Eric Cross' Top 10 Starting Pitcher (SP) Dynasty Fantasy Baseball Rankings for 2025 - Part 2 (#11-20)

March 12, 2025

Part 2 of Eric Cross' top starting pitcher (SP) dynasty fantasy baseball rankings (#11-20) heading into 2025. His top SP targets for fantasy baseball dynasty leagues.

The starting pitcher position is so deep at the top with elite talent right now, doing just one top-10 pitcher rankings article isn't enough. So, after discussing my top-10 dynasty starting pitcher fantasy baseball rankings the other day in Part 1 of this series, we're going over pitchers #11-20 in my starting pitcher dynasty rankings today.

This section of my fantasy baseball dynasty rankings looks quite different than it did a year ago, as we have several new additions who broke last year. There were several additional names who all can make a case for inclusion here as well, and were close calls for my top 20 rankings.

For my additional dynasty fantasy baseball rankings fantasy baseball rankings and dynasty write-ups, check out my Patreon, where you can find my full top 200 dynasty starting pitcher rankings. Be sure to also check out the rest of the positional articles and write-ups in this dynasty rankings series.

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Starting Pitcher Dynasty Rankings for Fantasy Baseball (#11-20)

Rankings Notes: Gerrit Cole was in this back-end top-20, but the news of him needing Tommy John surgery pushes him out. Jackson Jobe and Andrew Painter were very close to making the Top-20 below.

11. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, LAD (Age 26)

Outside of being limited to 18 starts, it was an incredible rookie season for Yamamoto. In 90 innings, Yamamoto finished with a 3.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 6% walk rate, and 28.5% strikeout rate. After he allowed five earned runs in one inning in his debut, Yamamoto had a 2.53 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in his final 17 starts.

Yamamoto made bats miss at an elite rate, including three offerings with a whiff rate above 30%. His splitter was the best of the bunch, recording a .170 BAA, .266 SLG, and a 38.6% whiff rate. On top of that, Yamamoto showed above-average command and control from the get-go, giving him a high floor to go with his lofty ceiling.

As long as he can stay healthy and rack up enough volume, Yamamoto should be able to provide ace value moving forward.

12. Shane McClanahan, TBR (Age 27)

Before needing his second Tommy John surgery, Shane McClanahan was a no-doubt Tier-1 pitcher for fantasy after his dominant 2022 season, when he finished with a 2.54 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and 24.5% K-BB rate. He was having another great season in 2023 before getting injured and needing surgery, which caused him to miss the entire 2024 season.

This ranking comes with considerable risk, but McClanahan could easily return to being a Top 5-10 pitcher in 2025 and is still only 27 years old. He can miss bats with the best of them while averaging nearly 97 mph on his 4-seamer and having one of the best changeups in the game. That changeup has had a whiff rate above 40% in each of the last three seasons and a BAA under .160 in both 2022 and 2024.

We just don't have a lot of data to go off of with pitchers that have had two Tommy John surgeries, so McClanahan is a wild card entering 2025.

13. George Kirby, SEA (Age 27)

Maybe the elite strikeout rate isn't coming for George Kirby. Maybe he's always going to be a pitcher with an ERA in the vicinity of 3.40 and a slightly above-average strikeout rate. While neither of those metrics are elite, Kirby has become one of the safest arms in baseball and provides top-notch volume, which makes him a reliable Back-end SP1/High-end SP2 for fantasy purposes.

Kirby has exceeded 190 innings and 170 strikeouts in the last two seasons while having a walk rate of 3% or less in both seasons. In 2024, Kirby was one of just eight pitchers to make 33 starts while finishing ninth in ERA and 23rd in strikeouts. He's the poster boy for "high floor". Let's just hope this current bout of shoulder inflammation doesn't turn into anything serious.

14. Hunter Greene, CIN (Age 25)

Over the first two years of his career, I was generally lower than most on Hunter Greene as I had concerns with the amount of hard contact allowed and his lack of a consistent third offering. His electric fastball was getting hit around too much as well, to the tune of a .262 BAA, .512 SLG, and 91.3 mph AVG EV allowed in 2023. But even though I wasn't ranking him too highly, I continuously said that if he solved the concerns I had, he could really blossom into a stud.

Well, that happened in 2024. In 150.1 innings, Greene had a stellar 2.75 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and a 27.7% strikeout rate. That strikeout rate was down from two straight seasons above 30%, but if the trade off is an 11.6% drop in his hard-hit rate allowed and 2.8 mph drop in AVG EV allowed, I'll take that all damn day.

On top of that, Greene's fastball was much more effective in 2024, finishing with a .184 BAA, .273 SLG, and .262 wOBA. Greene also increased his splitter usage to 8.3% and continued to have a dominant slider. That splitter usage has carried over to 2025 spring training as well (3/10 start above).

There's still some risk here (never made 30 starts) and I don't love the home ballpark, but Greene pitched like an ace in 2024 and could cement his ace status in 2025.

15. Dylan Cease, SDP (Age 29)

Some might rank Dylan Cease several spots higher, and it's not necessarily incorrect. When he's on, Cease looks like one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he's provided ace value for us in fantasy in the 2022 and 2024 seasons. But he's also been highly inconsistent month to month and season to season, and Cease has posted an ERA above 3.60 in each of his other four seasons.

Through it all though, Cease has provided an elite strikeout rate and hasn't been below 27% in any of the last four seasons. He also dropped his walk rate to a career-best 8.5% in 2024 which was encouraging and Cease's slider is as good as ever with a .159 BAA, .256 SLG, and a 44.7% whiff rate in 2025. I just can't bring myself to roster him given the inconsistencies. It's similar to rostering Blake Snell or Luis Robert.

16. Blake Snell, LAD (Age 32)

With Blake Snell, you're either going to get a Cy Young winner or under 130 innings. There's literally no in-between, as Snell has never finished with 130-179 innings and has only exceeded 130 innings twice in nine seasons. At least Snell keeps his ERA from fluctuating too much and has been below 3.40 in four of his last five seasons.

Coming off his 2023 Cy Young season, Snell made just 20 starts in 2024 with a 3.12 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and 24.2% K-BB rate. As usual, his 34.7% strikeout rate was one of the top marks in baseball, and Snell had three offerings (curve, changeup, slider) with a whiff rate above 44%.

I'm sure he'll have another Cy Young caliber season at some point, but Snell's age and inconsistent volume make it difficult for me to rank him higher than this.

17. Bryce Miller, SEA (Age 26)

Every time I update my rankings, Bryce Miller is a name that scoots a little bit higher each time. In 31 starts last season, Miller posted a 2.94 ERA and 0.98 WHIP, but the strikeout rate didn't stand out at 24.3%. That's still a decent rate and better than league average, but for Miller to jump up into the elite, ideally, that strikeout rate would tick up into at least the 27-30% range. Well, that happened down the stretch, as Miller had a 29.1% strikeout rate over his final eight starts of the season.

What changed? Miller started throwing fewer sinkers and more sliders over the final several weeks of the season. If Miller can stick closer to a 30% strikeout rate while continuing to provide low ratios and good volume, he's going to join the fantasy ace discussion in 2025 and beyond.

18. Grayson Rodriguez, BAL (Age 25)

While the current injury is a speed bump here in 2025, I'm still a strong believer in Grayson Rodriguez becoming a fantasy ace in the long term. The former top pitching prospect has had a decent Major League career to date, with a 4.11 ERA in 43 starts, but it's safe to say his performance hasn't lived up to the lofty expectations he had when he debuted in 2023.

Rodriguez took a small step forward in 2024, posting a 3.86 ERA and 19.2% K-BB mark while ranking in the top 28% of pitchers in chase rate, whiff rate, and strikeout rate. And out of the 126 pitchers with at least 100 innings in 2024, Rodriguez ranked T-13th in Stuff+, T-18th in Location+, and T-sixth in Pitching+ on FanGraphs.

The ingredients are here for Rodriguez to be a fantasy ace long-term, he just has to put it all together. Personally, I'd like to see him locate his slider and curveball lower overall in 2025 as he left each offering up in the zone too frequently last season, especially the curveball which was hung in the heart of the zone too often.

19. Michael King, SDP (Age 29)

After making nine starts down the stretch in 2023, Michael King seamlessly transitioned to the rotation full-time in 2024 and finished with a 2.95 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 8.7% walk rate, and a 27.7% strikeout rate in 173.2 innings for the Padres.

King already had a four-pitch mix, which helped his transition to the rotation, but he also added a slider to the mix and increased his changeup usage rate from 14.5% in 2023 to 24.6% in 2024. King also used all five of his offerings to both right-handed and left-handed batters.

I'm not sure there's another level to unlock with King or if he'll ever be an ace for fantasy, but he could lock in as a safe SP2 moving forward and is still only 29 years old. Some might go for the upside of a Tyler Glasnow in this range, but give me King, who I feel much safer about providing both consistent production and volume moving forward.

20. Spencer Schwellenbach, ATL (Age 24)

While Chris Sale was dominating en route to a Cy Young award, Spencer Schwellenbach was emerging as one of the best young pitchers in the game. In 21 starts, beginning with his debut on May 29, Schwellenbach posted an impressive 3.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 4.6% walk rate, and a 25.4% strikeout rate. Schwellenbach was even better over his final 15 starts, with a 2.54 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and a 22.4% K-BB mark.

At first, it didn't seem right to rank Schwellenbach as a Top-20 dynasty pitcher, but I'm 100% buying what we saw from him in 2024. Schwellenbach has exceptional command over his six-pitch arsenal and five of the six offerings had a BAA of .240 or less with the curveball and splitter each having a whiff rate north of 40%.

Given his blend of command/control, ability to miss bats (27.4% whiff), and get hitters to chase outside the zone (34.2%), the floor and ceiling are both fairly high for Schwellenbach. Could he be the next Logan Gilbert and join the Fantasy Ace Club in 2025?

If you enjoyed these rankings and want to see additional rankings, analysis, and more, check out Eric's Toolshed Fantasy Patreon.

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