On the eve of the 2025 season, it’s time to celebrate the best players in Major League Baseball. Rather than the Top 100 we’ve done the past few years, we broke this year into two lists of 25 to celebrate 2025. Last week, Scott Youngson covered our Top 25 Position Players in the league, and today, we’re going to dive into the game’s best arms. Please note that these are not fantasy rankings – if you’re looking for the best values and sleepers to find in your drafts, check out The List from our main man Nick Pollack. There will be some overlap, but looking at things from a fantasy lens versus a purely baseball lens leads to some differences.
Before we jump in, I wanted to give a little context on the methodology. To keep things consistent with Scott’s approach for position players, I leaned heavily on fWAR, averaging the 2025 projections from five sources. In addition, I sprinkled in a little subjectivity by leaning towards pitching stats I deem the most important, so it’s entirely likely that my list will have plenty of players that aren’t on yours, and vice versa.
One final note: for pitchers, more so than hitters, it’s difficult to factor in injury history and risk when creating these rankings. As the old adage goes, the best ability is availability, but we have to take into account the potential some of these arms display when they are at full strength, even if they haven’t been recently or aren’t right now. Unfortunately, with the depth of pitching in today’s game, there will be plenty of talented options left off this list.
The list is below, in descending order. I’ve included projections for each player for key pitching categories, courtesy of Pitcher List in addition to Fangraphs WAR. Let’s get to it!
25. Sonny Gray – St. Louis Cardinals
I wrestled for a while on who to give this spot to but opted to award Sonny Gray the last spot over AL Cy Young Runner-Up Seth Lugo due to the former’s more consistent track record heading into this season. Gray’s ERA grew slightly to 3.84 compared to his previous two years, but he also posted a WHIP of 1.09 and a stellar 30.3% strikeout rate. Gray is 35, so age is likely going to catch up to him at some point, and he probably won’t have the volume of many other arms on this list, but he is nonetheless a consistent producer, even if the journey can be a bit of a rollercoaster.
24. Sandy Alcantara – Miami Marlins
Sandy is the first of many instances on this list where it will be tough to rank a player coming off of a significant injury. The 2022 NL Cy Young missed all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John surgery, and the two biggest questions for Alcantara address his greatest strength and weakness: how many innings will he be able to pitch, and how many of those innings will be for the Marlins? It’s highly unlikely we see Alcantara return to the 228-inning workload we saw during his Cy Young campaign, but if he can reach 170+ innings with rock-solid ratios, he’ll be on this list in a much higher position come 2026.
23. Pablo López – Minnesota Twins
On the surface, it may appear that our guy PabLó struggled compared to his previous campaigns, but many underlying metrics suggest he’s still the same consistent guy you want leading your staff. A 25.6% strikeout rate and career-best 5.3% walk rate in 2024 show he just needs to find a way to limit some of that hard contact in 2025 if he want to bounce back to meet the lofty expectations he’s held the past few seasons.
22. Mason Miller – Athletics
Hey, a closer! While it’s hard to judge relievers against starters (fWAR is not kind to relief pitchers, as you may notice), there’s no denying that having a go-to option in the ninth can be crucial to a team’s success. While Miller isn’t the best closer in the game (yet), he might be one of the most fun pitchers to watch, period. Watching Miller hurl 100+ MPH fastballs past the opposition is a sight to behold, and his Statcast page shows just how well Miller uses his velocity–100th percentile xERA, fastball speed, whiff rate, and a monstrous 41.8% strikeout rate. Here’s hoping the A’s continue to trend up so we can see Miller closing more high-stakes games.
21. Aaron Nola – Philadelphia Phillies
You know you’re getting volume with Aaron Nola–the only question is, how good is that volume going to be? Nola’s strikeout and walk rates have both been trending in the wrong direction in recent years, and he has a tendency to get hit hard when he misses his spots. Still, the potential to reach 200+ innings is incredibly valuable in today’s MLB, and if Nola can correct things just a tad, you’ll be pleased overall with what you get over the entire season.
20. Shota Imanaga – Chicago Cubs
Imanaga’s first season as a Cub was a resounding success, displaying great ratios thanks largely in part to his excellent control (only a 4% walk rate!). Like Nola before him, Imanaga’s primary weakness is the long ball, but he should still be an anchor to lead this Cubs rotation. Did we mention he’s also one of the most entertaining guys in baseball?
19. Spencer Strider – Atlanta
Spencer Strider is probably a bit too low on this list, but I’m mostly knocking him down because we don’t know how much we’ll see of him in 2025. Strider looked excellent against the Red Sox reserves in his first Spring Training start, but he still has a ways to go before he can reach that full workload and be truly elite again. When he does play, you can expect his usual high-velocity stuff with high strikeout potential. My only other request for him is to bring back the mustache!
18. Framber Valdez – Houston Astros
Framber Valdez looked shaky to begin his season in 2024 but bounced back to be one of the best pitchers in the second half with a 1.96 ERA and 0.88 WHIP after the All-Star Break. Framber is one of the game’s elite ground-ball pitchers and is poised to once again pitch 175+ innings for a winning ball club. This kind of consistency isn’t easy to come by.
17. Blake Snell – Los Angeles Dodgers
We follow up one of the league’s most consistent pitchers with one of the most baffling in Blake Snell. Snell is a notoriously slow starter who intentionally lives outside of the zone to get opponents to chase, which is reflected in both his strikeout and walk rates. Still, when Snell is on, there are few better pitchers in today’s game. A full season of vintage Snell (or close to it) would land him in the Top Ten of next year’s list with ease.
16. Michael King – San Diego Padres
One of the breakout stars of 2024, Michael King rose to Acedom in San Diego in his first full season as a starter. The 29-year-old posted a sub-3 ERA with a 27.7% strikeout rate across 173 innings, inducing plenty of weak contact along the way. A second such season would allow King to rise up these ranks quickly, as he doesn’t have quite the track record as some above him. Here’s to a great sophomore starting season!
15. Tyler Glasnow – Los Angeles Dodgers
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Tyler Glasnow is an excellent pitcher… when he’s healthy. Glasnow has absolutely filthy stuff and controls it well, but his career high in innings pitched came last year with 134. If he can finally settle into a routine that keeps him on the mound for a full season, we may be looking at a Cy Young contender for the defending champs.
14. Yoshinobu Yamamoto – Los Angeles Dodgers
Speaking of the Dodgers, let’s take a look at Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Much like his fellow rookie from overseas, Yamamoto’s first stint in the MLB was a success, posting a 3.00 ERA across 90 innings of work before missing most of the second half with a triceps injury, though he was able to make it back for the postseason. Yamamoto’s biggest area of improvement is in limiting his hard contact, and while we won’t see as many innings from him as some other workhorses, he still has just as high of an upside as almost anybody on this list.
13. Max Fried – New York Yankees
The unfortunate injury to Gerrit Cole leaves Max Fried as the staff ace for the Yankees in 2025. Thankfully, “Staff Ace” is not an unfamiliar role to the veteran, who has been as reliable as they come over his past several years in Atlanta. Though his 2024 campaign was not his strongest, he was coming off a significant injury in 2023 and has the track record to provide elite ratios and volume for a winning ball club.
12. Logan Webb – San Francisco Giants
Speaking of elite volume, we have one of the most consistent workhorses in the MLB in Logan Webb. Webb is the poster child for ground ball pitching, carrying 95th percentile rate in 2024. The volume can work against Webb, however, as he has a tendency to work too deep into games and lose control after several strong innings of work. You’ll rarely get double-digit strikeout performances from Webb, but if his changeup can return to 2023 form to complement how elite his sinker was in 2024, he could be even more than one of the game’s premier volume starters.
11. Corbin Burnes – Arizona Diamondbacks
Having Corbin Burnes outside of the Top Ten feels strange, but it’s more so a testament to the depth of the position in today’s game than it is a knock against his skill set. Sure, Burnes’ strikeout rate has steadily declined over the past several seasons (career-low 23.1 K% in 2024), but he still always finds a way to return excellent ratios with high volume. While he may not be the no-doubt top-tier option he was at the peak of his career, he’s still among the most dependable arms in the game today.
10. Jacob deGrom – Texas Rangers
Starting our Top Ten is Jacob deGrom, also known as Schrödinger’s Box masquerading as a major league pitcher. There’s no doubt that deGrom is one of the best pitchers of the past decade, and the potential of even 75% of a season of deGrom at that level is the reason he makes it this high despite all of the (entirely valid) injury concerns. Please just stay healthy.
9. Cole Ragans – Kansas City Royals
A breakout candidate for many after a mid-season trade to the Royals in 2023, Cole Ragans surpassed all expectations in his 2024 season, cruising to a 3.14 ERA and 29.3% strikeout rate across 186.2 innings of work. There’s a reason we’ve been so high on him for so long—he’s a stud through and through and the Ace of an ascending Royals squad.
8. Dylan Cease – San Diego Padres
“Tumultuous” is a word one might use to describe the last few seasons of Dylan Cease. Sandwiched between two stellar campaigns is a 2023 season that carries a 4.58 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. Still, through it all, Cease has managed solid strikeout and walk rates, perhaps suggesting that the 2023 season was an outlier and that the version of Cease that mows down lineups with reckless abandon is the one we should expect again in 2025. Just please don’t become one of those guys that only performs well in even years, okay?
7. Logan Gilbert – Seattle Mariners
Logan Gilbert is perhaps the most under-the-radar true Ace in the league, as I feel he doesn’t get quite enough love after his 2024 season. A 3.23 ERA and 0.89 WHIP to go along with an elite sub-5% walk rate across over 200 innings of work? Yes, please. Still just 27 years old, Gilbert will look to bolster an already impressive career in another season pitching at one of baseball’s most pitcher-friendly parks. With George Kirby out for some time, the Mariners certainly need Gilbert to deliver once again. I, for one, am fully confident he will come through.
6. Emmanuel Clase – Cleveland Guardians
We interrupt this program to bring you the best relief pitcher in the game today: Emmanuel Clase. Sure, you can point out the discrepancy in his ERA vs. xERA (0.61 vs. 2.47), but the 0.66 WHIP and underlying metrics don’t lie–2024 was a special season for the Cleveland closer. So special, in fact, that Clase was a Cy Young finalist and finished third in voting. While he’s unlikely to ever replicate the 2024 numbers, there’s no doubting that he’s the best closer in the game right now.
5. Chris Sale – Atlanta
It may be a bit of a surprise to see the reigning National League Cy Young coming in at Number 5 behind (spoiler alert) two other NL options, but the reasoning is a bit of a mix of high expectations for other options and Sale’s track record with health. The 2024 season felt like the planets aligned for Sale to stay healthy for (almost) the entire season and return to being the Ace we knew him to be. Trepidation about his ability to replicate that health is the primary reason we find Sale at this spot, but the four arms ahead of him simply possess too much upside to rank Sale any higher.
4. Garrett Crochet – Boston Red Sox
It feels like a minor miracle that the White Sox decided to effectively limit the innings of their best player for an entire season, but that’s exactly what they did during Garrett Crochet’s breakout last year. Now finding himself surrounded by a much better team (and environment), the cards are there for Crochet to ascend to excellence. What we saw in his 146 innings of work in 2024 was a truly elite strikeout arm with a lethal four-seam and cutter combo. The sky is the limit for the 25-year-old’s first season at Fenway.
3. Paul Skenes – Pittsburgh Pirates
There’s living up to the hype, and then there’s whatever Paul Skenes did in his rookie season with the Pirates. His 170 strikeouts in 130 innings is absolutely filthy work, and when you couple that with a 1.95 ERA and 0.95 WHIP, you get a guy who deservedly finished as a Cy Young finalist despite not making his debut until May. Skenes is every bit the special talent he was advertised to be, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what he does in 2025.
2. Zack Wheeler – Philadelphia Phillies
Despite several years of elite production in the 2020s, Wheeler still feels underappreciated compared to his peers when discussing the elite arms of today’s game. Wheeler had his best season from a statistical standpoint in 2024 and was rewarded with a runner-up finish in the NL Cy Young voting. While he’s still chasing that coveted Cy Young award, Wheeler has established himself as a clear-cut Top Five option in the league, and his extended track record compared to others around him is enough to grant him our runner-up in this list, as well.
1. Tarik Skubal – Detroit Tigers
Was there ever any doubt? The unanimous Cy Young for the American League in 2024, Tarik Skubal came into the year with lofty expectations and somehow blew every single one of them out of the water. Skubal was not only one of the most dependable pitchers throughout the year in terms of giving you five, six, or even seven innings of quality work, but also mowed down lineups with an elite pitch mix that missed bats without missing the zone. Skubal is, without question, baseball’s best pitcher heading into the 2025 season. Let’s see if he can one-up himself.
Photos by Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter/X; @justinparadis.bsky.social on BlueSky)
How about getting the right team for the right picture Blake Snell is no longer a San Francisco Giant too bad cuz he would have made that team actually play off possible the money of the Dodgers got him!!