Top 101 Starting Pitchers: Rest-Of-Season Rankings for Fantasy Baseball Week 3 (2025)

April 16, 2025

Nick Mariano's updated fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings for Week 3 (2025). Baller Ranks is a weekly rankings list for the top-101 starting pitchers.

To some of you, Opening Day feels like a lifetime ago while others don't even consider the season off and running until May. Whether you buy into early April stats too much, too little, or just the right amount, we're here to chat about it with another installment of the FSWA-award-winning Best Baseball Series. Join me for this week's edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!

Readers can expect to find my SP musings with tiered ranks, complemented by a rest-of-season auction value ($), their Previous Week's Value (PV), the trend between the two, and a (+/-) column denoting the rank shift compared to last week. Yes, it is early and the stat samples are small, but some data is better than no data!

A refresher for those wondering where injured pitchers go: These ranks are geared toward traditional 5x5 roto leagues, and I typically exclude most injured SPs, lest a return is imminent. If the demand for an enduring injury table is loud, please speak up and let me know. Let's get into it!

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Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis for Week 3

Let's start with a fun little leaderboard or two:

Top 13 Early K-BB% (Qualified SPs):

Plenty of these names won’t be surprising. Beyond the small sample size issues in a vacuum, scheduling/matchup variables have had little chance to balance out. But even viewing these through a simple descriptive lens can open eyes that weren’t aware of early success.

Baz has crushed the Pirates, Angels, and Red Sox with three quality starts, logging double-digit strikeouts against PIT and BOS. Those two are K-happy teams, with only Colorado whiffing more than the Red Sox thus far. But Pittsburgh is also one of seven teams with a walk rate over 10 percent and Baz didn’t issue a single free pass against them.

His most recent game against the Red Sox saw him log five or more whiffs with the curveball, changeup, and four-seamer. We’ve been hoping Baz can get his four-seamer to play up more and Boston was the perfect target for confidence there (as Kevin Gausman showed). Let’s see how Baz looks in his next slated start against the Yankees.

Wesneski may never conquer the home run issues but at least it seems the issues against left-handed bats seen in 2023 (.986 OPS; .617 OPS vs. RHP) are being addressed. As Lance Brozdowski laid out, the 27-year-old has a new curve anchoring a new approach to tremendous early results.

Astros overhaul of Wesneski seems to have focused on his lefty approach...
-New curveball, big reduction in sweeper usage
-Cutter usage doubled
-Four-seam located more arm-side up-away as opposed to middle, middle-in

Righty approach was always sound, sweeper command is plus https://t.co/y1C2HrIiRW

— Lance Brozdowski (@LanceBroz) April 13, 2025

Out of 29 lefty batters faced, Wesneski holds an 8:2 K:BB with two hits allowed and a lovely 15.8 percent hard-hit rate. That somewhat explains the tremendous luck seen in the .056 BABIP vs. LHP in the early going. He’s still already allowed five HRs through 18 IP, but increased control will help lessen the damage done there. Perhaps a Joe Ryan-esque leap is the ceiling in that regard?

Bassitt fell one out shy of a third consecutive QS to open the year (he was pushing through neck spasms), but he still hasn’t been tagged for more than one run in an outing yet. At 36, Bassitt is unlikely to reinvent the wheel, but his sweeper has picked up three inches of horizontal movement (nearly all pitches are up about an inch).

His first-strike rate isn’t far off from previous seasons, but his 13 percent swinging-strike rate would be a massive jump on 8.7 percent last year and a prior season-high mark of 10.1 percent. Same with the 4.1 percent walk rate (9.2 last year, 7.6 career). Let’s take it easy and see how he handles the Braves on Wednesday.

Rasmussen continues to look sharp since returning from Tommy John surgery last August, holding opponents to one total run on nine hits with a 15:2 K:BB over 15 IP this season. No one will call the early-season versions of PIT, TEX, and ATL a murderer’s row but good form is good form.

Some may undervalue Rasmussen after failing to internalize his early workload management. He tossed 70 pitches in his ‘25 debut and has thrown 79 and 80 over his last two respective turns. While one doubts he’ll push 100 anytime soon, getting to 85-90 could buy an extra inning for the ratios.

How about Liberatore, the 2018 first-round pick who held a potent Phillies lineup down for a trio of promising outings to kick off the year? He’s gone at least six full innings in all three starts, issuing one measly walk over 18 ⅓ IP to none other than Kyle Schwarber. That’s understandable.

He flipped the usual 30 percent four-seamer and 20 percent slider use on its head, nabbing an impressive 65 percent whiff rate on the slidepiece. He did have a .707 xSLG behind the .167 SLG on the pitch that day but we’re celebrating the flexibility process here regardless. He isn’t riding BABIP fortune either (.314) and the 1.94 FIP beneath the 3.93 ERA is encouraging, even on a preliminary basis.

Now, one of the earlier things to become statistically significant is groundball rate (also fly balls) around 70 balls in play, per Russell Carleton's research and expanded upon on FanGraphs back in 2010. Strikeout rate stabilizes around 70 batters faced, with walks shown to be at 170 BFs.

Top 10 Early GB% (Qualified SPs):

Pallante remains the patron saint of groundballs, with a 66.6 percent rate since debuting in 2022, which is well ahead of runner-up Framber Valdez (60.2) out of Ps with >250 IP. However, subpar whiffs and inflated WHIPs on walk rates of around 10 percent mitigate the GB goodness. You’ll see elevated whiffs on his early ledger but that’s largely due to one Red Sox start. It’s like that!

Yamamoto not only looks amazing with the early grounders, but the quality of said few fly balls surrendered is horrid. His Pull AIR rate (pulled flies/liners/pop-ups) is 2.1 percent, which leads the league among pitchers (>50 BFs).

Soriano held a robust 59.7 percent GB% last year and though he has multiple walks in each of his three starts this season, the 26-year-old tends to stay out of big trouble with his approach. He transitioned to a starter last year with a 3.42 ERA/1.20 WHIP (3.80 FIP) but the 20.7 percent K% limited the appeal.

His arm endurance should be up this year and we could see an uptick in whiffs if he sticks with this slower slider with more movement. He’s only thrown it 29 times but has eight strikeouts, and the usage rate is over double last year’s slider mark.

One must point out that it fell back to 6.5 percent in start No. 3 compared to 12.3 and 15.6 percent in the first two respective starts. Let’s see if he digs into it a bit more against the Rangers on Wednesday.

Milwaukee called up Logan Henderson on Tuesday afternoon following Elvin Rodriguez tossing five innings of relief on Monday, and promptly changed their Sunday starter to “TBA.” The 23-year-old prospect has plenty of electricity but has suddenly struggled with walks.

Attention Logan Henderson fans: The Brewers starting pitching probables have updated for this weekend vs. A’s:

Friday: Peralta
Saturday: Patrick
Sunday: TBA

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) April 15, 2025

After an 8.6 percent walk rate at Single-A in ‘23 he dropped it to 4.7 percent over three levels, working up to Triple-A. The usual K% sat around an elite 35 percent across all levels, which helps one work around traffic! So what’s the problem?

Well, he posted a 10:5 K:BB in 8 ⅔ IP this spring and has a 24:10 K:BB in 14 IP on the farm (3.21 ERA/1.36 WHIP). Do you focus on the good (34 Ks in 22 ⅔ IP) or the bad (15 BBs)? I’d strongly argue that the end of your bench should focus on the upside, especially this early. Do mind that Tobias Myers should be back soon (his next rehab start is slated for Friday), with an entire MLB rotation on their IL.

We got a glimpse of what Tampa Bay Joe Boyle looks like with a gem against Atlanta where the fireballer struck out seven over five no-hit innings (two walks), but he was promptly sent back to Triple-A after the game. The Rays just wanted to let their young rotation breathe with an extra day of rest.

Still, it’s a great audition, and TB should be encouraged to do it more often. And if you ask this writer, Zack Littell is not a long-term rotation answer. Plus, others like Baz and Rasmussen have workload concerns. Neither Ryan Pepiot nor Taj Bradley has ever topped 140 IP.

Chris Paddack had a solid April 12 start against Detroit (5 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 5 K) but still has a horrid 9:8 K:BB and 9.49 ERA (6.68 FIP) through 12 ⅓ IP. One can accept that organizations know things that we aren’t privy to, but opting for Paddack innings when Zebby Matthews looks this good feels silly.

At the very least, Pablo Lopez’s return shouldn’t boot Festa. Perhaps a six-man rotation can help, both with workloads and getting young arms adjusted to MLB schedules.

Also, Carlos Mendoza said the Mets could mix in a sixth starter soon with arms like Kodai Senga and Clay Holmes to manage. While it’ll probably be someone unassuming like Jose Urena this early in the year, keep an eye on Brandon Sproat down the road.

Also, Griffin Canning is sick and can’t pitch on Wednesday, which is separate from this plan. But Sproat won’t be rested for it and it looks like Justin Hagenman will get the spot start.

BREAKING: Although RHP Justin Hagenman is expected to start for the #Mets tomorrow in Minnesota, conversations surrounding a Brandon Sproat call up have accelerated in recent days. Sproat could be with the Major League team sooner than expected, with the team intending to shift…

— MLBScoops (@mlb_scoops) April 15, 2025

Finally, there’s no great place to toss this thought, so here we are. If you’re going to be an inconsistent pitcher then I’d much rather your more bankable stat be strikeouts versus ratios. For instance, I land on Carlos Rodon over Aaron Nola.

Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 3

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