Projecting Rest of Season Top 10 Starting Pitchers in 2025 Fantasy Baseball (Week 4)

April 25, 2025

Kevin projects which ten pitchers will finish the season in the top 10 for the 2025 fantasy baseball season, as we head into Week 4 of MLB action.

Welcome back to the Week 4 edition of our Top 10 Starting Pitchers series for fantasy baseball and the 2025 season. It's important to build a strong rotation for your fantasy team, as they can be the consistent workhorses throughout the season that build up wins for you. The more well-rounded your rotation is, the more likely you are to rack up the wins.

While some of the pitchers we have high expectations for have faltered a bit, others we may have looked over are thriving early. Eventually, we'll expect things to even out, but some of those unexpected hot starters may just keep things going for the rest of the season.

With a month of the season in the books, let's take a look at this season's current top-ranked pitchers.

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Current Top 10 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball

Here are the top 10 most valuable starting pitchers in standard leagues (as of April 24), according to Yahoo's player rankings.

Zack Wheeler bounces back into the top 10 after another solid outing against the Mets. With nine Ks on the day, following up a 13 K performance, Philly's workhorse continues to be a workhorse for fantasy managers as well.

Carlos Rodon put together another fine performance against the Cleveland Guardians, going seven deep and notching eight Ks. He now has eight or more strikeouts in four of his six starts this season. His biggest issue going forward will be control as his 12.6 percent walk rate is a career worst.

The most surprising name to see up there is Max Meyer, who's having a pretty dominant yet under-the-radar season for the Marlins. Whenever someone puts up a 14 K performance, you need to start giving them the attention they deserve.

Max Meyer had 14 strikeouts last night and this might have been the nastiest 🤢 pic.twitter.com/IeDiMDXL7i

— MLB (@MLB) April 22, 2025

While he's excelling at a high rate to start the season, Meyer's biggest sign of negative regression is exit velocity. When hitters are getting to him they're averaging a 94.0 MPH exit velocity, which ranks in the 1st percental according to Baseball Savant. He's missing a ton of bats, but when hitters get to it they hit it hard. He'll need to keep up his 35.1 percent whiff rate to keep driving value.

MacKenzie Gore had a very Meyer-esque performance last weekend, racking up 13 Ks at Coors Field. It was his second 13 K performance on the season, giving him plenty of fantasy value that you need to be paying attention to. The southpaw is due for a slight bit of positive regression as well as his 3.34 ERA is paired with a 3.10 xERA.

Out of the remaining pitchers, maybe it's just Nick Pivetta who's the only name you may consider a surprise. But an xERA that ranks in the 80th percentile means he's very likely to stick around, just maybe not inside the Top 10.

Nick Pivetta has allowed 1 ER or less in four of his five starts (3 starts with 0 ER)pic.twitter.com/iNaaYlCTxj

— Kirk Snyder (@dynastyinfo411) April 23, 2025

As the season goes on we can expect to see Pivetta rack up more strikeouts as well. His current chase rate of 25.4 percent is a bit behind his 30 percent chase rate from 2024, yet his strikeout rate is nearly the same. With more chases he'll get more whiffs, leading to more Ks and more fantasy value for your team.

The rest of the usual suspects round out our top 10 with Yamamoto, Webb, Gilbert, Crochet, and Brown. Houston should be thankful for Brown as well, as his performance is holding together an Astros rotation that has three pitchers with a 4.50 ERA or worse.

Projected Top 10 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball

Plenty will change between now and October, though. Here's how I think the top 10 will look by the end of the season. I based these rankings on where each pitcher stands now, what the underlying metrics indicate about their performance, and who is likely to have sustained success over the next five months. My rest-of-season projections change weekly, but for now, here's where they stand.

We have quite a few names outside the current top 10 that I expect to rise here shortly. At the bottom, Jesus Luzardo has found success in Philadelphia and should continue excelling. As he keeps racking up the Ks, he'll keep delivering fantasy value.

Yamamoto comes in as my top overall pitcher. With a K/9 coming in at 11.79 and an xFIP of 1.82, he's looking dominant and should continue to load up box scores and get your team wins.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Wicked 77mph Curveball. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/lNWkLaYQHE

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 19, 2025

Tarik Skubal is our biggest riser. His biggest detriment this season is a drop in strikeout percentage, but at some point, that's going to revert closer to the 30 percent we're used to from the southpaw. He's now using his changeup just as much as his four-seamer, which has largely been a benefit so far. But last season his four-seamer was his strongest pitch and you'd expect he'll get that form back here soon enough.

Speaking of southpaws, Cole Ragans is due for some major positive regression. His 13.66 K/9 is leading to a 2.31 xFIP. Given his current 3.58 ERA and a .355 BABIP, both of those numbers should improve massively down the stretch. That is, of course, as long as his recent groin injury doesn't happen to linger on throughout the season.

Skenes is probably one of the bigger surprises this season, but that's because his K/9 has dropped from 11.50 last season to 8.62 this season. He still leads all qualified starters with the league's lowest xwOBA, though, so he'll continue to be a strong option.

The good news for the Pirates phenom is that he's now walking fewer batters and has a miniscule 3.4 percent walk rate. If he can keep that low while increasing his strikeouts and getting consistently weak contact, he'll make a run at the NL Cy Young award.

Wheeler, Gilbert, and Webb will be the workhorses of the bunch. Each is a threat to go seven innings deep and each is racking up the strikeouts this season, which is an especially good thing for Webb, who's traditionally relied more on soft contact.

Despite throwing the offering just 18% — by far a career-low — Webb sports a 2.4 ERA and a career-high strikeout rate. He’s using the changeup as a putaway pitch instead of an all-around offering.

Early count usage: 54.3% 📉45.2%
Two-strike usage: 35.2% 📈45.2% (93rd percentile) pic.twitter.com/zuUcfK9qcJ

— matthew (@matthewk36711) April 22, 2025

Gilbert has a similar story to Webb's but his increase in strikeouts is much more prominent. Last season he posted a career high 9.49 K/9, a solid mark for a starting pitcher. But this season it's up to 13.50, an incredibly impressive mark. That's sure to regress some, but it appears that Gilbert's stuff will continue to rack up strikeouts at what should be a new career high mark for the 27-year-old.

Who do you think is missing from the list, RotoBallers? Let me know! Reach out to me here on X (formerly Twitter) and share your thoughts.

Thanks for reading, and good luck the rest of this fantasy baseball season!

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