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The 2025 MLB regular season is just about here. Each year, Opening Day gives us 15 high-quality pitching matchups as the 30 teams give the ball to whoever they consider their best available starter for the first game of the new season. It is the best day of the season for premium pitching matchups. You can't beat it.

Given that, it's time to compile our annual Opening Day pitching matchup rankings. The rankings are based on three factors:   

  1. Pitcher Quality. The better the pitchers the better the matchup, right? Right.
  2. Storylines. Is someone making their first start with a new team? Facing his former team? Etc.
  3. Watchability. The most subjective factor. How fun is it to watch these guys pitch?

Both reigning Cy Young winners (Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal) will start Opening Day, which was not the case last year because Gerrit Cole was hurt and Blake Snell signed late. All told, four Cy Young winners (five total awards) will be on the mound on Opening Day. With the throat-clearing out of the way, let's give into our annual Opening Day pitching matchup rankings.

1. Paul Skenes, Pirates at Sandy Alcantara, Marlins 

You could make a pretty good argument Skenes and Alcantara are the two of the five best pitchers in the National League, maybe even the two best, and they'll meet on Opening Day. It's the reigning Rookie of the Year against a former Cy Young winner, which is something that, amazingly, has happened only once before in baseball history.

Beyond just the sheer talent level that will be on display with these two, Alcantara is coming back from the Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for the entire 2024 season. Opening Day will be his first start at loanDepot Park since Aug. 29, 2023. He's also a top trade candidate ahead of the deadline. Two extremely talented pitchers and intrigue aplenty. And, frankly, given the on-paper quality of the two offenses, Skenes and Alcantara could combine for a terrific pitcher's duel.

2. Tarik Skubal, Tigers at Blake Snell, Dodgers

In any other year, this would be an easy pick for the top spot in these rankings, but not even Skubal vs. Snell can top Skenes vs. Alcantara. Skubal is of course the reigning AL Cy Young winner, and Snell is a two-time Cy Young winner himself. He last won it in 2023, and this is this year's only Opening Day pitching matchup between two Cy Young winners. Also, Snell will be making his first start with his new team after signing a five-year, $182 million free-agent contract. Skubal and the ascendant Tigers taking on the powerhouse Dodgers, and arguably the game's two most dominant left-handed pitchers. Good television, this will be.

3. Chris Sale, Braves at Michael King, Padres

Six months ago, King struck out 12 Braves in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, a game (and series) Sale was unable to pitch because of a nagging back issue. Sale finally got his Cy Young award last year -- he finished in the top five of the voting six times before winning, the most ever -- and King, the prize of the Juan Soto trade with the Yankees, is a trendy Cy Young pick this year. This matchup will feature funky arm angles and breaking balls with movement that can best be described as cartoonish. Sale is one of the best pitchers of the generation. King became one of the game's elite last season.

4. Garrett Crochet, Red Sox at Nathan Eovaldi, Rangers

On one side, you have a great young pitcher making his first start with his new team. On the other is a great veteran pitcher making a start against his old team. Plenty of intrigue there. Crochet's move back into the rotation last year went about as well as anyone could have hoped. Well enough for the White Sox to trade him for Boston's last two first-round picks (Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery), plus two others. Eovaldi was a free agent this past offseason and drew interest from just about every contender, but he remained with the Rangers, who he helped guide to the 2023 World Series title. Young vs. veteran, new team vs. former team. Good stuff.

5. Logan Webb, Giants at Hunter Greene, Reds

Even while being an All-Star and receiving Cy Young votes, it feels like Greene's ascent into the game's truly elite starters flew under the radar. He combines strikeouts with weak contact and high-octane stuff. Greene is terrific. Webb, meanwhile, is maybe baseball's last true workhorse. He led the league in innings each of the last two seasons thanks to part to a ground ball/weak contact style. Webb's stuff works in such a way that he seems to get a first- or second-pitch ground out each inning, which keeps his pitch count in control and allows him to get deep into games. Webb and Greene go about it in different ways, but they're both very good.

Interlude: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers at Shota Imanaga, Cubs

For the second straight year, MLB opened the season internationally, which means we had an early Opening Day before the traditional Opening Day. For this pitching matchup, we have the benefit of hindsight. The game already happened. Yamamoto was terrific and held the Cubs to one run in five innings. Imanaga walked four in four hitless innings. Both starters came out earlier than you would normally expect because of their pitch counts (it was mid-March, after all), which took some of the excitement out of it. Still, a very fun matchup on paper -- Yamamoto vs. Imanaga was the first Opening Day matchup between two Japanese-born pitchers in MLB history, and it happened in Tokyo, how cool is that? -- that largely lived up to it.

6. Zack Wheeler, Phillies at MacKenzie Gore, Nationals

With Chris Sale winning the award last year, Wheeler now assumes the title of "best active pitcher to never win a Cy Young." He is outstanding, for my money the best pitcher in the sport, one who combines per-inning excellence with a great volume of innings. Gore, in a way, is the embodiment of the Nationals. Young and talented, and it's time to take a step forward. He just turned 26 and he's closer to free agency than you may realize (three years away). Gore has proven he can be an effective major league starter. Now it's time to show he can be more than that and have a truly great season.

7. Tanner Bibee, Guardians at Cole Ragans, Royals

Ragans reminds me so much of Cole Hamels between his delivery, the best-in-class changeup, and his silent assassin demeanor on the mound. If anything, Ragans has a better breaking ball that Hamels did back then, though the latter had a much cleaner injury history at the same age. I'm getting sidetracked though. Point is, Ragans is excellent, and so too is Bibee, who just signed a long-term contract extension. Bibee will be Cleveland's first Opening Day starter other than Shane Bieber since Corey Kluber in 2019.

Editor's note: Bibee was scratched Thursday morning and the start will instead go to Ben Lively. We're leaving the ranking for posterity's sake.

8. Pablo López, Twins at Sonny Gray, Cardinals

Every year there's a pitching matchup I think I may be ranking too low. This year it's López vs. Gray. These are two very good veteran starters with multiple Opening Day starts already under their belts. Kind of a been there, done that Opening Day pitching matchup, which is unfair to López and Gray, who again, are great pitchers. If you told me these two will combine for the best Opening Day pitchers' duel, and that they'll both finish in the top five of the Cy Young voting, I'd say yeah, I could buy that.

9. Justin Steele, Cubs at Zac Gallen, Diamondbacks

Gallen, not $210 million man Corbin Burnes, will get the Opening Day start for the D-backs. Burnes would have become the first pitcher to start three consecutive Opening Days with three different teams (also 2023 Brewers and 2024 Orioles) since David Price from 2014-16 (Rays, Tigers, Red Sox). Instead, this will be Gallen's third straight Opening Day assignment and will kick off his free agent year. The first start of an important season for him. The Cubs already started their season last week in Tokyo. This will be Game 3 of their regular season. Steele started the second game in Tokyo and will technically start back-to-back games for the Cubs. He will be the first Cubs pitcher to start consecutive games since Kyle Hendricks did it around the 2023 All-Star break, which is not as far back nor as interesting as I would have guessed. So it goes.

10. Clay Holmes, Mets at Framber Valdez, Astros

If you dig ground balls, this is the Opening Day pitching matchup for you. Set the minimum to 150 innings, and here is the ground ball rate leaderboard from 2022-24:

  1. Clay Holmes: 68.6%
  2. Andre Pallante: 66.5%
  3. Tim Hill: 63.9%
  4. Jhoan Duran: 62.6%
  5. Framber Valdez: 60.5%
    (MLB average: 42.2%)

Valdez is the leader among full-time starters and Holmes the leader overall. Holmes was of course a reliever on the other side of New York the last three seasons. The Mets are moving him into the rotation and giving him the ball on Opening Day with Sean Manaea (oblique) and Frankie Montas (lat) injured. His progress as a starter will be a fun little story to track this year. As for Valdez, this is his free agent year. Big year for him and the Astros.

11. Freddy Peralta, Brewers at Carlos Rodón, Yankees

The chaos matchup. We get one every Opening Day. Peralta and Rodón could each strike out 10 on Opening Day, or they could combine to get 14 outs, and neither would surprise me. Rodón is making the Opening Day start in place of Gerrit Cole, who had Tommy John surgery two weeks ago. Last year, Nestor Cortes made the Opening Day start in place of Cole, who was dealing with nerve inflammation in his elbow. Cortes is now Peralta's teammate with the Brewers. Baseball is a flat circle.

12. Luis Severino, Athletics at Logan Gilbert, Mariners

The don't-call-us-Sacramento A's gave Severino the largest contract in franchise history this past offseason (three years and $67 million), and you don't do that and then not start the guy on Opening Day, right? Right. Severino has settled into the solid mid-rotation starter phase of his career after reaching greater heights early on. Gilbert is simply one of the top pitchers in the sport, one who learns a new pitch every year (splitter in 2023, cutter in 2024, new version of his sinker in 2025). If the top end version of Severino shows up on Opening Day, this matchup has a chance to dazzle.

13. Zach Eflin, Orioles at José Berríos, Blue Jays

The season will begin north of the border with a matchup of two steady, reliable, sort of boring veteran right-handers. "Boring" is not meant as a knock; it's meant in a "you know what you're going to get" way. Teams and managers love dependable starters and Eflin and Berríos are as dependable as they come. There just isn't much flash to their game. They won't wow with electric stuff, rack up big strikeout totals, etc. The things that typically make for an exciting pitching performance. Notable: This will be Berríos' fifth career Opening Day start, the most among pitchers born in Puerto Rico. 

14. Kyle Freeland, Rockies at Ryan Pepiot, Rays

This will be career Opening Day start No. 4 for Freeland, who has combined with Germán Márquez to start every Opening Day for the Rockies since 2019. The only other 2025 Opening Day starters who pitched for their current team in 2019 are Sandy Alcantara, Freddy Peralta, and Framber Valdez. Fewer than I would have guessed! Anyway, Shane McClanahan suffered a triceps injury this past weekend, bumping him out of the Opening Day start. It would have been his return to an MLB mound after missing 2024 with Tommy John surgery. Pepiot gets Opening Day instead because he best lines up to pitch that day. When your Opening Day starter gets hurt this late in the spring, you only have so many options to replace him without completely disrupting someone's schedule.

It should be noted this Opening Day matchup will be played Friday, not Thursday. MLB pushed this game back one day to give the Rays enough time to move into George M. Steinbrenner Field, and get settled after the Yankees held spring training there.

15. Yusei Kikuchi, Angels at Sean Burke, White Sox

I unironically love that the White Sox start whoever they consider their most talented pitcher on Opening Day, no matter how little experience he may have. Last year it was Garrett Crochet, who'd never started an MLB game. This year they could have defaulted to veteran Martín Pérez, but nope, it'll be Burke, who made three starts and one relief appearance during his MLB debut last season, and introduced a new sinker this spring. Someone has to rank last in these rankings and Kikuchi vs. Burke was an easy pick for me, but I do love the White Sox going with the interesting young guy over the boring veteran.