous week. There is also a prospect table at the end from our star evaluator, Eric Cross. This is written throughout Tuesday so that the table reflects some games (but not all), and the stats cited are typically gathered through Monday.

These ranks are geared toward traditional 5x5 roto leagues, and I typically exclude most injured SPs unless they're about to return (we've already seen some setbacks, sigh). We continue to focus on more reliable early data points, but will try to stay balanced. You may feel that I'm not being reactionary enough in the face of preliminary action, but everyone's unique approach is what makes this game so special!

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Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis for Week 2

*It feels a bit silly to focus on guys in/around the top 25 this early, so I’ll try to move down the line.

-Kyle Bradish is where I’ll draw the line, thanks to seeing a fantasy baseball Facebook post about dropping him. (I know, don’t let FB get to you.) But we can acknowledge that it’s difficult to witness a hyped-up guy who has dealt with injuries come out with sketchy command and flagging velocity, not making it five innings in either outing to open ‘26.

Though I hate to highlight early expected stats, it’s worth noting that his sinker’s .336 xSLG mirrors the .360 xSLG from last year, except the actual .667 SLG is clearly off after .250 last season (early .333 BABIP vs. .289 career mark). The slider remains outstanding.

However, you get into trouble with a 42% first-strike rate over any two-start stretch! That’s the lowest among 135 SPs with >8 IP. Do you really think that’s who Bradish is? He’d sat around 58% in 2022-24, climbing to 63% in his 32 IP last year. It would be shocking if he didn’t clean up the control and get off on a better foot.

-Chase Burns followed up a strong 2026 debut (5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 7 K) with an arguably better second outing (6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K). Two of the hits came off the sparsely used changeup, but he’s trying to make that a viable third offering against lefties.

He remains exclusively fastball/slider against RHB and needs to keep working at being an efficient arm to handle opponents for a second and third time through the order. As a rookie, he got hit for a nasty 6.17 ERA and .990 OPS the second time through.

You’ll see a 7.36 ERA for the third time through in ‘25, but that speaks more to inherited runners cashing in. He only allowed seven baserunners of 31 batters faced (a sub-1.00 WHIP), but all seven scored, with six being earned.

Anyway, he’s rocking the following early stats through the order:

There is plenty of room for variance with such a small sample (evergreen for April content), but it’s logical that a limited arsenal will make it tougher for him to be as effective or deceptive as hitters run it back. Let’s see how that changeup develops, and if the Reds find a way to handle a six-man rotation before Nick Lodolo (blister) returns.

-Bubba Chandler knows he needs to throw more strikes. The “BuBBa” moniker is criminally apt with the 10:10 K:BB. This isn’t a new issue, as evidenced by the 12% walk rate in 100 Triple-A innings last year, but he offered hope with a 59% first-strike rate and 3.2% walk rate in 31 ⅓ MLB IP.

"I'm gonna fix it, clean it up. I've got five more days until I throw again. It won't happen again."

🎙️ Bubba Chandler spoke after his start against the Padres pic.twitter.com/Mz5KCi55dT

— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) April 7, 2026

You almost certainly won’t discard him to the waivers so quickly if you cared enough to click him on draft day, but reframing him as an “NA slot” hold may be prudent in fragile formats. He has game-breaking whiffs in the tank, though we’re limited if the ceiling is 2018-19 Robbie Ray.

-Jack Leiter has buzzed through the Baltimore and Cincinnati lineups with a 17:2 K:BB to kick off his third year. We’ve seen him add a cutter that he’s throwing to both lefties and righties, which looks to be aiding his slider’s 60% whiff rate. It’s a nice table-setter for the more aggressive break to come.

The changeup is also up about 10 percentage points in the early going, with everything coalescing into a six-pitch demon on the bump. He’ll have this newer approach tested later in the week in a road date with the Dodgers.

I won’t blame most for sitting back to watch rather than trotting him out there. But the tools are there to make a real leap, no matter the result in Chavez Ravine. If he gets bopped around, then consider trying to steal him from the unworthy and doubting manager.

-Kyle Harrison had us buying in as a late-round flier thanks to the kick-change offering flashing this spring as a healthy complement to the strong fastball that attacks up top. Then, he backed things up by striking out eight Rays over five innings of one-run ball. Tampa has the lowest team K rate over 10 games (18.5%).

But he’s only thrown said kick-change 11.3% of the time, which isn’t much more than the 8% we saw in ‘25 with the old change. It’s got an early 18.2% whiff rate with three hits on five batted-ball events, including a homer. We’ll want to see that trend up and earn more whiffs before he’s more than a plus SP5 type knocking on the top 50.

-Janson Junk came out firing with 95.4 mph average fastball velocity and his own kick-change in his first start of ‘26 after another Driveline offseason (he's a long-timer there). That dropped to 94.5 in start No. 2, but we may still see more ebbs and flows with new mechanics.

I added him for this current two-start week, but that’s where my interest boundary is for now.

-Randy Vasquez is another rootin’ tootin’ new-velocity arm that had us razzed up with mid-90s heat, but then it came down to 93.6 mph in Boston. Despite the trigger-happy Sox, he only got three Ks over six innings. Vasquez had six Ks via fastball alone in his first start.

I’m willing to chalk this up to Boston’s third phase of spring, which is just a light winter. (Junk had no such excuse with both starts in Miami.) He draws a dream date at home against the Rockies on Thursday, so we’ll hang around to see if it rebounds.

-Taj Bradley went toe-to-toe with Tarik Skubal and emerged the winner, moving to 2-0 thanks to 10 strikeouts and zero walks over 6 ⅓ IP. His velo was down a tick on Tuesday night, but this is another one we can chalk up to weather in the chilly Twin Cities. This a common early theme to note.

And it didn’t sap his effectiveness or whiffs like Vasquez, so we’re more than comfortable. The splitter was particularly zesty, inducing nine whiffs on 15 swings. The fastball doesn’t get many whiffs, but it sets the table.

Taj Bradley strikes out 10 over 6.1 innings.

His 9 swings and misses on his splitter matches his career high.

Check out all his Ks below 👇#MNTwins pic.twitter.com/rkZk20hLmZ

— Inside Edge (@IE_MLB) April 8, 2026

The man himself said this in a post-game presser: “Today it showed I can use the splitter 3-2 counts, 0-0, 0-1, 0-2. It’s a big difference maker, especially with the fastball coming off the same sightline and tunneling it well. The curveball is a good pitch. I feel like I want to strike it more, but it got me the swings and misses I needed.”

**You’ll quickly get into the portion of the player pool where you’re either purely hunting upside and not worrying about the low floor, or targeting safer volume. The latter attitude typically comes in deeper formats. The No. 80 SP here may be on most 10-team wires, whereas they’re the SP5 for one in a 15-teamer.

Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 2

Top Starting Pitcher Stashes for Fantasy Baseball - Week 2

Here are the key SP stashes, including honorable mentions, from our esteemed, industry-leading prospect analyst, Eric Cross. You should also read his full Top 25 Fantasy Baseball Prospects To Stash article, which is updated weekly!

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