Happy Monday, Razzball faithful!

We’re officially halfway through April this week! We’ve got the excitement of surprising starts, the giddiness of percolating breakouts, and, of course, the reality that is starting pitcher injuries.

Because, of course, there are injuries. So many Eflin injuries.

We hear it every Spring. “I can’t believe how many of my pitchers are hurt already! What is going on?”

Looking through the MLB IL list yesterday, 37 starting pitchers who have appeared on our Top 100 list this year are currently sidelined with myriad injuries. (39 if you count Jordan Montgomery and Shane Bieber!)

I’ve been known to say it. I’m sure you’ve heard it a lot too. Just remember that while it feels like there are so many more injuries to our players this year compared to last, it’s an unavoidable truth. Starting pitchers are going to get hurt.

The problem is, that that tiny slice of solace of knowing that injuries are expected doesn’t make it easier to stomach losing a top-tier arm for an extended period. 

For today, I’ll keep most of the list intact. In the notes section, I’ll highlight these injuries and give you a short report of news about the return of your Eflin pitcher…or any of the other ones you might have rostered.

But, as always, before we get into it, don’t forget to lock in your Razzball Fantasy Baseball Subscription. This should be your go-to reference for the entire season. It will save you a lot of time researching and often includes solutions to those “Oh, I never thought about that” questions that arise throughout the year. The Streamonator is also a helpful resource when making lineup decisions. Rudy’s tools are well worth the price of admission. If you’re serious about improving throughout the season, check the link, yo.

The Top 100 Starting Pitchers for 2025

SP RANK	Name	Team	UP / DOWN	Notes
1	Paul Skenes	PIT		The king looked a bit more like a pauper last week at home vs STL. 5 ER on 6 hits in 6 IPs isn’t great, but he did strike out 7 and walked just one.
2	Tarik Skubal	DET		Skubes finally won one (stutter!) last week.
3	Zack Wheeler	PHI
4	Logan Gilbert	SEA
5	Garrett Crochet	BOS		Had a no-hitter going with 11 Ks through 7 IP when I wrote this up yesterday. Edit: I jinxed him. No-hitter was broken up in the 8th.
6	Cole Ragans	KC		One strikeout below Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the MLB lead.
7	Yoshinobu Yamamoto	LAD		Here’s your league leader in strikeouts and an upward mover because of slips from his surrounding peers.
8	Michael King	SD		Tamed the A’s bats at Bing Bong Stadium for a W. That in itself is impressive.
9	Framber Valdez	HOU
10	Hunter Greene	CIN		3 ER in 4 GS. 27.2 IP with 31 Ks. The ratios are elite. I felt a bit silly boosting him up this high until I looked at the numbers. Now? Not so silly anymore.
11	Dylan Cease	SD		He got stung at Bing Bong Stadium for 9 ER last week, so he slides a bit. I’m still fully in though.
12	Tyler Glasnow	LAD		5 BBs in 2 IPs last week right after I submitted my write-up. I’m hoping the command blip was just because of the nasty weather.
13	Shota Imanaga	CHC		The strikeouts aren’t there and he got roughed up for 5 ER last week.
14	Corbin Burnes	ARI
15	Chris Sale	ATL		The Ks are there. And he’s still healthy. But the ERs are there too.
16	Spencer Schwellenbach	ATL		With ratios, strikeout totals, and BBs like that, he’s certainly bringing Sexy Bach.
17	George Kirby	SEA		M’s GM said Kirby “felt great” throwing a bullpen last week. Hopefully, he’ll be back when expected. (May 2nd).
18	Spencer Strider	ATL		This is the one bit of injury excitement today. Yesterday, on the Blue Jays broadcast, Dan Schulman said that Strider is expected to start on Wednesday in Toronto.
19	Jacob deGrom	TEX		He’s not hurt! Yet? <Eyes emoji>
20	Zac Gallen	ARI		Last week’s lede got pushed around by Baltimore.
21	Sonny Gray	STL		Mister Underrated is 2-0 and rolling along with a 10.69 K/9.
22	Bryce Miller	SEA
23	Freddy Peralta	MLW
24	Roki Sasaki	LAD
25	Bryan Woo	SEA		I watched some of his start Saturday night on the way home from music trivia. We won. So did Woo.
26	Cristopher Sanchez	PHI		He only had 3 Ks on Friday night in STL, but he’s limiting walks and has looked really good.
27	Pablo Lopez	MIN		More below.
28	Bailey Ober	MIN		Two earned in his last 10 IPs is a nice correction from the March Massacre (8 ER on March 30th).
29	Joe Ryan	MIN
30	Logan Webb	SF
31	Max Fried	NYY		A 7.0 K/BB is good for 12th overall (tied with three others).
32	Tanner Bibee	CLE		Hasn’t thrown 6 complete innings yet (3 starts).
33	Luis Castillo	SEA		He hasn’t given up more than two earned in any of his three starts. He’ll be climbing soon if he can keep this up.
34	Robbie Ray	SFG		He’s won all three of his starts. Well on his way to a 32-0 season!
35	Sandy Alcantara	MIA
36	Hunter Brown	HOU
37	Aaron Nola	PHI
38	Jesus Luzardo	PHI		More below.
39	Kodai Senga	NYM
40	Kevin Gausman	TOR		10 Ks at Fenway last week make up for the zero he had the week before at NYM.
41	Jack Flaherty	DET
42	Blake Snell	LAD		More below.
43	Shane Baz	TB		Baz had his start skipped yesterday. He should get the Red Sox today.
44	Taj Bradley	TB		11.12 K/9 so far? Yep. That’ll work!
45	Mackenzie Gore	WSH		Gore is tied with Cole Ragans for 2nd in strikeouts (27) and just one behind Yamamoto. He was at 7 Ks through 5 IP yesterday when I wrote this up.
46	Nathan Eovaldi	TEX
47	Clay Holmes	NYM		More below.
48	Seth Lugo	KC
49	Dustin May	LAD		See: deGrom, Jacob above.
50	Yusei Kikuchi	LAA		He’s been meh so far. The strikeouts are still there, but so are the walks and ERs.
51	Carlos Rodon	NYY		8 Ks in 5.2 IP yesterday but another two homers allowed in the no-decision.
52	Gavin Williams	CLE
53	Bowden Francis	TOR		I sat both him and Sugano in their matchup Friday night.
54	Nick Pivetta	SD		Threw a gem against COL last week. 7 IP, 3  H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 10 Ks.
55	Ryan Pepiot	TB
56	Jackson Jobe	DET
57	Max Meyer	MIA		It’s not a loud breakout by any means, but Meyer has been good.
58	Nick Lodolo	CIN
59	David Peterson	NYM
60	Brandon Pfaadt	ARI		He needed last week’s 0 ER, 0 HR allowed outing. The first two starts were not good.
61	Ronel Blanco	HOU
62	Tanner Houck	BOS
63	Justin Steele	CHC		More below.
64	Zach Eflin	BAL		More below.
65	Reese Olson	DET
66	Jeffrey Springs	ATH
67	Jose Soriano	LAA		So far, he’s managed to curb the walks and record nearly a strikeout per inning. We might have a breakout here, folks.
68	Kris Bubic	KC		The preseason sleeper list darling is throwing well.
69	Jack Leiter	TEX		Pitching talent AND blisters run in the Leiter family. Al Junior will return this week if no new problems “bubble up to the surface” before then.
70	Clarke Schmidt	NYY		Shoulder soreness. Scheduled to return Wednesday vs KC (Bubic).
71	Jose Berrios	TOR		Strikeouts and home runs. Same old story with Berrios.
72	Michael Wacha	KC
73	Walker Buehler	BOS
74	Matthew Boyd	CHC
75	Spencer Arrighetti	HOU		More below.
76	Mitch Keller	PIT		The Jekyll and Hyde act continues. 7 ER vs NYY two weeks ago then 7 IP of 4 H, 0 ER with 1 BB, and 6 Ks last week vs STL.
77	Chris Bassitt	TOR
78	Tomoyuki Sugano	BAL		Sat him and Bowden in their matchup Friday night.
79	Casey Mize	DET		Mize got beat up at MIN a bit yesterday, but
80	Drew Rasmussen	TB
81	Brady Singer	CIN
82	Landon Roupp	SFG
83	Will Warren	NYY		I had him queued up to drop for Gonsolin in a mixed league FAAB Saturday night then canceled it after he had a good home start vs SFG.
84	Sean Burke	CWS		I still believe…but he might drop faster than the attendance totals in Chicago if he doesn’t turn it around soon.
85	Hayden Wesneski	HOU		10 Ks yesterday vs LAA, combined with some rotation security, moves him up a bit today.
86	Kumar Rocker	TEX		He didn’t look terrible against Woo on Saturday night, but the stamina isn’t there yet.
87	David Festa	MIN		More below.
88	Zebby Matthews	MIN		More below.
89	Griffin Canning	NYM		He’s healthy and serviceable. That’s better than the next two (for now).
90	Brayan Bello	BOS		On his way back from shoulder trouble. Alex Cora said he’ll have one more minor league start before returning to Fenway.
91	Richard Fitts	BOS		It’s never a good thing when a Dick (Fitts) experiences some pain. The official word is shoulder soreness. He was removed as a precaution Saturday night.
92	Ben Brown	CHC		11 innings, 10 ER, and 9 BBs before he rolled into LAD stadium and manhandled them on Friday night.
93	Nestor Cortes	MLW		A lot of the injured arms have already been removed from the list. Nestor is likely the next one to disappear, but I want to see how the “platelet-rich injection” works out first.
94	Jameson Taillon	CHC
95	Max Scherzer	TOR		The thumb injection caused some “lingering tightness”. He’s due back next week, but this feels like the first in a season full of injury hassles.
96	Luis Severino	ATH
97	Justin Verlander	SFG
98	Taijuan Walker	PHI		More below.
99	Grant Holmes	ATL
100	Yu Darvish	SD		The targeted return date is May 1st.

JUMPERS (The following players are some who jumped up the rankings this week)

Jesus Luzardo – I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but Luzardo was a guy I used for a ton of innings in the new installment of MLB The Show when it came out in mid-March. With 25 Ks in 18.1 IP, the Xbox and PlayStation are the only places he’ll have more strikeouts than in real life. If you bought into the sleeper hype this Spring, it’s paying off big time. He’s 3rd on the Streamonator for this week’s double start too.

Clay Holmes – His 12.76 K/9 sneaks right in at the bottom of the Top 5 in the league. The talent is there but I’m still concerned about how many innings we’ll get. He’ll move up even more if he keeps this up.

David Festa – This is the first of two youngsters who should more than make up for the innings lost by Pablo Lopez (more on that below). Festa gets the boost because he got the call first and looked good in Friday’s no-decision. The word is that the Twins are contemplating going with a 6-man rotation with Festa and…

Zebby Matthews – Zebby is the Twins second kid-arm who should be owned in every league. Minnesota has themselves covered quite nicely with Festa and Matthews looking like they can pick up the slack.

Mike wrote up Zebby in his FAAB article this week. Have a peek!

DUMPERS (With apologies to Cal Raleigh, these are some of the big dumpers who dropped in the rankings this week)

Blake Snell – It’s a bit of galaxy-braining to think that one way for Snell to avoid having a poor first half is to avoid pitching altogether, but that’s not what we were looking for when we drafted him as our ace. The report is vague as the Dodgers said he’ll be “shut down from throwing until Monday (today)”. Monitor the news here. I picked up Tony Gonsolin in a mixed league as a ‘just in case’ move. He struck out seven in 3.1 IP in a minor league start last Wednesday. He’s not a real ‘dumper’ this week just because I dropped him down in last week’s list.

Zach Eflin – Eflin was placed on the IL with a lat strain last Wednesday. “The Google” says that mild strains take 2-3 weeks to heal, Grade 2 strains take over a month to get better, and Grade 3 means surgery (4-6 month recovery time). The bad news is Eflin spent time on the IL three times last year with shoulder and back injuries. The good news is he hasn’t had lat trouble before.

Spencer Arrighetti – What a brutal stroke of bad luck. There’s an Arthur Fonzarelli joke somewhere here, but the bottom line is that Arrighetti’s thumb is not in good shape.

Ugh. Thumbs down.

As far as replacements are concerned, this should open the door further for guys like Hayden Wesneski and Lance McCullers (‘member him?!). McCullers has pitched twice in the minors without experiencing any setbacks and might return in a couple of weeks.

If those two names don’t tickle your fancy, check in on a hot pickup this week – Ryan Gusto. And if you don’t immediately think of this when you read that name…well, you’re a different person than I am.

Justin Steele – This one is tough to write up. Anyone who has read my words over the past couple of years knows I’m not a big Steele fan. I didn’t draft him anywhere but was quick to admit that he would have a good year if he could stay healthy. Well, like RotoSurgeon pointed out on Saturday, this is the third time he’s hit the IL in three years with elbow trouble. The added OOF factor is the Cubs are seeking a second opinion on his pitching elbow. Second opinions rarely report anything positive. Similar to Hayden Wesneski above, Ben Brown and Colin Rea should get a longer leash for a while here. Edit: Shortly after I wrote this the Cubs announced that Steele will have season ending surgery.

Pablo Lopez – The good news is Lopez’s injury is a “Grade 1 hamstring pull”. That’s music to any manager’s ears when we’re talking about pitcher injuries. I didn’t move him down too much as he should only need the minimum to recover.

WHEE! – These players vaulted onto the Top 100 list this week.

David Festa

Zebby Matthews

Taijuan Walker – To be honest, I toyed with the idea of adding both Walker and Mitchell Parker this week. Taijuan is riding a 10.2-inning scoreless streak with 9 Ks and 0 HR allowed in two starts. I wouldn’t be dropping anyone of consequence for him, but if you’re stuck to add an arm while one of your pitchers is injured, it’s rarely a bad idea to ride the hot hand. His grip on a rotation spot might not last long, though. Ranger Suarez is due back on April 25th.

OOF! – These players fell off the Top 100 list this week.

AJ Smith Shawver – He gets the soft axe today, which means he’s not a bad starter, but I don’t trust him. For what it’s worth, I typed that up and was about to add that he’s likely headed to the minors when Strider returns only to see that it had already happened yesterday when I was writing.

Chris Paddack – 0-2 with an ugly 9.49 ERA through three starts. Make way for the kids.

Nick Martinez – The strikeouts are still there. Kind of. But the nearly guaranteed hits and earned runs allowed are also still there. SP100 one week is the first one bumped when we need to make room for others.

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed it!  Drop some comments in the chat if you’re feeling extra fired up about some of the names I do (or don’t) have here. Best of luck if you’re drafting this week. I know I’m excited about the FIVE drafts I have before next Monday! Have a great week!

Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social