Early 2026 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 40 at starting pitcher gives priority to biggest bat-missers

Can we tell which starting pitchers are going to get injured? Do we have any sort of reliable metric for that?

Sure, past injury can be a predictor of future injury, but it’s not a particularly good one. We sometimes treat it as foolproof. Zack WheelerLogan Gilbert and George Kirby were some of the safest bets to make it through the 2025 season unscathed, but they didn’t. Bryan Woo and Jacob deGrom were supposed to have no chance of remaining healthy, but they did.

The pitching motion is an unnatural one, and done with the repetition and force required to succeed at the major league level, it’s only a matter of time before injury is the result. So is predicting when and where one will arise a fool’s errand? Should we even bother to try?

• Early rankings: C|1B|2B|3B|SS|OF|SP| RP

More and more, I’m beginning to doubt that. Surely, durability counts for something. A perpetual injury case like Tyler Glasnow can only be trusted to do so much, and there’s of course a big difference between a pitcher who goes 6-7 innings with regularity and one who never does. But when evaluating pitchers for a new season, effectiveness should be the primary and secondary consideration, with demerits for durability applied in only the most extreme cases.

With that, here’s my initial top 40 for 2026.

Note that the focus here is standard 5×5 scoring (such as Rotisserie leagues), but if you scroll a little further, you’ll see my rankings for points leagues.

SPORTS TODAY What changes in points leagues?

1. Pull SkubalTHAT
2. Garrett CrochetBOS
3. Paul Skenes, PIT
4. Chris Salelikely ATL
5. Yoshinobu YamamotoLAD
6. Logan Gilbert, SEA
7. Cristopher SanchezPHI
8. Bryan Woo, SEA
9. Max FriedNYY
10. Hunter BrownNEW
11. Hunter GreeneCIN
12. Cole RagansKC
13. Logan WebbSF
14. Framber Valdezfree agent
15. Blake SnellLAD
16. Jacob deGrom, TEX
17. Spencer SchwellenbachATL
18. Jesus Luzardo, PHI
19. Freddy PeraltaMIL
20. George Kirby, SEA
21. Tyler Glasnow, LAD
22. Kyle BradishBAL
23. Eury PerezMIA
24. Dylan Ceasefree agent
25. Nick PivettaSD
26. Joe RyanMIN
27. Brandon WoodruffMIL
28. Kevin GausmanTOR
29. Shane Bieberlikely free agent
30. Trevor RogersBAL
31. Shohei OhtaniLAD
32. Spencer StriderATL
33. Chase BurnsCIN
34. Emmet SheehanLAD
35. Gavin WilliamsCLE
36. Nathan EovaldiTEX
37. Cam Schlittler, NYY
38. Nolan McLeanNYM
39. Carlos Rodon, NYY
40. Robbie RaySF