Is the best starting pitcher in baseball the one guy a manager would give the baseball to in a win-or-go-home Game 7? Or is he the pitcher best equipped to excel from the start of spring training until the final out of the World Series?
It's a question that has always existed in the sport with the longest, most grueling season of them all. Yet as more starting pitchers try to extract more movement and velocity out of their pitch mix, it's almost become an either-or proposition. Today's starter is especially durable or reliably excellent in a single game, but rarely both.
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The effect is a mix of good and bad.
Take Paul Skenes. The 22-year-old right-hander threw a fastball that averaged 100 mph in his major league debut on May 11, and in his final game of the season, on Sept. 28. In terms of generating swings and misses, Skenes' best pitch was a changeup (54.8) — one of four offerings beyond his fastball. It's one of the most impressive pitch mixes in baseball, and it lands Skenes comfortably in Newsweek Sports' Top 10.
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On the other hand, take Atlanta Braves starter Spencer Strider. From 2022-23, he averaged a 38 percent strikeout rate overall — even higher than Skenes last season. In 2024? The 26-year-old barely pitched before needing season-ending surgery on his right elbow, an increasingly common outcome for pitchers like him who attempt to extract the most they can over 30-plus starts.
The percentage of major league pitchers who have had Tommy John surgery on their pitching elbows is approaching 40. It's almost impossible to note the prevalence of pitching injuries in the context of the best starters, and this list is no exception.
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Strider, the Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, and Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara would be candidates for this list if they finished last season healthy; elbow surgery prevented each from making the cut.
For Newsweek Sports' power ranking of the 10 best starters in baseball, we considered both durability, upper-ceiling excellence on a one-game basis, and the ability to offer a little bit of both.
Without further ado:
10. Logan Webb
Webb is the only MLB pitcher who's averaged more than 200 innings over the last three seasons. More than a mere workhorse, he's recorded a 3.22 ERA (124 ERA+) for the San Francisco Giants in that span. The 28-year-old right-hander has collected National League Cy Young Award votes each of the last three seasons and in 2024 made his first NL All-Star team, going 13-10 with a 3.47 ERA.
9. Jacob deGrom
DeGrom could justifiably rank anywhere on this list — or even miss the cut altogether. That's how frustrating the 36-year-old's career has been. When he's on the mound, he is arguably the best pitcher in baseball. Since signing a five-year, $185 million contract with the Texas Rangers, he's made nine starts, logged a 2.41 ERA, and struck out 59 batters in 41 innings while posting a tiny 0.854 WHIP. The problem? That contract was signed two years ago, and his latest injury — which required a revision of his 2010 Tommy John surgery — comes with an uncertain future.
8. Gerrit Cole
The New York Yankees' $324 million man missed time at the beginning of last season with an elbow injury that limited him to 17 regular-season starts, plus five more in the playoffs. It was the first time in a non-pandemic season that Cole hasn't thrown at least 100 innings in a season since his 2013 debut. His fastball is off a few ticks from its peak, but Cole's reputation as one of the more reliable power pitchers in the game still earns him a place on the short list of the game's premier starters.
7. Dylan Cease
No pitcher has made more starts over the last four seasons (130) than Cease. Only three have made half as many starts with a better strikeout per nine inning rate than him. Last season Cease went 14-11 with a 3.47 ERA, threw a no-hitter, and helped the Padres come within a game of upsetting the favored Dodgers in the National League Division Series.
6. Blake Snell
The 2023 NL Cy Young Award winner, Snell got a five-year, $182 million contract from the Los Angeles Dodgers in December in hopes he can pick up where he left off in 2024. After battling injuries in the first half, Snell finished last season by going 5-0 with a 1.23 ERA and 114 strikeouts in 14 starts — including a no-hitter in August.
5. Chris Sale
In his first season with the Atlanta Braves at age 35, Sale made his most starts (29), recorded his lowest ERA (2.38), pitched more innings (177.2) and struck out more batters (225) in any season since 2018. Before injuries and ineffectiveness sent his career sideways, Sale made seven All-Star teams and was a Top-10 Cy Young Award finisher in seven seasons (2012-18) with the White Sox and Red Sox. Suddenly his $22 million salary for 2025 looks like a bargain, and he could be back on a Hall of Fame track.
4. Garrett Crochet
The 6-foot-6 left-hander practically came out of nowhere to strike out a mind-blowing 209 batters in 146 innings for the Chicago White Sox in 2024. Thanks to a blockbuster December trade, he'll be pitching for a potential postseason contender in 2025, looking to show the Boston Red Sox his first full season as a starter was no fluke.
3. Tarik Skubal
The Detroit Tigers' left-hander is the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner on the strength of an 18-4 season with a 2.39 ERA in which he led the Junior Circuit in wins, ERA, strikeouts (228), and Wins Above Replacement (6.3). The 28-year-old All-Star a major reason the Tigers clinched a surprising Wild Card berth and advanced to the second playoff round.
2. Paul Skenes
Skenes' aforementioned "stuff" is perhaps the nastiest. After starting the 2024 All-Star Game for the NL, winning the Rookie of the Year award, and going 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Skenes' challenge for 2025 is simple: to stay sharp over a full season in a league that's hard a full season to see what he can do.
1. Zack Wheeler
Is Wheeler the No. 1 pitcher most managers would give the ball to if he needed to win one game to save their season? Maybe. Is he the No. 1 starter they would choose over the course of a full 162-game season? Maybe. The 34-year-old right-hander is No. 1 on this list because he's the rare pitcher who might be both things: a top-of-the-rotation workhorse who can dominate a single game nearly as often as any of his peers. Last season Wheeler went 16-7 with a 2.57 ERA for the Philadelphia Phillies, finishing second in the Cy Young Award voting for the second time in the last four seasons. His 32 bWAR from 2018-24 is the best in baseball.
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