To prepare my Top 400 Starting Pitchers for 2025 article, I thoroughly review every team's rotation and write the blurbs you see in February. I usually don't share these publicly until then, but I wanted to give another benefit to those who support us with PL Pro. Y'all are the ones who keep the lights on for us. Y'all rock.
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Huge thanks to Josh Mockensturm for creating these tables and finding video for all these players.
Expected Starters
José Soriano (LAA, RHP)
I think Soriano is underrated for 15-teamers, though he's a streamer/in-season pickup for me in 12-teamers. His greatest skill is a 98 mph bowling ball sinker with legit sink at a steep attack angle (great for a sinker with 92nd percentile loLoc!), and I'm impressed by its ability to sit down-and-armside frequently. There's room to grow with its low 62% strike rate (some games, he just couldn't spot the thing), but one HR allowed on 802 thrown? That's what's up. Stop throwing that dang four-seamer. I don't care if it's at 99 mph, it had a 45-50% ICR rate with its dead zone movement. Ahem. I also adore his high 41% CSW curveball that earns all the called strikes and even had a stellar 27%+ putaway rate against both sides of the plate. It's a proper #2 pitch and we should expect more success with its dramatic velocity gap to steal called strikes and inability to make a huge adjustment when geared up for upper-90s.
But wait, there's more! The biggest gripe for sinkerballs is typically opposite-handed batters. Soriano's sinker is more effective than others against it, but carrying a splitter with a 60%+ strike rate and 17%+ SwStr rate to play off of it? LOVELY. Don't worry, I dig this as a #3 with the curve as the primary focus. It's a luxury.
His four-seamer should be removed from the arsenal outside of two-strike counts as a surprise offering, as long as it's well upstairs given Soriano's dead-zone movement + steep angle that makes the pitch far more hittable upstairs than you'd think a 99 mph heater would be (its drop with steep angle falls right into late bats often). There is a slider he's working on as well, which classifies as the hardest SP slider in the bigs at 91/92 mph, and I imagine its really more of a cutter that he can't command at all (52% strike rate with sub 50% on the days he featured the pitch often. Yikes.). It's fun to know there's room to grow here on top of the one-two-and-a-half punch of sinkers, curves, and anti-social splittys.
I don't buy into the Angels development as a coaching staff, sadly (you'll hear me say that a lot when talking about the Angels SP), which puts the onus on Soriano to make these improvements on his own. That said, just throwing more sinker strikes as he gets more time on the bump this year could make him a Valdez-lite pitcher (8% walk rate starting May 3rd) at a 20%-23% strikeout and a sizeable leash to go six full constantly, with his arm fatigue and elbow discomfort a thing of the past (MRI was clean but he missed all of September). I just wish the Angels could get him more Wins.
Yusei Kikuchi (LAA, LHP) - 11/27 UPDATE
Funny story. I'm on my first multi-week vacation in eight years until December 4th, and it just happens to be when one of the only two teams I've already covered makes a major signing. I'll have this properly fleshed out by December 7th.
The very quick take on Kikuchi: He went through waves of feel and rhythm in 2024 and I'm concerned the Angels' coaching staff will not help him calibrate in-season as well as the Blue Jays and Astros did. 2024 featured Kikuchi improving his four-seamer's approach in the upper half but losing his slider feel in the first half, then regaining the breaker in August and September, while the changeup and curve were at times more harmful than helpful (mostly the changeup).
I'd be shocked if Kikuchi went four-seamer/slider for the full season without significant hiccups (every pitcher has moments of turmoil!) and expect those craters to be larger than those in the Top 30 SP.
Tyler Anderson (LAA, LHP)
| IP | W-L | ERA | WHIP | K% | BB% | H/9 | ICR% | CSW% | PLV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 179.1 | 10-15 | 3.81 | 1.29 | 18.6% | 9.5% | 7.9 | 35.9% | 28.3% | 5.08 |
| 2025 PL Projection | 171.0 | 9-10 | 4.46 | 1.33 | 20.8% | 8.3% | 8.8 | - | - | - |
Nick Pollack
Founder of Pitcher List. Creator of CSW, The List, and SP Roundup. Worked with MSG, FanGraphs, CBS Sports, and Washington Post. Former college pitcher, travel coach, pitching coach, and Brandeis alum. Wants every pitcher to be dope.