Given that the rankings are moving every day and these new tools are producing signals with every start, there is already a new set of working rankings linked in this Google doc for subscribers<\/a>. But before they go official next week, a few fast risers need more rigorous investigation. These 10 pitchers are those starters.<\/p>\n Kodai Senga, RHP, New York Mets<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 Up a tick-plus of velo on the four-seamer, forkball and sinker The Ghost Fork is still Senga\u2019s best pitch, and command is still not the best aspect of his game, but Senga did enough work on the rest of his arsenal to think that he has legitimately put his late-season struggles last year to bed. DRA might be worried about those walks and has him near league average, and Stuff+ doesn\u2019t actually like the changes to his sweeper, but it\u2019s new. And having a league-average four-seamer and cutter next to a forkball that is elite against lefties and righties seems like it\u2019s a complete arsenal to me. He also gets the benefit of a nice home park at Citi Field.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll bump up the expected innings on the season because he seems healthy and he\u2019s a lock to be in the top 50 in the rankings, if not higher.<\/p>\n Connelly Early, LHP, Boston Red Sox<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 Added an inch of ride on the fastball Last year, Early had above-average stuff and elite command of a wide arsenal, which led to a great MLB debut that turned heads. Even before Johan Oviedo showed diminished velocity, lost his starter\u2019s role and then landed on the injured list, Early had been passing him on the Boston depth chart, making it less likely he would lose out on innings due to a roster crunch if he were pitching well. I got that wrong before the season and will try to figure out how to best roll secondary analysis (like who has options left) into my analysis.<\/p>\n Either way, Early\u2019s tweaking has mostly resulted in him being about the same as last year, and that\u2019s good news. Let\u2019s call the velocity drop in his second start weather-related and move him into the top 50. He\u2019d be higher if his strikeout-minus-walk rate were even above average, but it might be after his next start against the Cardinals on Friday.<\/p>\n Kyle Harrison, LHP, Milwaukee Brewers<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 New changeup with six inches more drop at the same velocity The new kick-change was the focus of the hype before the season started, and it is a beauty.<\/p>\n But the kick-change is getting hit hard right now, so it\u2019s only a theoretical strength for now. The spin on the pitch is pretty different from his other pitches, and the command has been inconsistent start to start \u2014 maybe hitters can spot it.<\/p>\n The good news is that Harrison also improved his fastball and slurve a little, pushing them to the best they\u2019ve ever been by Stuff+, and so SIERA, K-BB, and DRA all think he\u2019s a well-above-average pitcher. He\u2019s always had a good fastball, so lining up around the back end of the top 50 seems like a decent place to communicate that he does appear to be a new pitcher, but that there\u2019s still a little risk in the quality of his slurve and his previous levels of command.<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Soriano, RHP, Los Angeles Angels<\/p>\n In his last start, Soriano flashed all of the improvements to his arsenal that should contribute to a career year:<\/p>\n \u2022 His sinker showed an inch more drop and three inches more sideways movement Under the tutelage of Mike Maddux, Soriano\u2019s biggest alteration is the added four-seamer usage, which has made him more of a four-pitch pitcher against batters on both sides of the plate, has also given him an extra 11 inches more ride versus his sinker, and is his only pitch that is effective in the top of the zone. That\u2019s spread out the area that batters have to cover, and resulted in an uptick in swinging-strike rate, which has more signal in it even than strikeout rate this early in the season.<\/p>\n Right now, all of Soriano\u2019s indicators are pointing in the right direction, and he\u2019s always been a Stuff+ darling. Why isn\u2019t he ranked higher than the top 60? Well, he doesn\u2019t have a long history of striking guys out, ground-ball pitchers usually have worse WHIP numbers than their strikeout-heavy counterparts, and the Angels once again have a bottom-five defense, which looks like it might be meaningful despite the sample size<\/a>. Soriano might have an ERA in the mid-threes but also a WHIP over 1.30, which will sap some value.<\/p>\n Taj Bradley, RHP, Minnesota Twins<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 Added a little velo and an inch of ride to the four-seamer (plus some cut) All these changes have increased how Bradley\u2019s stuff ranks over every pitcher but Jake Irvin year-over-year, so they are significant alterations, even if they seem modest at first. The split-finger adjustment has really shored up the pitch, tightening the movement patterns and improving his command of it.<\/p>\n But despite this improvement and a mid-threes ERA projection with a 25 percent expected strikeout rate, I\u2019m not sure about moving him into the top 50. He still has below-average command on the fastball and cutter, and that has kept him from making the most of his standout stuff in the past. There\u2019s still some risk here.<\/p>\n Joey Cantillo, LHP, Cleveland Guardians<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 Added 11 inches of drop to the slider Call it tunneling, or call it pairing, but this arsenal from Cantillo has more competitive two-pitch combos than last year\u2019s. By throwing the changeup harder, and getting less movement on it, the pitch looks more like the fastball in terms of movement and spin. A true straight change, it now benefits mostly from the 10 mph velocity gap between it and the fastball.<\/p>\n By adding a ton of drop to his slider, he created a new pairing \u2014 the slider and curveball. The two pitches look somewhat alike in terms of spin and movement, but the slider is four ticks harder and has 11 inches less drop. So now Cantillo can throw the curve when they\u2019re expecting the slider and vice versa. Check out how the spin direction on his fastball, changeup, slider and curveball now overlap this year compared to last year in this visual from Baseball Savant.<\/p>\n This type of pairing between secondaries is notoriously hard for pitching models to capture, so for Cantillo to sit 92 on the fastball and benefit from tunneling secondaries and also have an above-average Stuff+ for a starter is really good news. Other lefties like Trevor Rogers and Kris Bubic seem to be beating the models in similar ways.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, those other two examples have better command than Cantillo. His SIERA, DRA, Stuff+ and K-BB all suggest he\u2019s better than average and should manage an ERA under four, but how much he beats that number by will have to do with how much he can limit the walks and limit the middle-middle that has sometimes led to home run issues in the past. In fantasy leagues where this is possible, he might be a good guy to hold while it\u2019s cold in Cleveland and trade before the fly balls get a temperature boost and turn into homers. Low velocity, low command is an uneasy pairing.<\/p>\n Shane McClanahan, LHP, Tampa Bay Rays<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 Four-seamer down two ticks and missing an inch-plus of ride It\u2019s not all good news for McClanahan, who lost 20 points of Stuff+ on the fastball due to all the injuries he\u2019s dealt with. There are some positives, though. The slider is still good and the changeup looks like it\u2019s even improved. It now has the profile of a kick-change. Both pitches are getting great results. Even his fastball is getting good results, when isolated.<\/p>\n The problem has been the command, which has turfed his K-BB, SIERA and DRA. I still see some hope in the secondaries and am going to keep him in the top 60 even though he hasn\u2019t finished five innings in a start yet. There\u2019s enough upside and demonstrated swing-and-miss to keep him clear of some of the more schedule-dependent pitchers who are ranked lower.<\/p>\n Janson Junk, RHP, Miami Marlins<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 Four-seamer up a tick in velocity and an extra inch of ride This was a complete revamp for Junk, which resulted in an extra 10 points of Stuff+. That may not be too surprising because he went to Driveline Baseball<\/a> for his offseason work and they have a proprietary version of Stuff+ that bears a strong resemblance to the one at FanGraphs. All that work has given him three pitches in the sweeper, slider and changeup that work on an entirely different plane than his arm angle, as you can see from the Baseball Savant image below.<\/p>\n The result on the field hasn\u2019t been a big uptick in strikeout rate, but with his elite command, he keeps the walk rate down and is poised to make the most of this uptick in stuff. SIERA preaches restraint, with a league-average number, but DRA says he\u2019s 17 percent better than league average. We\u2019ll split the middle \u2014 especially since he has such a nice home park \u2014 and make him a top-75 starter, limited mostly by his lower strikeout rate more than anything else.<\/p>\n Foster Griffin, LHP, Washington Nationals<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 Added a sweeper with plus sweep Griffin went to Japan and came back with one of the widest arsenals in the sport. Despite only averaging 92 mph on the fastball at a time when even the average lefty starter has two more ticks, he rates as having above-average stuff because his cutter has plus sideways movement and keeps righties off the plate. The splitter and sweeper he came back with are good out-pitches now, but the changeup gets the best results (making him yet another double off-speed guy<\/a>).<\/p>\n He\u2019s always had a reputation for good command, from scouting grades to walk rates in the minors, and his SIERA and DRA say he\u2019s comfortably better than average. He may beat his 4.30-ish ERA projections going forward, and his schedule looks doable for the foreseeable future. He will crack the top 100 for fantasy and is a modest positive score for the new front office in Washington.<\/p>\n Jack Kochanowicz, RHP, Los Angeles Angels<\/p>\n Changes<\/p>\n \u2022 Upped his arm angle seven degrees Once all about his super sinker, Kochanowicz underwent a ton of change in the offseason to broaden his arsenal to improve his splits against lefties and add some strikeouts. So far, so good, with even splits and the best strikeout rate he\u2019s shown at any level.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, it\u2019s still a mixed bag. His strikeout-minus-walk rate is half the average rate, his SIERA is near five and even his improved Stuff+ is only average for a starting pitcher. DRA likes what he\u2019s doing, though, saying he\u2019s 10 percent better than league average, and average would be an accomplishment after he was the worst starter in the league by at least one statistic<\/a> last year. He\u2019ll graduate to a level with other deep starters and streamers in fantasy, and can at least be a back-end starter for the Angels going forward.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Three more inches of drop, more slurve-y shape on the sweeper
\u2022 More horizontal movement on the sinker
\u2022 Increased usage of the sweeper and cutter<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cut the sweeper out of the arsenal almost completely
\u2022 Two inches more drop on the changeup<\/p>\n
\u2022 Four-seamer has two inches more ride
\u2022 Slurve has two inches more drop<\/p>\n
\u2022 He used his four-seamer almost double the amount he did last year, and it had a little more ride
\u2022 His curveball was a tick harder
\u2022 His splitter had an inch more drop
\u2022 He used both his splitter and slider more often<\/p>\n
\u2022 Added some drop to the splitter and used it more
\u2022 Added some drop to the cutter, making it sort of a gyro slider
\u2022 Added drop and sweep to the curveball<\/p>\n
\u2022 Added two ticks to the changeup
\u2022 Added two ticks to the curveball<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Cantillo.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Slider lost two ticks of velocity
\u2022 Changeup retained velocity and added five inches of drop<\/p>\n
\u2022 Added four inches of drop and two inches of horizontal to his changeup
\u2022 Added two inches of drop to his slider
\u2022 Added five inches of drop and an inch and a half of horizontal to his sweeper
\u2022 Added an inch of drop to the curveball<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Junk.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Added a splitter with plus drop
\u2022 Added a sinker with above-average horizontal break
\u2022 Added two inches of horizontal break to his curveball<\/p>\n
\u2022 Added a half-tick of velocity to every pitch, save the slider
\u2022 Added two inches of drop and an inch of horizontal to the changeup
\u2022 Added five inches of drop to the slider, making it more of a death ball or power curve
\u2022 Upped the usage of the four-seamer and changeup<\/p>\n