Things are looking up for southpaws.
This season’s 11th edition of the Starting Pitcher Power Rankings is also the first in which left-handers swept the top three spots. They also accounted for four of the top five and five of 10 overall. But which lefty should reign supreme? It was a close call this time around.
As always, these rankings are based on a formula constructed by MLB.com’s data team, which considers performance over the past 365 days but places greater weight on season-long and especially recent performance.
Here are the latest Starting Pitcher Power Rankings. (Note: These rankings, and the stats cited below, are based on results through Tuesday’s games.)
1. Tarik Skubal, Tigers (Previously: 1)
Skubal remains in the top spot for the sixth straight time, going back to May 22. But his grip on that position looks a bit looser than it’s been in a while. After posting a 2.02 ERA through 18 starts, that number has risen to 3.68 since, with Skubal allowing three or more earned runs in three of his past six outings. That includes last Friday, when the Angels scored four times off Skubal, who didn’t complete five innings for the first time all season. Even so, he still leads AL pitchers in ERA (2.35), WHIP (0.86) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.9), among other categories.
2. Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies (4)
Sánchez didn’t appear on any top 100 prospect lists, and it took him nearly eight full years after signing with the Rays as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic in July 2013 to reach the Majors with the Phillies. When he did, he posted a 5.47 ERA over his first two seasons, starting just four of his 22 appearances.
Well, look at him now. Sánchez is a full-fledged Cy Young Award candidate, a 6-foot-6 lefty with elite stuff. Prior to taking the ball at Cincinnati on Wednesday, he boasted a 1.69 ERA in 12 starts going back to the beginning of June. Sánchez now owns a 3.02 mark over the past three seasons.
3. Garrett Crochet, Red Sox (3)
Crochet had a rare clunker on Monday against Houston, allowing five earned runs for the third time in 2025. The lefty has given up no more than two earned runs in 20 of his other 21 starts. It’s still remarkable that a pitcher with such a limited career workload is leading the AL in innings (152 1/3), batters faced (611), wins (13) and strikeouts (188). A second straight 200-K campaign is within sight, as soon as his next start.
4. Paul Skenes, Pirates (2)
Despite the significant hype that has accompanied Skenes since his college days at LSU, the right-hander has been so historically good early in his Major League career that it’s still possible that we’re underrating him. With that said, the world-beating Brewers are not impressed. They’ve tagged him for four earned runs over four innings in two straight matchups (June 25 and Tuesday). Skenes’ ERA is 5.79 in three starts against the Brewers and 1.75 in 22 starts against every other opponent.
5. Trevor Rogers, Orioles (not ranked)
This placement might not have been surprising back in 2021, when Rogers was an All-Star in his age-23 season with the Marlins, finishing second in the NL Rookie of the Year Award race and posting a 2.64 ERA. But the lefty has been on a difficult journey since then, battling injuries and inconsistent performance. That led to a 5.09 ERA over 52 starts from 2022-24, including a 7.11 ERA in four starts for Baltimore after getting traded from Miami last summer. That even got Rogers sent back to the Minors for the rest of 2024 and much of the early part of ‘25.
He made one successful spot start in a doubleheader on May 24 but didn’t get a sustained shot with the Orioles until mid-June. To say Rogers capitalized on that shot would be an understatement: the 1.44 ERA he brought into Wednesday’s start against the Mariners was the lowest for any pitcher with at least 60 innings.
6. Nick Pivetta, Padres (6)
Where would the Padres — who on Tuesday caught the Dodgers atop the NL West — be without Pivetta (2.94 ERA in 23 starts, entering Wednesday)? The righty didn’t sign with the team as a free agent until February, but he has stabilized a rotation that has seen only two others make more than 14 starts: Dylan Cease (4.52 ERA) and Randy Vásquez (3.93). Before a tough outing against the Red Sox on Aug. 8, Pivetta had a 1.01 ERA over his previous seven starts.
7. Bryan Woo, Mariners (10)
Even when Woo hasn’t had a shutdown performance this season — he’s allowed four or more earned runs six times — he has avoided an early exit. The 25-year-old is 23-for-23 when it comes to logging at least six innings, and not surprisingly, leads the Majors with 17 quality starts. One key is quick outs: Woo has retired 141 batters on either the first or second pitch of a plate appearance this season, the most in MLB. That’s also helped him avoid free passes (4.5% walk rate, which ranks in the 96th percentile).
8. Matthew Boyd, Cubs (9)
Boyd finally has gotten hit a bit recently, allowing three-plus runs in two of his past three outings, but in the bigger picture this remains an incredible comeback season for the 34-year-old lefty. Not only does he have a 2.45 ERA, but his 135 2/3 innings mark his first time reaching even 80 in a season since 2019. That’s made him the leader of a Cubs rotation that lost Justin Steele for the season in early April, among some other significant injuries to starters.
9. Nathan Eovaldi, Rangers (not ranked)
Eovaldi climbs into the rankings despite the fact that in his last outing, he was hit hard for really the first time all season, allowing five earned runs and three homers to the D-backs. Prior to that, though, he one-hit the Yankees over eight scoreless frames on Aug. 5, his 13th time allowing no more than one run over a 14-start span. Eovaldi remains just short of having enough innings to qualify, but if he did, his 1.71 ERA would lead the Majors by a significant margin over Skenes’ 2.13.
10. Zack Wheeler, Phillies (5)
He’s still very much in the mix for the NL Cy Young Award that has narrowly eluded his grasp in recent years, but Wheeler’s season has gotten mildly rocky over the past month. In five starts since July 12, he has a 4.71 ERA, allowing as many earned runs (15) as he did over his previous 13 outings. Don’t panic, though: Wheeler still struck out 41 batters and walked just five during this stretch, with the largest gap in the Majors between his actual and expected wOBA allowed.
Honorable mentions: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers), Eury Pérez (Marlins), Hunter Brown (Astros), Luis Castillo (Mariners), George Kirby (Mariners), Nick Lodolo (Reds), Joe Ryan (Twins), Gavin Williams (Guardians), Brandon Woodruff (Brewers), Cade Horton (Cubs)
