Top 101 Starting Pitchers: Rest-Of-Season Rankings for Fantasy Baseball Week 6 (2026)

May 6, 2026

Nick Mariano's updated fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings for Week 6 (2026). Baller Ranks is a weekly rankings list for the top-101 starting pitchers.

Anyone who thought that May would ease up on the injuries and overall fantasy baseball turbulence can think again! Many of you lost your first-round ace in Tarik Skubal, and I'm not here to pretend we can make a couple of waiver adds to "recreate him in the aggregate." Still, we must battle on with my latest edition of the FSWA-award-winning Best Baseball Series, our weekly updated "Top 101 Starting Pitchers", where my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks help give you a leg up on the competition.

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 so stats cited are typically 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). The swings in the ranking table will become more pronounced as things progress. Let's rip it.

Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis for Week 6

-Paul Skenes, you’re the man now, dog. (If that phrase doesn’t ring a bell, you’re a youngster.) I know the last outing wasn’t fantastic, but he’d been absolute nails since that Opening Day misfire. As the last Tier One ace standing, he becomes a bit more valuable against the field.

**Look, I don’t want to sit here and discount existing injury worries, but I’m less inclined to sweat medical histories when the replacement level is getting so low. Reliable volume is good, but these next few names will enjoy a rise due to being healthy right here, and right now.

-Shohei Ohtani is “trapped” in a six-man rotation alongside Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow. We lose a handful of starts due to the schedule stretching, though most won’t argue if it helps them stay upright. Dave Roberts’ willingness to give Ohtani a rest at the plate on his pitching days is also notable.

For now, Ohtani and Glasnow hold strikeout rates of 28.6% and 32.6%, respectively, while Yamamoto is down at 23.5%. This is enough for me to swap them around. Maybe Ohtani is focused on winning a Cy Young award and is bored with hitting. It would explain a lot!

-Chris Sale is old and has quite the laundry list of medical issues, and yet he’s the healthiest pitcher rolling on the winningest team thus far. He clears the pack with six wins in 42 IP and also has amped up the whiffs in recent outings (20 Ks in 13 IP). Keep it going.

-Cam Schlittler cleaned up some minor mechanical things and wound up ripping triple-digit heat on Monday. However, Baltimore stayed relatively disciplined, and so he only struck out four and walked three (and allowed seven hits).

Cam Schlittler credited his "mechanics adjustments" with his velo increase last night.

I included a side by side with his mechanics from earlier in the season. pic.twitter.com/YFQHzVvVU3

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 5, 2026

I am still very “in” here, clearly, but seeing that kind of control after a tweak sits in the back of my mind. Is something off? Guys are always trying to improve, so it’s not a flashing alarm or anything. Will he get used to the small delivery switches by his next start in Milwaukee? Probably! It shouldn’t mess him up. Probably?

-Cristopher Sanchez is throwing a gem as I write this. I hope I don’t have to come back and erase that. (I didn’t, he struck out 10 over eight stellar innings with a .176 BABIP, which follows a .235 BABIP in his previous outing after running a .466 BABIP over a four-start stretch. His velo was up 1.5 mph.)

-Logan Gilbert, along with Bryan Woo and George Kirby, are all trending in the wrong direction. Just as the Dodger trio gets a boost despite some lesser volume, Seattle’s mainstays are more frequently pitching, but that is tantamount to slapping our teams in the face.

Gilbert gave up four solo homers to the Braves on Monday, which we could maybe forgive if the whiffs were still rolling in. He hasn’t topped four Ks in any of his previous three starts after sitting in the 5-7 range across each of his first five. The veteran has also posted a WHIP of 1.33 or higher in five of his eight turns.

Kirby is fine. He entered the Atlanta start rocking a 19.1% strikeout rate. That’s down seven percentage points from last year, with a 10.1% swinging-strike rate compared to 2025’s 11.8% mark. Last year his FIP/xFIP/SIERA were a run lower than the 4.21 ERA, and now they’re creeping nearly a run higher than the 2.94 ERA. He had zero whiffs on 15 swings against the heater vs. ATL, ugh.

Woo should be okay, but again, you’re dealing with someone generating subpar whiffs that is torching your ratios. Batters are pulling more balls, and getting under his pitches at a higher clip. Statcast has his fly-ball rate up 10 points, and it’s all coming from last year’s grounders. Sadly, his xBA/xSLG stats say this is “deserved,” and he’s in fact gotten a bit lucky. I’m good to bench him against Hot-lanta on Wednesday.

Luis Castillo is just off the table entirely, but it highlights a team-wide issue here. Wait, is Emerson Hancock a Monstar? Crazy times!

-Zack Wheeler carved up Miami with eight strikeouts over six innings of one-run ball, reaching 94 pitches with the plus command that defines him. It’s how he can make this work even with the velocity not where it was pre-TOS. Let’s see if he can avoid the Athletics’ barrels in his first home start of the year.

-Shota Imanaga rebounded from that ugly Dodgers tilt with seven scoreless innings. Anyone who panicked beyond the context of “pitching in L.A. against an NL All-Star team is hard” may now resume their lives.

-Chase Burns and Jacob Misiorowski are young studs on the rise. Here’s hoping that Misiorowski’s cramp is nothing.

-Jesus Luzardo’s sparkling advanced stats are coming home to roost, and we love to see it. You know that his arsenal is a massive double-edged sword that can smack you with blowback at times, but the upside is this kind of tremendous. In a fantasy universe filled with injuries and landmines, that ceiling demands more weight.

-Joe Ryan has us holding our breath after an early injury hook (elbow soreness), but his MRI came back clean on Sunday, and he played catch on Tuesday. We will be sweating this for at least a couple of starts going forward.

-Framber Valdez’s version of “stepping up” with Tarik Skubal down is…interesting? Getting shelled for 10 runs (seven earned) and hitting Trevor Story square in the back with your lone four-seamer on the night after yielding back-to-back homers is a move, alright.

The 52% groundball rate is down from the ~60% range of 2024-25, and his swinging-strike rate sits under 10% after being between 11.3-11.6% in each of his last four campaigns. Even before Tuesday’s implosion, his overall contact rate was up 4.2 percentage points from ‘25, and the Zone Contact rate was up 6.7 points. These are troubling trends indeed. Potentially tipping to baserunners won't help.

Asked if he may have been tipping, Valdez said (in Spanish): "Maybe yes, maybe no. I can’t say it 100%...That went through my mind on the mound: Whether I was tipping, whether my mechanics were bad, whether the pitches were up." (1/2) https://t.co/5En52CEWJL

— Evan Woodbery (@evanwoodbery) May 6, 2026

-Logan Henderson has dazzled when healthy, but the 1.78 ERA/0.99 WHIP/33.3% K rate in five MLB starts last year was overshadowed by Misiorowski’s ascension and Hendo’s elbow injury. Well, after turning in a 1.02 ERA/1.19 WHIP/35.6% K rate over 17 ⅔ IP at Triple-A, he’s back in the bigs with Brandon Woodruff (shoulder) down.

Now, Quinn Priester will be back at some point to squeeze the rotation, but Woody is visiting Dr. Meister (foreboding). Milwaukee should let Henderson keep rolling and knock Chad Patrick or Brandon Sproat into long relief, or each of them has multiple options remaining as well. But this version of Hendo, rocking a slider with the fantastic fastball/changeup duo, can move the needle.

-Robby Snelling appears poised to assume Chris Paddack’s vacated rotation spot for Miami after Braxton Garrett pitched for Triple-A on Tuesday night. You simply have to make the add wherever possible.

Miami’s top prospect has allowed only six runs in 29 Triple-A IP, striking out 44 after running up 166 Ks in 136 minor-league frames last year. I must note the elevated 13.6% walk rate, which is rooted in two bad tilts with four or more walks. The other four outings have yielded a 28:6 K:BB. But he just threw five innings of no-hit ball with one walk and nine Ks, so here we are. Join in!

-Spencer Strider had to contend with Coors Field in his first start off the IL, which I’m just going to ignore.

-Kyle Bradish remains a stash based on the track record, but some teams cannot afford to wait this out. Consider the widespread injuries and recognize what that does to the waiver pool before letting Bradish’s ceiling go.

-Taj Bradley struck out eight Nationals in a second straight quality start just now, so you just have to accept the volatility at the end of the day.

-Peter Lambert rebounded with seven shutout frames against the Dodgers after that lackluster Baltimore effort, so he’s not to be forgotten about just yet!

**I’d love to wishcast Ryan Weathers into a full starting role for the 2026 Yankees, and I know other injuries can open various doors, but Jack Curry has laid out that the team will demote Elmer Rodriguez (this happened) and move Weathers to the bullpen when Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole are ready. Rodon could be back this weekend, while Cole is still a couple of weeks away.

Now, Weathers looks amazing, but this is a team that needs his arm to have October miles ready. He’s at 38 ⅔ IP, which is one out more than his 2025 MLB total, though he did throw another 18 frames in the minors. It is only early May, my dudes and dudettes. This would make sense given that Ryan Yarbrough and Paul Blackburn are the current long relief options.

**Let's see if Blake Snell can return by next week's edition, eh?

Snell likely has one more rehab start remaining to get him to around five innings/75 pitches. After that, he should be an option to return to the Dodgers' rotation. https://t.co/k48kZmSXMV

— Sonja Chen (@SonjaMChen) May 3, 2026

Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 6

Top Starting Pitcher Prospects for Fantasy Baseball - Week 6

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!

More Fantasy Baseball Analysis