Projecting Rest of Season Top 10 Starting Pitchers in 2025 Fantasy Baseball

April 17, 2025

Thunder Dan Palyo projects which ten pitchers will finish the season in the top 10 for the 2025 fantasy baseball season.

Building a strong starting pitching staff is one of the most important things to do when playing fantasy baseball. It's not just about having a few great pitchers, but often it comes down to having depth in your starting rotation and being able to withstand injuries that are bound to happen throughout the season.

Some starting pitchers that were drafted early have struggled so far, while others taken much later have thrived. Eventually, throughout the season, we expect those pitchers to move up or down the rankings, but taking a look at who is overperforming and underperforming their draft cost is still a worthwhile exercise!

With two months of the season already behind us, let's examine which starting pitchers who are off to great starts have the staying power needed to turn in a top-10 season by the time the season finishes in October.

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Current Top 10 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball

Here are the top 10 most valuable starting pitchers in 5x5 roto leagues right now (April 17th), according to Yahoo's player rankings.

Hunter Greene has been easily the best pitcher in baseball through his first four starts. I worried about his ERA pitching in that ballpark, but he's taken a big step forward and could be ready to contend for the NL Cy Young if he keeps it up.

Nick Pivetta is off to a great start in San Diego, while Chris Bassitt is racking up strikeouts like a madman with all of his breaking balls. Both guys are veterans who have really figured out how to best use their arsenal of pitches, and while they aren't likely to finish this high up the rankings, their outlooks are still rosy enough. Enjoy the profits on their draft price tags and avoid the urge to sell high!

Chris Bassitt's 0.77 ERA leads all qualified MLB pitchers! 👏 pic.twitter.com/9JBS6ViSpB

— MLB (@MLB) April 16, 2025

The biggest surprise here has to be Tyler Mahle, who hasn't been healthy in several years but has had some great results in a very small sample so far in Texas. I still worry about his command issues and trouble with left-handed hitters, but it's possible that he's enjoying a mid-career renaissance and could end up being a plus starter in the same way that Nathan Eovaldi has been for Texas.

For those who were hoping for a Shane Baz breakout campaign, it appears that it could be happening as Baz is piling up strikeouts and keeping the ball in the yard so far. I was iffy on Baz coming into this season, but he looks terrific and brings a ton of upside.

Logan Gilbert, Garrett Crochet, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are names we expected to see here, while Hunter Brown and Max Fried are a bit of a surprise based on where they were being drafted. Yamamoto's numbers last season were elite, he just missed too much time for him to finish near the top of the rankings. Staying healthy will be important for him, and the Dodgers will likely handle his innings and pitch counts with caution.

Hunter Brown has been great and is officially the ace in Houston as he's surpassed Framber Valdez. I have a lot of shares of Brown across my leagues, and I am confident he can continue his success as he's not entirely reliant on strikeouts and has been throwing strikes and getting groundballs. His success is sustainable in my opinion, and I think he finishes in the top ten if he continues to take the same approach with hitters that he has so far this season.

I have all of these guys (other than Fried) sticking around in the top ten. I have nothing against Fried; he's been great, but he's never been a dominant starter, and I think he's much more likely to finish somewhere in the top 25 than the top ten.

Projected Top 10 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball

A lot can and will change between now and October. Here's how I think the top 10 will shake out by the season's end, barring any unforeseen injuries. I base these rankings on how each pitcher has performed this season and what their expectations were coming into the year, too. My rest-of-season projections change weekly, but for now, here's where they stand.

I don't think any pitcher has been as impressive as Logan Gilbert through his first four starts. A WHIP of 0.66 is just absurd, and the strikeouts have been there, too. Gilbert was my AL Cy Young pick to start the season, and I'm not backing down from that prediction either. He has elite control and has finally mastered the splitter, which is making him tough to hit and giving him another devastating out pitch.

Paul Skenes is sure to catch up eventually. He's pitched very well and just needs some wins and strikeouts to get there. He's been toying around with some different pitches and hasn't even run into a great matchup for strikeouts yet. If you took him early, you just have to wait for some big starts, they are coming.

Cole Ragans had one shaky start, but has looked elite and ready to pick up right where he left off last season. It's hard not to envision him finishing inside the top ten and probably the top five. He still has elite velocity on his fastball and continues to fine-tune his secondary pitches. Ragans and Crochet are the two best left-handed strikeout artists in baseball, as Chris Sale looks like he's finally ready to hand over that distinction (but Cristopher Sanchez is waiting in the wings, too!)

Cole Ragans is severely underrated!

7.2 IP 4 H 1 ER 0 BB 10 K
20 whiffs and 38 CSW%

Ace.
pic.twitter.com/nawVchDdkA

— Andrew DeCeglie (@Andrew_FBB) April 13, 2025

I'm keeping Yamamoto, Crochet, Greene, and Brown in there but adding last year's AL Cy Young winner, Tarik Skubal. Nothing about Skubal's numbers shows anything other than he hasn't had top 5% outcomes so far, as he did last year. He's still very good and is coming off his best start of the season when he dominated the Brewers.

Zack Wheeler has struggled a few times, but has been rock solid for multiple years in a row now. I think he will right the ship eventually, and his ability to eat innings and pound the zone will eventually win out.

Spencer Schwellenbach was nearly unhittable until he met his match yesterday in Toronto. He was dominant in his first three outings, however, and his underlying numbers suggest that he has more strikeouts coming, especially when he gets some good matchups further down the road. For a young pitcher, he has a terrific command of five and even six pitches at times, and he also pounds the zone with strikes.

Schwelly was my Cy Young prediction in the NL, and I still think he's heading for a big finish this year, though I have tempered my expectations a bit.

Who do you think is missing from the list, RotoBallers? Let me know! You can hit me on X (formerly Twitter) at ThunderDanDFS.

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

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