There are a few things to know about the starting pitcher position as we look ahead to 2025. The first is that, though it's important to get to know the player pool ahead of your draft, you also need to constantly remind yourself that attrition is going to be a bigger factor here than at any other position.
I half-jokingly considered adding "... if he stays healthy" at the end of every single one of the blurbs I wrote for the rest of this article because that will ultimately be the biggest determinant of whether a pitcher ended up being worth drafting in any given season. It also means that a lot of what you're about to read here will be rendered totally meaningless midway through the season; many of the pitchers here will be off the table during Spring Training.
That's just the nature of the position, and it might be getting even more true. It used to be that the first few pitchers drafted in any given season in Fantasy were just about as sure a thing as you could find. Aces with multiple years of high-volume and high-quality production. Now? The No. 1 pitcher in nearly all Fantasy leagues is going to be last year's NL Rookie of the Year, a guy who has never reached even 170 innings in a season; if it's not him, it'll be last year's AL Cy Young winner, who eclipsed 180 innings for the first time ever.
- Position Strategies: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
- Position Previews: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
- Position Tiers (v. 2.0): C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
The days of 220 innings are basically over, and even 200-inning pitchers number in the handful in any given season. Increasingly, we're forced to bet on pitchers who would have been viewed as long-shot risks even five years ago to anchor our staffs. And I do wonder how that's going to change our strategies for Fantasy Baseball in the long run.
Earlier in the offseason, I did a deep dive into the past 10 years of drafts to try to identify the best approach for drafting starting pitchers. I found that the first three rounds or so in a 12-team league see a steady, linear decline in return on investment at the position, with pitchers in the third round returning a bit less, on average than those in the second, who return a bit less than those in the first. But starting in the fourth round, pitcher values have historically collapsed, creating a marketplace in which pitchers in the fourth round are barely a better bet than pitchers in the 10th round. That's the "SP Dead Zone," as I've taken to calling it.
And now I'm wondering if we won't look back on things five years from now and think that it's just all one big dead zone. With the reliable aces fewer and farther between, is every pitcher at the top of drafts just going to be a bad bet? Was the Max Scherzer/Justin Verlander/Clayton Kershaw class of pitchers the last generation of true aces, worthy of a first-round value year in and year out?
I don't think we're there yet. I would still take any one of Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, or Zack Wheeler in the second round happily this year. But if Skubal and Skenes bust, I also wouldn't really be surprised at all – they both have either a one or one-and-a-half year track record of ace-level production. Five years ago, we were never drafting those guys in the first two rounds, and you can ask Spencer Strider drafters a year ago how good it felt betting on that profile.
Which is all to say, the best-laid plans of Fantasy analysts and players oft go awry in the fact of the attrition of the starting pitcher position. And we may be on the precipice of a sea change in how we approach the position, where early-round SPs become even more rare than they have been. Again, we're not there now. But I can see it coming. Here's how I'm approaching the position in 2025:
Consensus Top 24
Projections powered by
Sportsline
How dominant was Skubal in 2024? He came within one run and seven hits (or walks) from leading the majors in ERA, WHIP, wins, and strikeouts. Clayton Kershaw never did that. Neither did Justin Verlander or Max Scherzer. Or, like, Roger Clemens or Pedro Martinez. It would have been a monumental achievement, in other words. Nothing about his production looks even a little bit flukey, so as long as he's past the elbow issues that derailed him in 2022, it's hard to make a case against Skubal as the top pitcher in Fantasy.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
All Skenes is missing is the proven workload. He threw 160.1 innings between the majors last season, the most he's ever thrown in a season and is in line for a normal workload in 2025. Skenes threw at least six innings in 16 of 23 starts, and one of the seven exceptions was a planned two-inning victory lap in his final start of the season. Skenes is probably already the best pitcher on a per-inning basis in baseball, a strikeout machine who also limits hard contact, so the only knock on him is that we haven't seen him do it for 180 innings. I won't take him as the No. 1 pitcher, but I can see why people are.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Wheeler is viewed by many as the boring pick among the aces. He has an ERA below 3.00 in four of the past five seasons, and has thrown at least as many innings as Tarik Skubal's career high in four of the past six seasons, but sure, let's go with "boring." In an era where basically nobody throws 200 innings, Wheeler just did it, and his per-inning production isn't that much worse than what we're expecting from Skubal or Skenes. He's going to be the third pitcher taken in nearly every league, and if you're the one who takes him, you should be thankful.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
I think Corbin Burnes' upside is being underrated a bit here. Yes, his strikeout rate was basically average in 2024, as he struggled with the feel for his cutter, his main whiff pitch. However, he rediscovered it in September and ran a 28% strikeout rate in that month. Burnes is one of the true workhorses in baseball these days, and if he gets back to being more of a strikeout pitcher, there really isn't a flaw in his profile. He's the clear SP4 for me.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Those Mariners pitchers are always tinkering, and Gilbert added a cutter and refined his splitter in 2024, which pushed him to a new level. If he sustains the strikeout gains he made (fueled by a helpful home park), he is both one of the highest-floor pitchers in Fantasy and a good bet for 200-plus strikeouts. Gilbert has never been on the IL in four MLB seasons, and I can't find a reported injury for him going back to his time in college besides one start being pushed back a few days two years ago.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Ragans lost a bit of velocity last season – and a bit more as the season went on – but it really didn't seem to impact his effectiveness. He carried his 2023 breakout over and was just as effective in the second half as he was in the first. The WHIP might be a little higher than you'd like for your ace, and that's something you'll have to keep in mind as you are building your staff. But Ragans should give you a nice base of strikeouts and solid ratios.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
The Braves were careful with Sale's innings in 2024, as he made just seven starts on regular rest and threw fewer than 100 pitches in just 13 of 29 starts. It worked exceedingly well right up until it didn't, as Sale missed at least the last two weeks of the season with a back injury. Sale won the Cy Young and was one of the best pitchers in Fantasy, but he didn't quite put the health concerns behind him. When he's on the mound, Sale should still pitch like an ace, but he's just not as good a bet to stay on the mound as you'd like for this price. This is where he should rank, but I admittedly have a hard time actually clicking his name when the time comes.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Crochet is going off the board as the SP5 in many drafts, and I can see the rationale behind it. On a per-inning basis, he was arguably the best pitcher in baseball last season, leading the way in key metrics like FIP and K-BB% despite all the weirdness about the way the White Sox handled him in the second half of the season. But SP5 is an awfully hefty price to pay for a guy who has never thrown 150 innings in a season before. In fact, he had thrown just 153.2 innings combined from 2019 through 2023. If he stays healthy, Crochet looks like an ace, but I don't think there's ever been a more unproven pitcher being drafted this early in Fantasy Baseball history.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Cease is kind of a headache to have on your team, but as long as you know that going in, he's a fine pitcher to snag. There's significant ratio risk here – he had a 4.58 ERA and 1.42 WHIP two years ago! – but he hasn't missed a start in years and is a great bet for strikeouts. You probably need to target a WHIP specialist with one of your other high-end pitchers to manage the risk there, but he's the only pitcher with at least 200 strikeouts in each of the past four seasons, so he gives you a big cushion there.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Valdez generally doesn't have the strikeout upside we typically look for from an ace, but he's one of the better bets out there for quality volume – The Athletic's Eno Sarris notes that only four pitchers have a better ERA than Valdez's 3.08 mark since 2021 while also throwing at least 500 innings. If you take one of the riskier aces, doubling up with Valdez makes a lot of sense as a stabilizing option, but even as a standalone ace, he's a solid option who allows you to take more risks later on with your staff.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
People treat Snell like he's some kind of enigma, but we know who he is at this point. When he's on, he's unhittable; when he's off, he's barely startable. In those seasons where he's on more often than not, he tends to put up really solid ratios, but he's also thrown 130 innings in an MLB season just twice in nine tries. The volume probably isn't going to be there, especially with the Dodgers likely to use a six-man rotation all season long, so if you're taking him as a top-10 pitcher, you'd better hope we don't get one of those two-month stretches where he's unusable. It's usually a roller coaster ride, and the worst thing you can do is try to jump off the ride at the bottom.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
King was stunningly effective in 2024, making the move from the bullpen to the rotation and putting up 30 mostly excellent starts. He gets by more with command and pitchability than with pure stuff, and as we saw in April, things can really go sideways for him if he isn't at the top of his game. Given that and his lengthy injury history, there's some real implosion risk here for King, who is definitely more of a No. 2 for Fantasy than an ace.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Yamamoto largely came to the majors as advertised, but a shoulder injury cost him enough time that his first season in the majors was largely a disappointment. He doesn't have a particularly extensive injury history going back to Japan, but the fact that he'll likely be in a six-man rotation all season probably limits his upside enough to take him out of the ace level at the position. But 150 really good innings could be well within reach.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
How did a 5-foot-10 lefty with a 92-mph fastball become one of the best pitchers in baseball as a rookie? Well, for one thing, the fact that there isn't another pitcher like him in baseball right now probably helps because batters just aren't used to pitches coming from that angle. Plus, for all we focus on it, velocity isn't everything – his four-seamer has near-elite physical characteristics that allow it to outperform the middling velocity, and his splitter pairs nearly perfectly with it. He had a merely good strikeout rate and gave up a lot of solo homers, so it isn't the safest profile for a high-end pitcher, and I could see a Nestor Cortes-like outcome where he isn't quite as precise and sees his ERA balloon. But the WHIP should be very good, and his ability to limit baserunners could help him keep avoiding crooked numbers on the board.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Alright, we're done with the part of the rankings where you're going to get a relatively boring 200-ish innings. deGrom hasn't even thrown 200 innings combined over the past four seasons, but he's put up pretty bonkers numbers when healthy, with a combined 2.01 ERA and 0.679. He's going to go off the board ahead of at least a few of the guys ranked above him here in nearly every draft, and if he's still that guy, he could be worth it even if he only throws 120 innings. The stuff mostly seemed to be there in his brief cameo coming back from his second Tommy John surgery last season, and he should be an absolute difference-maker for as long as he holds up.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
It always feels like Lopez should be better than he is, but he hasn't posted an ERA lower than 3.67 since 2021. This ranking probably represents something like the ceiling for Lopez unless he runs hot on run prevention. But he's a good bet for 200 strikeouts, won't hurt you in the ratio stats, and could have a bit more upside than expected if he can get back to 2023 levels of bat-missing.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
When Glasnow is on the mound, he's a top-10 pitcher at least. But his 134 innings last season were a career-high mark, which kind of tells the whole story here. The fact that he ended last season with his elbow barking is an ominous sign for a guy who is surrounded by ominous signs even during the best times, and he deserves to rank significantly lower than this in leagues without an IL spot.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
There's a theme to this part of the rankings. Nola isn't an ace, and if you're chasing ace upside, look elsewhere. If you're looking for 200 strikeouts and a lot of solid volume, he's your guy. There's that whole "every other year" thing going on, where he has alternated mid-3.00s ERAs with mid-4.00s marks, but his xERA has remained much more consistent. There could be times when he is a drag on your ERA, but everything else should be very strong.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
In some ways, Ober is just a cheaper version of Logan Gilbert or George Kirby, an elite source of WHIP who will give you better-than-you-think strikeout numbers with some ERA risk. Last season, that mark was inflated by a few blowup starts, and his underlying metrics all suggest there was at least some bad luck at play there. He isn't a hard thrower, but his elite extension allows his stuff to play up, and his strikeout rates have been solid since joining the rotation. Homers are an issue that might keep the ERA inflated, but there's a path to a low-3.00s ERA here.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Alright, well, back to the boring volume plays. Webb makes a ton of sense to pair with someone like deGrom at the top of your rotation, especially since it's not that hard to see a path to a little more upside from Webb – his changeup was weirdly ineffective for stretches of 2024, so if there's a bit more consistency there, the strikeout rate could tick back up. He plays in an excellent home park, with a good defense behind him, and he pitches deep into games, so he should be very good at everything besides strikeouts, and 190-plus of those aren't out of the question.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
It always feels like there's something going on with Fried. A back injury in 2020; a hamstring injury followed by a blister in 2021; a concussion in 2022; the other hamstring and then a forearm issue and then another blister in 2023; and then another forearm injury in 2024. But he keeps getting off the mat and more or less pitching like an ace, and at the end of the season, that's more or less what you get. He has missed five or fewer starts in five of the past six seasons and has gone at least six innings in 67% of his starts over the past four, the seventh-highest mark among all starters. But he also doesn't miss as many bats as the other players in this range, and he's getting a ballpark downgrade with the move to the Yankees, so there are things to be worried about even without the "What if he doesn't get up the next time he gets knocked down?" concerns. Aaron Nola
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Miller is such an interesting pitcher. When he came up from the minors, he was armed with an elite fastball … and basically nothing else. Forced to adapt, he has developed a seven-pitch mix that helped him take a big step forward in year two. Like every other Mariners starter, he has elite control, and his home park helps him out a ton, even if there isn't as much strikeout upside here as you might like. He's a WHIP specialist who should have a mid-3.00s ERA, and if the strikeout rate takes a step forward, there could be Cy Young outcomes here.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Earlier in the offseason, I think many were scared off Castillo for concerns about a possible trade. But he's reporting along with the rest of the Mariners, so we have to assume he's still going to be calling T-Mobile Park home, and that's a big deal. Castillo saw a decline in his strikeout rate last season that was tied to a dip in effectiveness for his four-seamer, a bad sign for a 32-year-old. I still think the floor is relatively high here, but Castillo is probably more of a mid-3.00s ERA guy now, which means he's probably more of a stabilizer than a true ace.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
A shoulder injury cut Ryan's breakout season short, and it's probably playing a part in his diminished price this spring. I'll buy the dip on a healthy Ryan, who brings similar skills as teammate Bailey Ober but with more demonstrated strikeout upside. The injury risk is enough to justify a discount, but in most drafts, he ends up cheap enough where the upside is worth it.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
The injured aces
Projections powered by
Sportsline
Strider is coming back from an internal brace procedure to fix damage to his UCL, and the truth is … we just don't know what to expect from him. In theory, the fact that Strider didn't need ligament replacement surgery should be a good sign, but the sample size of pitchers coming back from this specific, alternative surgery just isn't big enough to draft many conclusions from. If he comes back in May and more or less pitches like himself, Strider is a bargain anywhere outside of the top 50 picks, but it's too big of an unknown to actually justify a pick inside the top 100. I'd sure love to see him in Spring Training action to know if the stuff is still there.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Ohtani is coming back from his own elbow reconstruction, and like Strider, it wasn't a traditional Tommy John surgery. He's also significantly further removed from the injury, though the Dodgers still seem likely to limit his exposure early in the season, as he isn't expected to pitch during Spring Training. And he won't go out on a minor-league rehab assignment, which means his first real game action since the surgery might come in his season debut. In leagues where you can draft Ohtani just as a pitcher, he should go off the board around the same time as Strider, but it feels like he might be an even bigger risk, and I'm considering moving him even further down my rankings.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Senga dealt with a shoulder injury that cost him most of the first four months of last season, and then was healthy enough to make one start … only to injure his calf and miss the rest of the regular season. He looked phenomenal in that one start, and then much less so in the postseason, giving up seven runs in five innings of work. Given the rust, struggling against the Phillies and Dodgers isn't a mortal sin for Senga's value, and Senga's velocity was fine in those relief appearances. If he looks like himself this spring, Senga's value in drafts should rise, but last year's injury comes after some missed time toward the end of his career in Japan, too, so there's always going to be some inherent elevated risk here even if he looks good.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
The Rays have said they want McClanahan to throw 150 innings this season, and if he rediscovers his pre-injury form, that could be huge at this price. The problem is, McClanahan's "pre-injury form" was kind of all over the place. His strikeout rate bounced around from 27.3% to 30.3% to 25.8% in his three seasons in the bigs, and his walk rate was similarly inconsistent. By xERA, 2022 was the only season where he deserved an ERA below 4.00, and now he's moving away from Tropicana Field, a park that elevated stuff and strikeout numbers, to what could be a pretty tough park to pitch in in George M. Steinbrenner Field. There's upside here, but there's also no guarantee that McClanahan's stuff will be all the way back following this second Tommy John surgery, and the risk of a Walker Buehler-esque disaster feels high, here.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Don't Forget About ...
Projections powered by
Sportsline
Sasaki is one of the most talented pitchers to ever come to the United States from Japan, but he's nowhere near a finished product. Sasaki has dealt with arm injuries in recent seasons that have limited him to just 33 starts in his past two seasons and, most concerningly, have led to a 2 mph drop in fastball velocity. I have little doubt that Sasaki is going to be an impact pitcher for Fantasy, but I don't know if it'll be in 2025. If he costs a top-24 SP price, I won't be drafting him.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
That Flaherty ended up settling for basically the same contract as Frankie Montas this offseason is hard to make sense of. Flaherty bounced back in a big way last season despite concerns about his shoulder and back injuries in the past, and the tepid market he met in free agency might have been a blessing in disguise – he returned to the Tigers, where he rediscovered his former ace form in a great ballpark. I think he's a terrific value in drafts at this point.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Brown started throwing a sinker after a miserable April, and it totally turned his season around. From May 1 on he had a 2.51 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate and passable walk rates. He limited damage on pretty much his entire arsenal, and while he doesn't have one go-to putaway pitch, his entire arsenal will work in two-strike situations. I don't quite buy Brown as an ace – he gives me some Mitch Keller vibes with how his breakout came together – but I think he should be a pretty solid option as an SP3.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Rodon's command might not be good enough for him to be much more than a frustrating mid-rotation arm, but I still think there's some upside here. He experimented with a cutter early last season, a noble attempt at expanding his limited repertoire, but it seemed to mess up both his four-seamer and slider, and it's hard for him to succeed like that. He ditched the cutter at the end of June and had a 3.43 ERA with 103 strikeouts in his final 81.1 innings of work. Homers will probably keep the ERA higher than you'd like, and his WHIP isn't typically all that helpful. But there's still a top-20 pitcher upside here if all goes right.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Woo brings some injury risk to the table with him, but there aren't many pitchers I believe are more well equipped to thrive when healthy right now. Woo sports both an elite four-seamer and an elite sinker, and his sweeper and changeup both got phenomenal results last season. All told, I'm not sure he's a worse pitcher than his teammate George Kirby, with injury concerns the biggest difference between the two of them. With Woo throwing at least six innings in eight of his final 11 starts, there's some optimism here that he's turned the corner and could give us 160 truly excellent innings in 2025.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Sleeper
Projections powered by
Sportsline
Sometimes, I think I have my finger on the pulse of the Fantasy community, and then I see something like Spencer Arrighetti's 218.5 ADP, and I feel totally out of touch. But I do think I have a possible explanation for why people aren't more excited about Arrighetti: He let a lot of players down in a big way last summer. Coming off a pair of dominant performances against the Rays and Orioles, he was a much-hyped waiver-wire target heading into a matchup against the White Sox … and he flopped, giving up four runs in 5.2 innings against them. He followed that up with 17 strikeouts in 13.2 shutout innings over his next two starts against the Orioles and Phillies … only to flop even more dramatically against the Reds. Nevermind that he followed that up with six runs in his final 20 innings or that he had a 3.31 ERA and a 29.5% strikeout rate over his final 16 starts, he burned a lot of people in his most high-profile opportunities last year, and I think some are simply holding that against him. Clearly, Arrighetti has a slimmer margin for error than you'd prefer, and his fastball command really needs to be pristine for him to dominate. But we've seen him do it before, and at this price, the downside just isn't really there in most leagues. I'll be drafting him pretty much everywhere.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Breakout
Projections powered by
Sportsline
Even when he's throwing almost exclusively just his four-seamer and slider, Robbie Ray tends to be pretty good when he's healthy. So, his inclusion here doesn't really have much to do with the new changeup he's working on this spring … but it compels me, though. Last season, Ray came back from Tommy John surgery with an unsightly 4.70 ERA, but there was a lot going on under the hood to be excited about – 33.3% strikeout rate and well above-average whiff rates on three different pitches. He doesn't necessarily need a changeup to be a good pitcher, given what he already brings to the table, but I'm excited to see what he might be capable of if it turns out he has another weapon. For Ray, it mostly comes down to whether he can stay healthy, and last year's issues were mostly related to a hamstring, not his arm, so I'm not too concerned. If you're looking for this year's Chris Sale, Ray feels like a pretty good bet to punch well above his Draft Day weight.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Bust
Projections powered by
Sportsline
Here's some useful advice for Fantasy players: Know thyself. If you can ride the Snell-coaster without getting so frustrated by the low points that you sell him at a steep discount, then he could be worth this price – as frustrating as the process is, the end results usually bring tons of strikeouts and excellent ERA numbers, and there should be plenty of wins to be found in Los Angeles. But there's always a stretch for Snell where everything seems to go wrong, both with performance. He had an ERA north of 5.00 as late as June in each of the past four seasons except 2023 (he had a 5.04 ERA on May 25 that season, naturally). And Snell is also at a pretty severe workload deficit relative to most of the other aces, having reached 130 innings just once in nine MLB seasons – and with the Dodgers almost certain to use a six-man rotation in 2025, even the 180-inning mark he hit in his two Cy Young seasons is almost certainly a long shot. There's plenty of upside here, but it might be more capped than you think in 2025. Given the obvious downside risk, I won't be taking this ride.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
2025 Draft Prep
Starting Pitcher Top Prospects
1. Roki Sasaki, SP, Dodgers
Age (on opening day): 23
Where he played in 2024: Japan
NPB stats: 10-5, 2.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 111 IP, 32 BB, 129 K
Sasaki isn't arriving as the finished product Yoshinobu Yamamoto was, but at 23, that's to be expected. He was thought to be a prodigy in Japan, reaching triple digits with his fastball while dominating with what may be the world's best splitter, a true 80 grade offering that simply vanishes as it crosses the plate. While it's possible to overrate him in redraft leagues, that's less the case in Dynasty.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: pencil him in
2. Andrew Painter, SP, Phillies
Age (on opening day): 21
Where he played in 2024: did not play -- Tommy John surgery
2022 stats (minors): 6-2, 1.56 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 103 2/3 IP, 25 BB, 155 K
Painter had one of the all-time great minor-league pitching seasons in 2022, positioning himself to win a spot in the Phillies rotation as a 19-year-old before Tommy John came to call. His return came this offseason in the Arizona Fall League, which he dominated to the tune of a 2.30 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 10.3 K/9 across six starts, offering hope that he can pick up where he left off once the Phillies fire him up in June (as is their reported plan).
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: midseason hopeful
3. Jackson Jobe, SP, Tigers
Age (on opening day): 22
Where he played in 2024: High-A, Double-A, Triple-A, majors
Minor-league stats: 5-3, 2.36 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 91 2/3 IP, 45 BB, 96 K
Major-league stats: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
By the sum of his parts, Jobe is the model pitching prospect, standing out most for the the incredible spin rates on his pitches -- four of which grade as 60 or better, according to Baseball America. But he's struggled to stay healthy since the Tigers picked him third overall in 2021, having yet to throw even 100 innings in a season, and also underwhelmed with his strikeout and walk numbers prior to his promotion last year.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: fighting this spring
4. Noah Schultz, SP, White Sox
Age (on opening day): 21
Where he played in 2024: High-A, Double-A
Minor-league stats: 0-4, 2.24 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 88 1/3 IP, 24 BB, 115 K
Anytime a tall (in this case, 6-foot-9) and lanky left-hander makes his way through the White Sox system, he's sure to invite Chris Sale comparisons, but that comparison may be particularly apt in this instance since Schultz throws from a low three-quarters delivery and has control that's almost too good to believe. If the deceptive arm angle wasn't devastating enough, he added a couple miles per hour to both his fastball and slider in 2024.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: midseason hopeful
5. Bubba Chandler, SP, Pirates
Age (on opening day): 22
Where he played in 2024: Double-A, Triple-A
Minor-league stats: 10-7, 3.08 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 119 2/3 IP, 41 BB, 148 K
The molding of Chandler into a frontline starter has been yeoman's work for the Pirates, who drafted him as a two-way player in 2021, but it's on the cusp of paying off after a year in which he improved as a strike-thrower and fleshed out his arsenal with a ready-for-prime-time changeup and slider. Chandler figures to follow in the footsteps of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones this year, and my guess is he lands somewhere between the two in terms of effectiveness.
Scott's 2025 Fantasy impact: fighting this spring
