Top 101 Starting Pitchers: Rest-Of-Season Rankings for Fantasy Baseball Week 4 (2026)

April 22, 2026

Nick Mariano's updated fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings for Week 4 (2026). Baller Ranks is a weekly rankings list for the top-101 starting pitchers.

The weather is turning, bullpen superstructures are being ripped apart, and starting rotations are happy to add to the chaos! We've got some key injuries, exciting promotions, and new trends to dig into on the bump. Let's explore with the FSWA-award-winning Best Baseball Series, our weekly updated "Top 101 Starting Pitchers", where my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks help give you the tools to dominate your league.

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 from last week. There is also a prospect table at the end from 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 (setbacks being so common). We're getting towards the one-month mark, which means the swings in the ranking table will start to get more aggressive. This week will focus more on guys near the top who I feel require more context.

Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis for Week 4

-Tarik Skubal may endure some fantasy fatigue as the top arm, because it’s hard to keep getting better after consecutive American League Cy Young Awards! He “only” has a 28% strikeout rate after topping 30% in each of his last three years, and that 5.1% walk rate is soaring from the usual 4.4-4.6% (/s).

There’s a behavioral theory called the “hedonic treadmill,” which effectively says that positive or negative events in our life cause blips of more or less satisfaction before we return to a general baseline band. For our purposes, that can lead to normalizing outlier arms. It protects you from being ruined for months based on Garrett Crochet’s blowup, but limits gains over the long term.

In clearer fantasy metaphor terms, Skubal is the Ferrari you were overjoyed to snag a couple of years ago, or the bigger house with more space that you originally reveled at. But it’s been a while, and though the car still zips and that extra room or bigger yard remains the same, it just doesn’t bring the same boost.

-Cristopher Sanchez actually saw his .411 BABIP rise to .413 after working around eight hits across six innings in his latest effort. The Braves scratched three unearned runs across, but the 8:1 K:BB still gives us life. I realize that whining about luck and “should-be stats” has a limit, but we all know this man is not running a full-season BABIP near .400, and good whiffs/control remains robust.

-Max Fried is carving up opposing hitters, except we aren’t getting whiffs. Only one barrel allowed on 94 batted-ball events (BBEs) is wild, as is the meager 2.26 xERA and .197 xBA behind the strong results. He’s gone from cutter-first to sinkers having a slight edge (22.7% to 21.9%), but the pitch only has a 6.3% whiff rate compared to last year’s 25% clip.

I still think it’ll rise from this current state, but why should Fried mess with something that isn’t broken? Only 23 Ks in 33 ⅓ IP with a three-percentage-point drop in swinging-strike rate doesn’t affect the Yankees’ roto 5x5 standing in the American League. That .194 BABIP will rise, as will the 2.9% HR/FB rate, so the whiffs need to still be in the tank, ready and waiting.

-Garrett Crochet gave up another five runs on seven hits (two homers) and two walks with eight strikeouts over five innings against Detroit on Sunday. There was nowhere to go but up after the April 13 meltdown, but leaning on a season-high 37.6% fastball rate did not help.

He was nearly through five innings of one-run ball, too. The first two batters of the fifth struck out swinging before five straight reached. The Tigers got multiple hits off of the four-seamer, sinker, and sweeper, with a double off the cutter as well. At least his velo was back, averaging nearly 96 mph after the sub-95 showing at Minnesota.

-Cole Ragans is another man requiring excuses and hand-waving to stomach the early results. His first start was rough (4 IP, 4 ER, 3 HR, 4 BB, 5 K), but it’s rust after an injury-laden 2025, and then he threw a gem against the Twins. The comebacker tagged his thumb in the first against Cleveland (⅔ IP, 3 ER, 2 K). Even his six innings of one-hit ball at Detroit came with one strikeout and four walks.

Then he goes and allows seven runs on three homers with eight walks and six strikeouts against the Yankees? Is it still the thumb? His 6.53 xERA is higher than the 6.00 ERA!

You cannot have a 22:18 K:BB with a 2.57 HR/9 and be trustworthy. You know he’s great, but we’re like Velma rummaging around in the dark for our glasses until a tweak is made or injury status reveals an answer.

-Zack Wheeler’s biggest rehab headlines have been the homers allowed to George Lombard Jr. and low velocity, so that’s troubling! But sitting around 92 mph in cold, rainy weather is one thing. He’d been closer to 95 mph in fairer conditions the previous start. But his recovery is unlikely to be linear, so he’ll need to work with less zip at times.

The ace said how he “may have some ups and downs this year,” and that he’s “real with it. Hope for the best, but you never know.” Life is short, eat Arby’s, stream that pitcher, etc.

Zack Wheeler dipped back to low 90s fastballs today after sitting at 93-94 on Tuesday. He attributed that to cold weather and long innings, but acknowledged he might have to be craftier for some period of time when he rejoins the Phillies.

“You’ve got to move the ball around and… https://t.co/hEitWbAdsx

— Greg Johnson (@gregp_j) April 19, 2026

His 2026 MLB debut will come on Saturday in Atlanta, which brings a tough lineup but also a warmer forecast. Therefore, even if the results are iffy, we should get a healthy read on his velocity moving forward.

-Spencer Strider may have another couple of rehab starts ahead of him, but I’m going to sneak him back into the article. We may see Didier Fuentes up to help with the bullpen, but a Strider return should be following on the horizon. I'd put him around 45-50 at this point.

Getting eight strikeouts and showing off upper-90s heat with the slider fooling hitters is what we’ve wanted. It checks so many mental boxes for me to see him hit those physical benchmarks.

Strider's IVB (late life or whatever you want to call it) was 18 degrees. That's in line with where it was before the 2024 elbow surgery. Jacksonville also whiffed with 10 of 15 swings against Strider's slider https://t.co/H7NdeVuQ5V

— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) April 21, 2026

-Kyle Bradish's managers are languishing, but we saw him sniff 99 mph, and the poor outfield play behind him has been flipped from a hit to an error.

🚨CHANGE 44🚨

4/15 @DBacks at @Orioles

T3 Adrian Del Castillo reaches on a fielding error by left fielder Weston Wilson, instead of a triple. As a result, Del Castillo loses two RBI and both runs are now unearned to Kyle Bradish

Change 2 for BAL#DBacks #Birdland pic.twitter.com/pOKH7o7jxB

— MLB Scoring Changes (@ScoringChanges) April 21, 2026

We take what we can get! That 50.4% first-strike rate and lofty 11.3% walk rate should settle, though he may not reach the hype heights established this offseason.

-Jesus Luzardo entered Tuesday with a bloated 7.94 ERA/1.46 WHIP, muddying up a 2.87 FIP/1.93 xFIP/2.45 SIERA rooted in the 30:5 K:BB over 22 ⅔ IP. He ended the day lowering his ERA, raising his sabermetrics, and registering more walks (4) than strikeouts (3). He has more data to lean on as an optimist, and it’s good to see him able to battle when he doesn’t have it.

Prior to Tuesday’s game, Luzardo said he believes “it’s a combination of a little bit of bad luck, a little bit of pitch sequencing on my end, and a little bit of execution on my end…we’re four starts in, and my stuff’s the best that it has ever been in my career.” Well, now it’s five, so let’s hope there isn’t unidentified pitch tipping or further problems created by his pressing for answers.

-Will Warren has appeared in this column throughout various flashes in past years, most notably after ripping off a 10-start stretch with a 3.66 ERA and 69 Ks in 51 ⅔ IP across May and June last season. His 31.8% K rate ranked sixth among 82 qualified SPs in that span, with the fourth-best FIP (2.24).

But every nice 3-4 start showing was followed by a blast of 5-8 ERs in a day, and the elite Ks disappeared. Was the 11-K gem against the Royals a sign of his turning the switch back on, or is Kansas City just sad right now?

11 punchouts for Will Warren!

He matches his career high in strikeouts across 7 strong innings 💪

(MLB x @Abbvie) pic.twitter.com/0BLFFjfUug

— MLB (@MLB) April 18, 2026

**If Connor Prielipp winds up getting some run in the rotation, he'd be around No. 75.

Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 4

Top Starting Pitcher Stashes for Fantasy Baseball - Week 4

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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