Expected SP Schedules Weeks 3-4

Shane McClanahan is still looking for length in his starts as well, having not made it out of the fifth inning in either of his first two starts of the year. He gets the relatively weak hitting Chicago White Sox to start off his two-start week and it’s a great chance for him to earn his first win since 2023. Steven Matz should be rostered in all but the most shallow leagues at this point after a trio of excellent starts — his 3.94 ERA is a little misleading due to a poor first start of the year, as his 0.94 WHIP and 3-0 record better represent the quality that he’s been putting out. Finally, Drew Rasmussen is on the heels of a masterclass outing (6 IP, 0 ER, 7 K, 0 BB, 1 H) against the Yankees and should continue to thrive against Pittsburgh, Minnesota and Cleveland. He’s a great trade target right now, especially if his current owner is still concerned about the five-inning leash put on him last season that seems to be mostly removed this year.

Blue Jays’ Expected Starters

Toronto is still awaiting the return of Trey Yesavage, the 22-year-old who shined in last year’s postseason. He likely needs one more rehab start and then will enter the rotation with a great matchup against the Los Angeles Angels, allowing him to ease back into action a bit. Yesavage’s return could not come soon enough for the club. Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease are still matchup-proof studs, both with with two-start weeks — but the rest of the rotation is very shaky at the moment.

 

The big news here is that Noah Schultz, the No. 2 prospect for the organization, is being called up by the Chicago White Sox to make his MLB debut (tonight!) and will likely have a two-start week. The 6’10 left-hander is an imposing presence on the mound and has been on a tear in AAA to start this year, going 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA while striking out 19 and allowing only four hits. His development was halted a bit last season due to an ongoing bout of tendinitis in his right knee, leading to poor results and frequent missed time. Now that he’s healthy, though, expectations are once again sky-high for the former first round pick. Anthony Kay is also an interesting name here, especially with a good matchup against the Tampa Bay Rays coming up.

Gavin Williams has looked great for the Guardians to start the year and gets a two-start week with solid matchups. Joey Cantillo (also two-start week) and Parker Messick both appear to be in the midst of breakout seasons, and get decent matchups this week to continue their momentum. Cantillo takes on a Cardinals lineup that currently ranks 23rd in the league in hits per game, while Messick will get a Baltimore lineup that has not found its stride yet, although Pete Alonso has shown major signs the past few days of what could be the beginning of a serious hot streak. It will be interesting to see how Messick navigates that Baltimore lineup, and Cantillo as well later in the week.

 

Keider Montero likely gets one more turn through the rotation before Justin Verlander hopefully returns from the IL next week. He would get a tough assignment against Milwaukee in his projected return, however, and would not be a recommended start there. Casey Mize also has tough matchups ahead of him with a trip to Fenway to take on the Red Sox, and then the aforementioned Milwaukee lineup after that. His 1.44 WHIP through his first three outings of the year do not inspire much confidence for either matchup.

Kansas City Royals‘ ace Cole Ragans has had a tough start to the year, with one great outing in which he came away with a loss despite giving up only one unearned run, sandwiched in between a rough season opener and a most-recent start that saw him exit in the first inning with a bruised thumb on his pitching hand after being hit by a comebacker off the bat of Jose Ramirez. He says he is good to go moving forward, however, and will look to right the ship in two tough upcoming road matchups this week in Detroit and then the Bronx.

Taj Bradley (5.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 K, 5 H, 4 BB) struggled with his command in his latest outing at the Toronto Blue Jays, but still came away with his third win of the early season. He takes a 1.25 ERA and identical 1.25 WHIP into two pretty good matchups against the Cincinnati Reds and Tampa Bay Rays. Mick Abel will look to build off a good outing against the Detroit Tigers last week, in which he threw six innings of shutout ball with six strikeouts. With at least three walks in all three of his outings to begin the year, Abel will need to harness his command to maintain some consistency in some tough upcoming matchups against the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets.

 

With Tatsuya Imai hitting the IL (right arm fatigue) to begin this week, Houston will have to fill a gap in their rotation considering they have no off days this week. However, they already were in the process of shifting to a six-man rotation that included Colton Gordon and Spencer Arrighetti, so the likelihood is that Lance McCullers Jr. and Cody Bolton move up a spot in the chart and this becomes a regular five-man rotation again. That doesn’t affect Bolton’s matchup, but it would move McCullers Jr. from a matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals into one against the Colorado Rockies instead. Either way he is a questionable start based on recent shaky performances.

None of the Los Angeles Angels‘ starters are recommended starts in their four-game trip to Yankee Stadium, with José Soriano (4-0, 0.33 ERA, 0.67 WHIP) not starting again until the following series against San Diego. Soriano is arguably the hottest pitcher in the entire league right now, and while his past resume is much more inconsistent than this season’s small sample size, he is pitching too well to be put on your bench despite two tough upcoming matchups.

Jeffrey Springs gets a two-start week fresh off of an outing in Yankee Stadium where he went seven scoreless innings while giving up only one hit. Springs will first take his 1.47 ERA and 0.76 WHIP into a decent matchup with the Texas Rangers — although it is in the Athletics‘ relatively tiny temporary home park in Sacramento. Springs then gets a theoretically easier matchup against the Chicago White Sox later in the week and could be getting into a nice groove here.

Emerson Hancock takes his 2.04 ERA and 0.74 WHIP into a tough road matchup against San Diego this week, and Luis Castillo faces the same tough assignment. Both are questionable starts in that scenario. The other three Mariners’ starters are all matchup-proof aces, with George Kirby and Bryan Woo getting two starts a piece this week.

Jacob deGrom shook off a minor health scare last week after an MRI on his right knee came back clean, and proceeded to dominate the Dodgers a few nights later. He will look to keep that dominance rolling with great matchups at pitcher-friendly Seattle, followed by a home matchup against the Pirates. Nathan Eovaldi and MacKenzie Gore have also been dominant to start the season, and both have two-start weeks, with the first taking place in hitter-friendly Sacramento and the latter taking place in pitcher-friendly Seattle.

 

The Atlanta staff leads the league in just about every major pitching category at the moment, despite widespread preseason concerns that they lacked reliable starters behind Chris Sale with the absences of Spencer Strider and Spencer Schwellenbach. It does not appear that Strider is returning before the end of this month, and with Atlanta recently DFA’ing Martín Pérez, there is a clear opening for Didier Fuentes to join the rotation. The 20-year-old is Atlanta’s No. 3 overall prospect and threw an impressive four-inning relief appearance in a March 29 game against Kansas City, giving up only one run with four strikeouts. He was sent back down to the minors after that appearance to build up his pitch count and now appears ready. He would get a tough assignment later this week at Philadelphia, but he is worth the stash to see what happens after that. It’s possible he is removed from the rotation once Strider returns, but there is no guarantee that the rest of Atlanta’s non-Sale staff will perform well enough to ensure Fuentes is the odd-man out at that point.

Miami’s Eury Pérez continues to search for command after another shaky outing at Atlanta to begin this week. He gets a second start later in the week, albeit in a tough matchup against Milwaukee. Sandy Alcantara, on the heels of three dominant outings, stumbled recently in Detroit. He faces that tough Milwaukee lineup as well this week, before getting a much better matchup at San Francisco next week.

David Peterson is the only Met to get a two-start week, but is not recommended in Dodger Stadium and is a questionable start at Wrigley Field. Nolan McLean will face that gauntlet of a Dodger lineup as well, and has been too good to bench despite the matchup.

The big news here is that Zack Wheeler is expected to return for Philadelphia later this week against Atlanta. Wheeler has shown decreased velocity in his recent rehab outings, sitting at around 92-93 mph instead of his usual 95-96, but his track record of an elite ace is too long to ignore, making him a probable start right away. Andrew Painter looked good in an unexpected relief appearance this past weekend (he was supposed to start the game, was a late scratch due to migraines, and ended up pitching an extended relief outing) and will look to keep his momentum going against Atlanta this week, followed by a trip to Wrigley Field next week.

The Washington rotation is a bit of a mess at the moment, with opening-day starter Cade Cavalli showing no signs of becoming the rotation-leading ace that they hoped he could be. Cavalli’s disappointing start to the season includes a week-opening clunker at Pittsburgh (1.1 IP, 4 ER, 2 K, 3 H, 3 BB), and he remains a questionable start in his next outing later this week against the San Francisco Giants.

Javier Assad likely gets one more start for Chicago before Matthew Boyd comes back from a brief IL stint. Boyd is projected for a tough slate of matchups upon his return, but should be slotted into lineups regardless. Edward Cabrera also has a pair of tough matchups ahead, and will need to harness some of the command issues that have seen him allow eight walks in his last two outings combined.

Nick Lodolo should finally return to the Cincinnati rotation next week after dealing with a reoccurring blister issue, and in the meantime Brandon Williamson will likely get two more starts before becoming the odd-man out. His six walk performance last time out makes him a very questionable start in either of those spots, though. Andrew Abbott, coming off a stellar 2025 in which he was an NL All-Star, has gotten off to a horrible start and will look to take advantage of a decent matchup at Minnesota to begin to lower his bloated 5.85 ERA.

 

The Milwaukee staff has been solid to start the year, and budding ace Jacob Misiorowski leads them here with a two-start week. He faces an ice-cold Toronto team before heading to Miami to face a pesky Marlins lineup, albeit one that he should have success against. The same goes for Brandon Woodruff, who is coming off of a quality start in which he gave up one run in six innings with six strikeouts against Washington. It’s also worth noting that, though Brandon Sproat had his turn in the rotation skipped last week, the Brewers have stated that he is not being removed long-term. He has struggled to begin the year, but Sproat remains a young prospect with intriguing stuff and is worth keeping an eye on.

 

Pirates’ Expected Starters

The highlight here is that Paul Skenes gets a two-start week, so my condolences to anyone going up against him. Bubba Chandler has lacked consistency to start the year and takes a 1.57 WHIP into two solid matchups against Tampa Bay this week and Texas next week. Look for him to try and finally establish an early-season rhythm in those starts. Braxton Ashcraft, on the other hand, is already in a groove, and takes his sparkling 2.12 ERA and 1.00 WHIP into a nice upcoming matchup with Washington.