MLB Power Rankings: Picking the best rotations for the 2026 baseball season

As we slog through spring training, the weekly Power Rankings continue with different breakdowns. Last week, we went with the top 10 offenses in baseball and this time around, we’re diving in on the best rotations. 

An exercise like this is always going to be subjective and since I’m but one person, there will be plenty of disagreement and that’s cool. For me, I’d like to see an ace at the top of the rotation along with another frontline starter or two as well as depth to absorb an injury or two throughout the course of the season. Of course, very few teams will hit all of these notes. It’s just a good starting point. 

Let’s dive in. 

Honorable mention, in order: Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays, New York Mets

10. New York Yankees

The Yankees have several wild cards here. Max Fried isn’t one of them. He’s a reliable No. 1 starter. 

Cam Schlittler, on the other hand, is. We all saw how great he can be late last season, both in his 14 regular-season starts and in the playoffs. We just can’t be sure how he’ll hold up for a full MLB season, even if he seems like a strong bet. 

The biggest question mark is Gerrit Cole. The former Cy Young winner is 35 years old and coming off Tommy John surgery. He won’t be ready to start the season with the club. How soon can he return and, whenever he does come back, will he return to form? 

Carlos Rodón is also a wild card. He was outstanding last season, finishing sixth in AL Cy Young voting. His career shows a ton of inconsistency, though, and he’s recovering from elbow surgery. 

Will Warren was perfectly adequate as a rookie last year, but not good. Ryan Weathers is a former first-rounder with talent but has never thrown 100 innings in an MLB season. Luis Gil has been good, but not great, in the rotation. He’ll fill in whenever needed, but he appears to be seventh on the depth chart once everyone is back.

9. Toronto Blue Jays

The Jays will go through stretches this season where they have zero aces, but they also will flash a trio of them at times. Dylan Cease can be incredibly inconsistent, but the ace stuff is in there. Kevin Gausman was an ace from 2021-23, but he’s fallen back a bit now as he’s 35 years old. It happens. He had a 3.59 ERA in 193 innings last season and posted very good numbers in the postseason. Speaking of that postseason run, how about rookie Trey Yesavage? He looked the part of ace in multiple big-time outings. It was only his first professional season, however, so we can’t be sure about his workload for this season, nor how he’ll react to teams making adjustments via scouting.

Cody Ponce opens the season as the fourth starter. He is returning from Korea, where he was amazing last season (17-1, 1.89 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 252 K in 180 ⅔), but he had struggled in Japan and the majors before that. 

Then there’s Shane Bieber, who is going to open the season on the injured list with a forearm injury and that’s plenty scary before we consider last year marked his return from Tommy John surgery. José Berríos is dealing with an elbow injury and is allergic to consistency at this point.

There’s a pretty nice collection of talent here. Will it all line up perfectly when they need it most?

8. Pittsburgh Pirates 

Needless to say, Paul Skenes does a lot of heavy lifting here. Remember, true aces are part of the equation and he worked his way up to 187 ⅔ innings last year, meaning he’s likely going to top 200 this time around, taking pressure off his teammates in the process. 

As a baseline, Mitch Keller is going to provide around 175 innings of slightly above-average work. That’s valuable, even if you’d rather him be a three or four instead of a two. He starts the season as the Pirates’ second starter, but there’s potential for him to end up as their fifth. 

Braxton Ashcraft was great last season and while he spent most of it as a reliever, he finished with a 2.23 ERA in 36 ⅓ innings in his last nine outings, seven of which were starts. Bubba Chandler debuted and struck out 31 against only four walks in 31 ⅓ innings last season. These two have big potential. 

And then there’s Jared Jones. As he comes back from elbow surgery, he’ll miss the first few months of the 2026 season, but he showed good promise as a rookie in 2024. There were stretches where he looked like a frontline guy already. 

If things come together, the Pirates will have an electric rotation down the stretch. 

7. Cincinnati Reds

Reds pitchers are unfortunately tasked with making roughly half their starts in the most homer-friendly yard in the majors. As such, it’s possible we can accept some run prevention numbers that are a bit inflated, realizing that when they’re at home they can cough up a few gopher balls and still keep their team in the game. Things that account for such matters really liked the Reds’ rotation last season. Per FanGraphs’ WAR, the Reds were second in MLB last season in starting pitching value. 

Hunter Greene is a bona fide ace in my view. Andrew Abbott last season was an All-Star who finished eighth in Cy Young voting and posted a 159 ERA+ in 29 starts. Nick Lodolo broke out with a 4.9-WAR season in over 150 innings and started to resemble the ace many thought he’d be for years. That’s one hell of a Big Three. Slotting Brady Singer as a No. 4 makes him look very good, too, as he was 14-12 with a 4.03 ERA (113 ERA+) in nearly 170 innings. 

For the fifth spot, there’s young Chase Burns. He was a top 30 prospect heading into last season and got his feet wet with 43 ⅓ MLB innings. He was knocked around a little, but also flashed his significant upside with 67 strikeouts. 

There are some concerns with depth and workload, but the talent here is huge. The Reds could easily jump into the top four.

6. Philadelphia Phillies

By some measures — FanGraphs’ WAR to name one — the Phillies had the most valuable rotation in baseball last year. They lost Ranger Suárez to free agency, though, and there are questions regarding Zack Wheeler’s return from thoracic outlet syndrome — both in when he’s back and how effective he’ll be when he returns. 

Those two items alone knock the Phillies down here and I might have even been generous. 

Cristopher Sánchez’s leap into acedom last season helps immensely. Jesús Luzardo had an excellent season and looks like a quality No. 2 here. Aaron Nola, though, was mostly awful last season as he enters his age-33 year. Taijuan Walker shouldn’t be in a rotation for a contender, either.

The upside here lies with Wheeler’s return and the talent of youngster Andrew Painter (despite a 5.40 ERA in Triple-A last season). If Wheeler returns to being a top-shelf ace and Painter hits his upside, the Phillies are very solid here with Wheeler-Sánchez-Luzardo-Nola-Painter. 

There are lots of ways things could head south here, though.

5. Seattle Mariners

We need to start with a short bit on the Mariners’ home ballpark. Yes, T-Mobile Park suppresses offense and, thus, is a big advantage here for the Mariners’ rotation. Ballpark-adjusted stats will tell you I have the Mariners ranked too highly here, but they’re still going to hold their opponents to a paltry number of runs, relatively speaking, while likely carrying a hefty workload. That’s ultimately what matters most.

Bryan Woo finished fifth in AL Cy Young voting last season at just 25 years old. He’s stepping into the role of ace. Logan Gilbert is a very nice No. 2 and we’ve seen George Kirby look the part before (2023 and some of 2024). Veteran righty Luis Castillo is past his prime, but listing him as a four shows how good this rotation can be. Bryce Miller is a fine five with decent upside and Emerson Hancock provides depth. 

4. Texas Rangers

The Rangers have a lot of talent along with a good number of questions. I always say that not every question will be answered in the positive, but they won’t all be answered in the negative, either. There will be wins here. 

Jacob deGrom is as talented as anyone, but barely pitched from 2021-24. He came back strong last season with a 2.97 ERA in 172 ⅔ innings. How will he hold up at age 38?

Nathan Eovaldi had a 1.73 ERA last season, but a shoulder injury ended his season in August and now he’s 36 years old. 

MacKenzie Gore was an All-Star for the Nats after a great first half (3.02 ERA, 138 K in 110 ⅓ IP), but totally fell apart in the second half (6.75 ERA, 1.70 WHIP in 49 ⅓ IP). 

Jack Leiter was pretty good most of the time in his first full season, but there don’t seem to be many reasons to believe in more than average right now. 

Kumar Rocker has talent but sub-par results so far in the majors. Jacob Latz has only nine career starts. Cody Bradford has shown great flashes but the last two seasons have been decimated by injuries. Jordan Montgomery was great for the 2023 World Series champion Rangers, but fell apart afterward and he’s out until probably the second half of this season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

That’s eight guys. The Rangers only need 3-4 horses and five regular starters throughout the calendar. The most likely outcome is things click well more often than not. The 90th percentile outcome gives the Rangers a chance at the best rotation in baseball.

3. Detroit Tigers

Two-time defending AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal moves the needle in a big way here, obviously. Though he has hot competition from at least two pitchers, he’s still my pick for the best pitcher in the world. Instead of trading him, thankfully, the Tigers went out and got him help late in the offseason by signing fellow lefty frontliner Framber Valdez. Though Valdez was terrible in the second half for the Astros last year, his track record says that will be just a temporary issue. 

Jack Flaherty comes next and he was very disappointing in 2025, but there’s plenty of hope that he can pitch back to 2024 form. Casey Mize was a first-time All-Star last season and though he faltered in the second half, there’s enough talent to believe he can put together a full season resembling his first half. 

Then there’s the return of Justin Verlander. He’s now 43 years old and his record last season looks awful, but he had a 2.60 ERA with 70 strikeouts in 72 ⅔ innings in his last 13 starts. As a fifth starter, there just might be something left in the tank in what’s likely his final year. 

2. Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox made the playoffs last season with a top-level ace, two good starters and pieced the rest together. They beefed things up this offseason. 

Garrett Crochet stands at the top after putting together a stellar first season in Boston, during which he finished second in Cy Young voting and eighth in MVP voting. He’s heading to his age-27 season and there’s no reason to believe he’ll get any worse. He could even be better. 

All-Star lefty Ranger Suárez and three-time All-Star righty Sonny Gray were added this offseason. Neither are in the “true ace” category, but both can pitch like frontline starters. 

Brayan Bello sits in the four spot and he’s much better looking there than at two. Johan Oviedo can fill the five spot, but so could Connelly Early. Kutter Crawford is coming back from surgery and perhaps this time around Payton Tolle sticks. Patrick Sandoval is here too. There’s good talent in the depth. 

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

Yep, the defending champs have the top offense and top rotation in baseball, per my personal rankings. They didn’t even need any outside-the-organization moves to shore anything up here. We saw it all on display last postseason as the Dodgers won the World Series behind dominant starters. 

Fresh off a World Series MVP and 1.45 ERA in 37 ⅓ playoff innings — not to mention a third-place Cy Young finish in the regular season — Yoshinobu Yamamoto fits the mold of a true ace. Shohei Ohtani can pitch like an ace and we’ve seen that more often than not whenever he’s healthy enough to pitch. Blake Snell has won two Cy Youngs. Tyler Glasnow has Cy Young-level talent. 

That’s four guys capable of throwing like elite-tier aces in one rotation. 

Roki Sasaki and Emmet Sheehan are the fifth and sixth guys here and there’s more depth like Ben Casparius, Landon Knack, Gavin Stone and River Ryan.

As noted, I ranked the Dodgers as the top offense in baseball. I like the rotation better.