Fantasy Baseball Top 150 Starting Pitchers for 2025

The World Series is about to start, and from a talent and celebrity standpoint, it’s hard to hope for a better game. However, as the 2024 season comes to a close, I know many of us will have our eyes on the future and our expectations for what 2025 has in store. With that in mind, I’m releasing my rankings of early 2025 starting pitchers for fantasy baseball.

These are preliminary rankings based on my throwing analysis done this season and my expectations for growth or regression next year. I have yet to delve any further into these pitchers or begin the days/weeks of research that will anticipate my spring training rankings. Still, I thought it might be nice to get a rough idea of ​​what the pitching landscape will look like in 2025.

As always, pitchers are divided into tiers, which I’ve named so you can get an idea of ​​why pitchers are ranked where they are. The tiers themselves are more important than the rankings within the tiers, so I wouldn’t split hairs over a few spots on the leaderboard. I also graded as if I were doing a 12 team league, so safe but boring low end starters take a hit in value etc.

So let’s dive in.

Yes, I believe there is a legitimate argument for one of these pitchers to end up as an ace on your Fantasy team in 2025. While there may be a more compelling argument for the guys at the top, I think any of these guys could carry your team and so my first strategy will be to fade pitchers in the first few turns and try to double click and pick two of these guys if I can to lead my team.

All of these pitchers in this tier are rock-solid SP2s for your team. They could push for the SP1 upside, but I don’t think they have the consistency or ceiling of the entry level guys. However, you are more than happy to purchase multiple weapons at this level.

These pitchers are all potential SP2s, but I think they have upside potential that could push them higher than some of the upper tier pitchers. They also come with more uncertainty or volatility.

Most of the Tier 3 pitchers are younger than these guys, so I gave them a little more credit for their potential. These are all veterans who have been stellar for years and also have the potential to be SP2 types for your fantasy rosters, but they have age or injury issues.

I like the advantages of most of these weapons, but the downside is that they might be completely off your list and hurt your ratios in the process.

This is a group of veterans who feel solid but don’t really have the potential to excite us too much over the course of a full season.

All of these pitchers have intriguing potential and could move up the rankings, but they either need to add a pitch, improve command or consistency, etc.

These are all some of the best pitching prospects in baseball who I think have a legitimate chance to throw 80 or more innings in the major leagues this season.

All of these veterans have injury or performance issues, but we’ve seen solid upside from them in the past, so maybe we want to take the gamble that they hit in 2025.

They are all young beginners who I think have another level to reach based on their raw material. However, I have more concerns about them reaching that level than pitchers two levels above.

This is a level of pitchers that will be much more valuable in 15-team leagues because they are rock-solid veterans. They simply no longer have the upside of being worth a pick in 12-team leagues outside of the late rounds.

I probably won’t draft any of these guys in a 12-team league, but these are the names I will have on my free agent radar going into the season because of their potential.

These are other veterans that I wouldn’t really consider in 12-team leagues at first. They have more upside than some of the veterans two levels above, but also a lot more risk.

As the title suggests, these are all dart throws you could throw at the end of your drafts if these guys win rotation jobs in the spring.

These are all veterans who have a chance to reclaim their past fantasy value if they can make a few changes to their approach or pitch mix.

The final tier is young pitchers/prospects who are less likely to get up early but might interest me in fantasy leagues.