Top 101 Starting Pitchers: Rest-Of-Season Rankings for Fantasy Baseball Week 8 (2025)

May 22, 2025

Nick Mariano's updated fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings for Week 8 (2025). Baller Ranks is a weekly rankings list for the top-101 starting pitchers.

We're nearing the end of May, so it is getting dangerously easy to cement roughly two months of ball as law and call it a year. That's why it's important to continue re-evaluating things, which we'll do each week with the latest FSWA-award-winning Best Baseball Series. We win awards, you win trophies, let's keep it rolling with this week's edition of my weekly Starting Pitcher Baller Ranks!

As usual, readers will find my SP thoughts with tiered ranks (the tiers matter, the ranks within are cool but don't blow a gasket), 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. There is also a prospect table at the end via our star scout, Eric Cross.

As always, these ranks are geared toward traditional 5x5 roto leagues, and I typically exclude most injured SPs unless they're about to come back. The degree of movement may not resonate with you, but ideally, the direction an arm is moving on the table does. Please bear in mind that I write before Tuesday night, so the stats referenced are almost always through Monday.

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Starting Pitcher Rankings Analysis for Week 8

-Paul Skenes turned in his best start of the year, hitting a career best with 22 whiffs, after we raised a little warning on him last week. (You’re welcome for the jinx.) The ace tied a season-high mark with nine strikeouts while working eight innings for the first time this season, yet Pittsburgh still lost 1-0 to Philadelphia.

Those are the table stakes when rostering a Pirate in the Bob Nutting era (would you rather have Dick Monfort?), but the “punishment” can only be so tough. There’s a reason that even amidst slight worries, Skenes remained a top-five SP!

#Pirates Paul Skenes matched a career high in whiffs (22) on Sunday, leading to a 21.6% SwK. He now has four starts with 15 or more whiffs in a game in 2025 after having seven games meeting the 15 whiff threshold in 2024. pic.twitter.com/NDJRcnFb02

— Corbin (@corbin_young21) May 19, 2025

(Side note: Y'all better be following Corbin for the awesome SP recap threads.)

-Cole Ragans will ideally not require much time on the injured list, but it’s a good reminder that any speed bump that forces a pitcher from the game, especially soft tissue, needs to be planned around.

Those who were initially skeptical of the groin rebound might’ve snagged Noah Cameron on the cheap! Alas, Ragans and his top-flight strikeouts will take a breather to reset. Maybe he comes back with that nudge in command we’re still waiting on?

-Hunter Greene missed the minimum time with his respective groin injury, suffered after striking out six Braves in just three innings back on May 7. It sounds like he’ll return for a Friday start against the Cubs after making it through bullpen sessions, one of which saw him throw 35 pitches. So, it is possible he doesn’t get pushed past 80-85 pitches in the return.

I’d be remiss to leave out that Greene has faced weak opponents: SF x2, TEX, PIT, BAL, COL, WAS, and ATL. The highest team wOBA of the bunch is Atlanta in 14th place, with Texas, Pittsburgh, and Colorado all in the bottom four.

Of course, facing Greene had a little something to do with their lot. And the counterpunch to calling Greene “lucky” is that his .239 batting average against over the last month actually has a .173 xBA behind (77 PAs). But the Cubs will be the first “big” offense he’ll face thus far, and the first that has a bottom-12 K% (20.3%, 23rd highest).

-Spencer Strider is a delicate case given the massive arm injury he’s coming back from and then the ding to his massive hamstrings. It’s not shocking to see a muscle tweak after missing extended time with how powerfully he throws. If it was a setback to the arm/shoulder/oblique, then I’d be more worried, but we’re good in Tier 3 for now. (A crummy outing, but big arms get a freebie off of the IL.)

-George Kirby reached 64 pitches in last Friday’s rehab start and recovered as hoped. We don’t yet know if he’ll be pitching Thursday or Friday in Houston against the Astros or making a fourth rehab start, but we know the team wants him on a six-day schedule.

With Logan Gilbert (elbow) still working back and Bryce Miller (elbow) throwing on flat ground, both Emerson Hancock and Logan Evans would fill things out. We'll hope for a quick return to working deep into games, as volume is where his reliable ratios help us the most.

Wilson said nothing to announce yet on George Kirby and pitching Thursday in Houston.

— Bob Condotta (@bcondotta) May 20, 2025

-Corbin Burnes will be under the spotlight during Wednesday’s road start against the Dodgers. He’s looking to follow up his seven innings of shutout ball against them on May 10 after the shoulder inflammation scare, with a 10-K gem against the Rockies on May 16, providing hope for the whiffs.

It’s Colorado, so it comes with a massive grain of salt, one so large that it could buy a village in ancient Rome, but we have to start somewhere.

-Jack Flaherty has been a frustrating start lately, but just got his second win of the year (and first since April 4). Over the last 30 days, he has a 6.04 ERA that is a full three ticks higher than the 3.04 SIERA (3.07 xFIP) in that same span! I understand that the rubber meets the road in terms of real life vs. sabermetrics, but some grace can be extended for a big name with a track record.

The quality of contact is still shaky, with jumps in hard-hit and barrel rates resulting in a career-high .488 xSLG thus far, but the whiff+walks foundation is still there.

-Nathan Eovaldi has a 1.47 FIP over the last 30 days, trailing only Skubal out of 132 SPs with at least 20 IP in the window. You love to see it!

-Nick Martinez (2.12), Shane Smith (2.48), Will Warren (2.51), Ben Brown (2.57), and Matthew Liberatore (2.66) are other fun names in the top 20 of that leaderboard.

-Ronel Blanco is another fun leaderboard name. Let’s go back to that xBA tally over the last month mentioned with Greene, whose .173 xBA sounded pretty darn good. And it is! Blanco is the only one with a better mark (.169) out of 174 pitchers with at least 60 plate appearances over that time.

-Andrew Abbott is tied with Greene at .173 on that list, but the southpaw leads all 174 arms with a .279 xSLG. That’s one way to make hay despite pitching at Great American Ball Park.

Abbott’s four-seamer, changeup, and sweeper have all improved in terms of contact quality in May compared to April. I’m less bought into the curveball, but it’s a respectable fourth pitch to make right-swinging bats uncomfortable.

And that fastball continues to gain life. His first three starts of the year sat around 91 mph, even dipping to a 90.8 mph average velo on April 25. But then it ticked up to 91.8 on May 1, and then 92.8 in the following May 6 outing. After yo-yoing down to 92 flat on May 13, it kicked to 93 even this past Sunday.

But it can’t all be sunshine and rainbows, eh?

-Brandon Pfaadt just had a truly wacky outing against the Dodgers, in which zero batted balls landed in play across six innings in a quality start. You’d probably think things went well then, yes? Well, not really. He struck nobody out and gave up three solo HRs amidst lots of hard contact.

Brandon Pfaadt tonight against the Dodgers

0 strikeouts
0 swing-and-misses
11 hard-hit balls
3 hits allowed
.419 xBA (.143 actual AVG)

Lmao

— Blake Harris (@BlakeHHarris) May 20, 2025

We’ll still enjoy this being his sixth QS and seventh win of the year, but I’m not surprised to see his .554 xSLG and .329 xBA ranking fourth-worst out of those same 174 Ps of late. Flanking names such as Antonio Senzatela and Roki Sasaki are frightful. Let’s hope he can avoid the mistakes better against the Cardinals this weekend.

-Zebby Matthews struck out the side in the first inning of his 2025 debut in Milwaukee, highlighting his best talents and amping us up. But then three of the first four batters reached via single in the second inning, though he recovered with just one run allowed. His third inning started with two strikeouts and I thought we were so back.

Nope! Three straight walks before a pair of singles brought those ducks home. His day ended after that frame, throwing 42-of-71 pitches for strikes throughout the roller-coaster affair.

There will be bumps, but Matthews’ strikeout upside historically comes with stellar control (1.2 BB/9 in 238 IP through the minors). And this season has brought additional life to his heater, which averaged 96.5 mph here after the highest average velo was 95.4 last year.

-Shane Baz remains a talented arm, but something has to give. The Rays can’t keep subjecting him to these unproductive turns that’ll only tank his confidence.

On top of this, I selfishly want to see Joe Boyle get regular major-league run. If I get to be extra selfish, then Ian Seymour also comes up and claims Taj Bradley’s spot, since Zack Littell is sunrunning despite HR troubles and a few whiffs.

-Jackson Jobe might be on the upswing after posting his first quality start since April 12, holding the Blue Jays to two runs on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts over six innings. The pair of free passes is crucial after he walked five Red Sox in his previous start.

He’s done well to largely avoid massive damage, with that 3 ⅔ IP, 6 ER Coors start notwithstanding. Beyond that, Jobe actually has a 3.03 ERA (cool!) with a 1.35 WHIP (meh). Admittedly, the .272/.381/.383 triple slash against right-handed hitting is not fun (.197/.280/.409 vs. LHB), but he’s also eaten some crummy luck.

The only time any singular pitch of his gave up more than three hits to opposing RHBs in a game was when his oft-used slider didn’t break well at Coors. And his latest effort, the QS against Toronto, still had two RHB hits against the slider despite a .197 xBA on four batted-ball events.

This is what his “figuring it out” adjustment period looks like, and you either trust his prospect pedigree and strong arsenal foundation enough to be patient, or you don’t. There are plenty of mistakes, some bad luck, and a Coors railroading all folded in. I’m still ranking him as if those of you in 12-teamers should hold.

-Logan Henderson might just be him. If Milwaukee boots him from the rotation, then I may be forced to write a strongly worded letter to Bernie Brewer.

Logan Henderson has just become the first pitcher in franchise history to win each of his first three career @MLB appearances.#ThisIsMyCrew I @loganbh2

— Mike Vassallo (@MikeVassallo13) May 21, 2025

Top 101 Starting Pitchers for Fantasy Baseball - Week 8

Top Starting Pitcher Stashes for Fantasy Baseball - Week 8

Here are the key SP stashes from our esteemed, industry-leading prospect analyst, Eric Cross. You can also read his full Top 25 Fantasy Baseball Prospects To Stash article, which is updated weekly!

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