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
JP Sears (ATH, LHP)
I know this may sound strange, but Sears is kinda close to being dope. Kinda. He's a slingin' southpaw who has relied in the past on his four-seamer's excellent "HAVAA" to get whiffs upstairs, but that isn't really what Sears is great at. Sure, it's a strong putaway offering against LHB (just 20% usage and near half the time in two-strike counts) and it can be effective against RHB, though his command of it wavers between starts. The other fastball was the glorious offering of 2024, a sinker he added in the off-season that became the early heater to LHB, overwhelming them to a 20% ICR. That's deuces, y'all. Its 5.33 PLV was justified with 50% armside location and allowed him to go sinker early, sweeper mid/late, four-seamer late.
But against RHB, that's where the concerns arise. I don't expect the four-seamer to improve, and I personally believe the sweeper's effectiveness in 2024 may take a step back in the year ahead (it's a sweeper thrown roughly 20% of the time against opposite-handed batters that doesn't normally work). You may have learned by now that changeups are crucial for LHP and Sears has been struggling to get his going. The pitch was thrown roughly 25% of the time against RHB, however failed to return strikes, let alone whiffs. With the likes of Skubal returning a 25%+ SwStr rate on his, seeing Sears' 8.8% SwStr Rate on his changeup is simply horrifying. That said, it makes a clear path to becoming something legit and I'll be eyeing Sears in the spring, hoping he's taken a step forward nailing that pitch against RHB - it cannot continue with a 99th percentile y-mLoc. Nope nope nope, can't do that. There is serious potential if he gets it going.
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.