Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!
Deep leaguers, rejoice! We’ve arrived at your favorite stop on the Preseason Starting Pitching whirlwind that is the Top 100 Starting Pitchers list tour!
Last year, I titled this one “The Next Next 100 Or No Dessert Until You Finish Your Brandon Sproats.” This was where we peeked in on the not-so-household names like Jacob Misiorowski (PPRR: 208), Brandon Sproat (PPRR: 218), Noah Schultz (PPRR: 223), and Caden Dana (PPRR: 229).
Two years back, I lined up the same sort of players in my “The Last Of Us (AKA The Next Next 100)” piece. That one featured names like Ryan Weathers (PPRR: 213), Jacob Misiorowski – again! (PPRR: 245), Spencer Arrighetti (PPRR: 280) and Jack Leiter (PPRR: 284).
I’m sure you get the gist by now. If you’re prepping for a deep league draft or have a lot of reserve roster spots to stash a few lottery tickets, today brings you good news.
If you’re looking for names that are guaranteed a roster spot out of Spring, or a guy who is guaranteed to be a 2026 Top 100 Starting Pitcher? Well, the news gets a bit more sour from that perspective.
How deep does this list of chaos reach? Well, I had a few names I was going to outline today, and was shocked when I went to the Preseason Player Rater to check out their rankings.
Did Robert Gasser qualify? Nope. He’s ranked on the PPR at SP145.
Korean league bounceback candidate, and newest White Sox rotation “stud” Anthony Kay? Uh, he’s at SP159.
Spencer Arrighetti? He can’t be above 200…can he? (He’s the SP192).
Alek Manoah!? Surely THIS GUY is a post-201 arm…right?
Uh…let’s defer to the frequent friend of the Top 100 for a response on that one.
And, well, the guy who was “a very big piece of the Jays’ World Series run” is our Preseason Player Rater’s SP184.
So much for finding some names that are lost in the leftovers.
There aren’t many names from the Top 100 Starting Pitchers list that show up this week. Honestly, there were a lot more in the 201+ swamp a few weeks back when I created the list of targets to write up, but some have jumped a bit since then. I’ve written up a bit about a bunch of these guys already over the past couple of years, so there are a few links to follow in some of the blurbs as well.
Before we get to the goods, though, as always, it’s a bit of business first. The Razzball subscriptions are well worth the price of admission. This should be your go-to reference for the entire season. That resource that the other “experts” from other sites use as often as they look at Statcast or Fangraphs data? This is it.
RCL leagues are also OPEN! Click on the link to the RCL article from Grey to sign up for one of our 2026 Razzball Commenter Leagues!
As a final quick update about the sources, NFBC numbers are from drafts conducted during the January 28th to February 28th time frame.
Sorted by 12-team (RCL) rankings for Fantrax & 15-team default for NFBC
| MARMO RANK | Name | Team | R$ | GREY’S RANKING | NFBC RANKING | FANTRAX RANKING |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tarik Skubal | DET | 40.8 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Paul Skenes | PIT | 35.8 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Garrett Crochet | BOS | 29.3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto | LAD | 19.7 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | Cristopher Sanchez | PHI | 23.2 | 7 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | Bryan Woo | SEA | 19.3 | 6 | 7 | 9 |
| 7 | Logan Webb | SF | 19.4 | 10 | 14 | 10 |
| 8 | Logan Gilbert | SEA | 23.8 | 9 | 6 | 8 |
| 9 | Hunter Greene | CIN | 18.3 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| 10 | Hunter Brown | HOU | 18.9 | 5 | 8 | 6 |
| 11 | Cole Ragans | KC | 21.2 | 22 | 11 | 13 |
| 12 | Jacob deGrom | TEX | 20.3 | 15 | 12 | 14 |
| 13 | Max Fried | NYY | 19.5 | 17 | 13 | 11 |
| 14 | George Kirby | SEA | 21.0 | 13 | 16 | 19 |
| 15 | Kyle Bradish | BAL | 10.8 | 11 | 18 | 23 |
| 16 | Chris Sale | ATL | 23.6 | 16 | 9 | 7 |
| 17 | Dylan Cease | TOR | 16.9 | 21 | 19 | 18 |
| 18 | Joe Ryan | MIN | 24.1 | 14 | 17 | 17 |
| 19 | Framber Valdez | DET | 17.9 | 24 | 21 | 20 |
| 20 | Freddy Peralta | NYM | 16.7 | 18 | 15 | 15 |
| 21 | Shohei Ohtani | LAD | 3.3 | 12 | 1 (UT) | 1 (UT) |
| 22 | Jesus Luzardo | PHI | 19.8 | 23 | 20 | 16 |
| 23 | Tyler Glasnow | LAD | 13.6 | 37 | 31 | 29 |
| 24 | Kevin Gausman | TOR | 14.1 | 25 | 27 | 24 |
| 25 | Eury Perez | MIA | 10.2 | 32 | 22 | 25 |
| 26 | Sonny Gray | BOS | 10.9 | 39 | 30 | 27 |
| 27 | Nolan McLean | NYM | 5.5 | 33 | 24 | 30 |
| 28 | Chase Burns | CIN | 7.6 | 29 | 26 | 28 |
| 29 | Nathan Eovaldi | TEX | 12.6 | 27 | 40 | 45 |
| 30 | Emmett Sheehan | LAD | 7.2 | 30 | 37 | 41 |
| 31 | Trey Yesavage | TOR | 5.2 | 35 | 42 | 36 |
| 32 | Nick Lodolo | CIN | 8.8 | 28 | 33 | 39 |
| 33 | Brandon Woodruff | MLW | 12.4 | 26 | 29 | 33 |
| 34 | Zack Wheeler | PHI | 15.6 | 60 | 34 | 50 |
| 35 | Blake Snell | LAD | 15.6 | 19 | 28 | 38 |
| 36 | Jacob Misiorowski | MLW | -2.3 | 34 | 32 | 26 |
| 37 | Nick Pivetta | SD | 15.4 | 38 | 23 | 22 |
| 38 | Spencer Strider | ATL | 16.5 | 36 | 25 | 21 |
| 39 | Robbie Ray | SF | 5.8 | 42 | 45 | 43 |
| 40 | Michael King | SD | 13.5 | 40 | 35 | 42 |
| 41 | Cam Schlittler | NYY | -1.6 | 31 | 38 | 37 |
| 42 | Trevor Rogers | BAL | -3.6 | 46 | 47 | 40 |
| 43 | Ryan Pepiot | TB | 6.4 | 43 | 36 | 34 |
| 44 | Shota Imanaga | CHC | 12.3 | 59 | 49 | 52 |
| 45 | Bubba Chandler | PIT | -8.0 | 77 | 44 | 48 |
| 46 | Gavin Williams | CLE | 1.8 | 61 | 39 | 32 |
| 47 | Ranger Suarez | BOS | 8.9 | 45 | 51 | 47 |
| 48 | Tatsyui Imai | HOU | -2.7 | 52 | 48 | 51 |
| 49 | Drew Rasmussen | TB | 6.3 | 44 | 43 | 46 |
| 50 | Matthew Boyd | CHC | 2.8 | 49 | 63 | 62 |
| 51 | Edward Cabrera | CHC | 2.1 | 47 | 53 | 57 |
| 52 | Shane Bieber | TOR | -4.0 | 53 | 67 | 100 |
| 53 | Luis Castillo | SEA | 12.4 | 48 | 46 | 31 |
| 54 | Jack Flaherty | DET | 8.7 | 55 | 59 | 56 |
| 55 | Tanner Bibee | CLE | 6.7 | 62 | 52 | 49 |
| 56 | Andrew Abbott | CIN | 1.9 | 51 | 60 | 60 |
| 57 | Merrill Kelly | ARI | 8.4 | 56 | 65 | 63 |
| 58 | Sandy Alcantara | MIA | 1.1 | 57 | 41 | 35 |
| 59 | Mackenzie Gore | TEX | 9.9 | 63 | 50 | 44 |
| 60 | Carlos Rodon | NYY | 3.9 | 58 | 56 | 69 |
| 61 | Shane Baz | BAL | 3.9 | 50 | 55 | 58 |
| 62 | Logan Henderson | MLW | -6.8 | 72 | 77 | 82 |
| 63 | Joe Musgrove | SD | 5.3 | 69 | 64 | 67 |
| 64 | Kris Bubic | KC | -2.8 | 75 | 58 | 61 |
| 65 | Quinn Priester | MLW | -6.2 | 70 | 74 | 70 |
| 66 | Zac Gallen | ARI | 3.1 | 54 | 61 | 54 |
| 67 | Joey Cantillo | CLE | -8.8 | 66 | 79 | 98 |
| 68 | Shane Smith | CWS | -3.1 | 64 | 70 | 78 |
| 69 | Noah Cameron | KC | -2.8 | 74 | 73 | 64 |
| 70 | Roki Sasaki | LAD | -6.7 | 78 | 69 | 59 |
| 71 | Jack Leiter | TEX | -4.5 | 71 | 68 | 66 |
| 72 | Grayson Rodriguez | LAA | 0.8 | 76 | 80 | 87 |
| 73 | Ryan Weathers | NYY | 0.4 | 87 | 78 | 95 |
| 74 | David Peterson | NYM | 7.6 | 65 | 107 | 89 |
| 75 | Cody Ponce | TOR | -4.1 | 73 | 81 | 90 |
| 76 | Ryne Nelson | ARI | -2.3 | 68 | 72 | 77 |
| 77 | Cade Horton | CHC | -7.3 | 80 | 54 | 53 |
| 78 | Clay Holmes | NYM | -2.4 | 67 | 100 | 83 |
| 79 | Shane McClanahan | TB | 6.8 | 82 | 62 | 74 |
| 80 | Will Warren | NYY | -7.3 | 83 | 98 | 99 |
| 81 | Seth Lugo | KC | 2.9 | 89 | 109 | 91 |
| 82 | Gerrit Cole | NYY | -0.5 | 86 | 75 | 71 |
| 83 | Casey Mize | DET | 1.3 | 84 | 76 | 75 |
| 84 | Brayan Bello | BOS | -3.0 | 88 | 94 | 80 |
| 85 | Kodai Senga | NYM | -7.4 | 99 | 82 | 85 |
| 86 | Mike Burrows | HOU | -6.1 | 85 | 83 | 105 |
| 87 | Mitch Keller | PIT | 2.1 | 101 | 110 | 73 |
| 88 | Sean Manaea | NYM | 7.3 | 91 | 82 | 94 |
| 89 | Aaron Nola | PHI | 7.2 | 98 | 57 | 55 |
| 90 | Connelly Early | BOS | -16.8 | 109 | 71 | 72 |
| 91 | Zebby Matthews | MIN | -7.0 | 100 | 85 | 96 |
| 92 | Jonah Tong | NYM | -22.0 | 107 | 116 | 103 |
| 93 | Andrew Painter | PHI | -19.7 | 116 | 90 | 114 |
| 94 | Payton Tolle | BOS | -13.3 | 119 | 129 | 128 |
| 95 | Bryce Miller | SEA | 2.2 | 105 | 66 | 65 |
| 96 | Braxton Ashcraft | PIT | -12.2 | 113 | 78 | 108 |
| 97 | Michael Wacha | KC | 0.6 | 94 | 117 | 88 |
| 98 | Parker Messick | CLE | -9.6 | 79 | 87 | 102 |
| 99 | Bailey Ober | MIN | 4.2 | 97 | 84 | 79 |
| 100 | Robby Snelling | MIA | -19.8 | N/R | 88 | 112 |
Regular readers know that I usually break the Top 100 SP write-ups into smaller sections with “Jumpers”, “Dumpers”, and “Bumpers”, but today I’m going to focus on some of the names that need a bit of spotlight from the Preseason Player Rater’s SP201+ rankings.
Quick Hits from the Top 100
- Most of the top guys shuffled around a few spots (up or down) in NFBC drafts.
- NFBC movement: Bryce Miller didn’t drop too much (SP66), but I assume once people see the news about his “platelet-rich plasma injection” to help with soreness, he’ll fall a bit more next week. He’s still here…for now. Robbie Ray also jumped up a few spots to SP45 and landed closer to where we have him here.
- Shane Bieber dropped 8 spots (SP67) with the news that he has “forearm fatigue”. He also plummeted down Fantrax’s ADP (SP100). Braxton Ashcraft dropped 9 spots to SP90 (NFBC).
- Fantrax movement: Merrill Kelly only slid down one spot to SP63, but his back soreness might force him to start the year on the IL. Shane McClanahan jumped up a few spots (to SP74) on Fantrax this week, too.
- A lot of the bottom 10-20 guys jumped a fair bit on Fantrax this week.
- The Top 100 isn’t easy to put together because it means we lose out on quite a few of those deeper league names to watch. Some of the guys I had a tough time bumping out for other names include: Dean Kremer, Lucas Giolito, Brady Singer, Jared Jones, Cade Cavalli, Chad Patrick, Ian Seymour, Corbin Burnes (IL), Cristian Javier, Taj Bradley, Landen Roupp, Ryan Bergert, Tyler Mahle, Max Scherzer, Jose Berrios, Kutter Crawford, Johan Oviedo, Kumar Rocker, Spencer Arrighetti, Jacob Lopez, Joe Boyle, Brandon Sproat…really the list feels endless. I’ll highlight some of these (and other) names in the next couple of weeks.
PLAYER PROFILES from the LEFTOVERS (SP201+ on the Preseason Player Rater Rankings)
I’ll feature some of the players from the 201+ range from our Preseason Player Rater rankings here. The Player Rater lists 294 starting pitchers (total).
**Parentheses indicate Preseason Player Rater Ranking or PPRR, not the player’s spot in my Top 100**
Ryan Bergert (PPRR: 204) – There are more than a few names in here who are slotted to start in the minors because of tough competition and/or minor league options available. Ryan Bergert is one of them. Bergert-time could have a tough…er…time cracking a rotation that has 5 arms virtually guaranteed a starting spot. It’s a link-loaded piece today, so I might as well add in the Berget write-up that I penned in September: Retro Gamers Rejoice! It’s Bergert Time.
Corbin Burnes (PPRR: 207) – This one isn’t much of a report than it is a reminder that Burnes is out there. The Tommy John surgery from last June means we’ll see him no earlier than after the All-Star break. If you’re a Burnes believer and you have a lot of room to stash injured arms, this is one for your deep dive notebook.
Mick Abel (PPRR: 208) – This was a name that I had down on the short list for the bottom of the Top 100 when I started to piece it together back in January. There are positives for Abel, but the biggest plus is the team he plays for. Minnesota doesn’t boast the strongest rotation by any means, and it lost its biggest piece when the team announced that Pablo Lopez is done for the year. Joe Ryan’s back is barking (albeit softly), so that might give a guy like Abel a bit more time to show what he can do. The K-BB% from last year’s 10 MLB GS was meh – 13.2% -, but he is touching 97 MPH on the radar gun this Spring. If young-ish fireballers are your thing, he could be a guy who leads this list in innings pitched this year.
Rhett Lowder (PPRR: 217) – There isn’t much to say about this kid that hasn’t already been said. He does feel like a bit of a forgotten prospect in some circles, though. Maybe it’s because the hype isn’t as fevered around him as it is with others from the rookie/youngster lists (see: Yesavage, Trey; Schlittler, Cam). Regardless of the hype, or lack thereof, Lowder is making himself heard pretty clearly this Spring.
I’m setting a reserve spot aside for this one. If any of the Reds’ current rotation options have a setback, this guy should be the next man up. Talent + Opportunity = LFG!
Thomas White (PPRR: 227) – I nearly missed him when I was writing up the bits and pieces here. There are two sides of the field to cheer on when it comes to Miami’s kid pitchers. One is with Robby Snelling. The other is Thomas White. It feels like the old meme, “Why Not Both?” could apply here, but if you have to commit to just one on your reserve roster, I’d throw the dart at Robby Snelling. Obviously, whoever wins a rotation spot out of Spring is the one to roster, though. Monitor the workloads, velocity, and health of these two guys before making a final decision.
Ricky Tiedemann (PPRR: 237) – Here’s one from the WAY BACK. If you want to read up on my lede from the 2024 version of last week’s list rundown, have a clicky click on this one: The Next 100 – Tea For The Tiedemann. Heck, I was almost as excited to see Alek Manoah’s name (and pun) in there as I was to look at the Cat Stevens photoshop jobber.
Alas, we fans of Ricky Tiedemann cannot have what they label as “nice things”.
That piece was put together in March of 2024, about a week after Tiedemann voiced concerns about a nagging hamstring tightness. John Schneider said that Tiedemann was “in the mix” to make the opening day roster back then, so things didn’t seem too concerning.
Well, just shy of a month later, Tiedemann underwent an MRI to see what was up with his sore elbow, and the ulnar nerve inflammation led to Tommy John surgery in June 2024.
Fast forward to February 2026, and news from Keegan Matheson was that the Jays left the door “cracked open” for Tieds to make the team as a reliever this year. Unfortunately, less than a week after that announcement, the team released this update…
The good news here is that there is no structural damage.
Let’s not forget that Tiedemann was the Jays’ top pitching prospect for the last 2 years. I told a buddy recently that, as great as the Trey Yesavage story was last year, that progression was supposed to be Tiedemann’s rocket to ride.
If you have space on the reserve roster to take a shot at a high upside/high risk starting pitcher, there aren’t many others in this section that could reward your patience more than Tiedemann.
River Ryan (PPRR: 238) – As if the Dodgers need more good news and more reinforcements. At risk of sounding like a salty Blue Jays fan, the rich get richer this Spring as both River Ryan and Gavin Stone are back with the club and shaking off rust after both missed all of 2025 with shoulder surgeries.
It’s a small sample size, sure, but Thomas Nestico put together a nice graphic to give a quick peek at Ryan’s Spring debut from last week.
There are worse gambles to make if you’re stashing young arms on your bench. And no disrespect to Blake Snell or Tyler Glasnow, but the Dodgers starters aren’t exactly the second coming of Wilbur Wood from 1972 (24-17 record in 376.2 innings pitched!).
Matt Waldron (PPRR: 243) – This one is a bit of a pain in the ass to report. The San Diego flutter-baller was up in 2024, throwing his butterfly pitch to big leaguers, but never managed to stick in the big league rotation in 2025 (just one start). At the risk of getting too link-happy today, I wrote this guy up in June of the 2024 season as well. You can read that here if you wish!
This offseason, San Diego signed a bunch of starters to compete for open rotation spots this Spring, so Waldron’s chances were already limited to begin with.
Then…
Grey mentioned that we’ve finally gleaned our first TMI news of the preseason.
And, as I said in our Writers’ Discord when the news broke, “You know what that did to Waldron’s chances to make the Opening Day roster?”
Wrecked ‘Em.
Badum Tss.
Triston McKenzie (PPRR: 290) – Oh, Sticks.
All I want is the answer to one question. How hard is it to stifle a giggle/guffaw when posting about the increases in Triston McKenzie’s velocity this Spring?
If you want to dive in, be my guest. The Dads signed Griffin Canning on February 18th (Achilles injury), but said he may be ready for Opening Day. That puts more than 10 starting pitchers ahead of McKenzie in the queue for a rotation spot.
Alek Manoah (PPRR: 185) –
Y’all know me well enough by now. I couldn’t leave before giving an update on the man known as “Big Puma”.
Back in December, Alek Manoah signed a $1.95 million one-year deal and headed to the Island of Misfit Toys, AKA The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Without delving too deeply into the chaos here, the good news is Manoah is almost guaranteed a rotation spot out of Spring Training, with his only competition coming from guys like Caden Dana and Samuel Aldegheri.
If you have a VERY deep roster and are looking for a bounce-back candidate, this still might not be a name you want to gamble on, but it wasn’t too long ago that this guy put up some solid numbers and garnered a few Cy Young votes. The irony in 2022 was that Manoah finished third in Cy Young voting to the new Blue Jay, Dylan Cease, who finished second (behind Justin Verlander).
I’m already laying out the mass of pillows and feathers to faceplant into when I draft this dude as a reserve pick in my AL-Only draft at the end of next month.
That’s it for this week! Regular readers know the drill here. If you have anything to share or comment on, feel free to drop it in the comments here, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!
Next week will be field with more ADP updates in the chart, and, unfortunately, more injury news, as it’s highly unlikely we’ll get through another week without more of our starting pitchers going down with soreness (or worse).
See you next Monday!
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