Ranking MLB's Top 10 Starting Pitching Duos

If you have two elite pitchers at the top of your rotation, there's a pretty good chance you're a contending team. Case in point, every duo's team listed here has real playoff hopes.

Before getting into the countdown, it's important to address pitchers with injuries, of which there are unfortunately quite a few currently. Those who are set to return this season—such as Gerrit Cole and Justin Steele—qualified for this list. However, pitchers like Spencer Strider and Sandy Alcántara, who are out for the season, weren't considered.

Additionally, while the first month of the season was taken into account, so too was the back of the baseball card. A pitcher with a sustained track record of success wasn't altogether dismissed on this countdown if April hasn't gone their way.

With that in mind, here's a ranking of the 10 best starting pitching duos in baseball.

Atlanta Braves: Max Fried and Chris Sale

If Strider was healthy, he and Fried would have been in contention for the top spot. But Fried, who is in a contract year, is off to a rough start. Sale has been mostly impressive over his first five starts with the Braves, but 2019 was the last time that the seven-time All-Star made more than 20 starts in a season. Between Fried's 4.97 ERA and Sale's recent injury history, Atlanta just missed making this list.

Minnesota Twins: Pablo López and Joe Ryan

Pablo López has gotten off to a slow start in 2024 but was an All-Star and finished seventh in American League Cy Young Award voting in his first season with the Twins. Of course, the Twins lost last year's AL Cy Young runner-up when Sonny Gray left to sign a three-year, $75 million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals this past offseason. Ryan posted a 4.05 ERA across 56 starts between 2022 and 2023. So far in 2024, he's looked up to the challenge of trying to help the Twins to make up for the loss of Gray. Ryan has a 3.45 ERA and 2.81 FIP over his first five starts of the season.

Kansas City Royals: Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo

Since being acquired by the Royals last summer in the trade that sent Aroldis Chapman to the Texas Rangers, Ragans has a 3.01 ERA and 2.40 FIP over 18 starts. Lugo has a 1.66 ERA over his first six starts with the Royals, after earning a three-year, $45 million deal in free agency. It was very difficult to exclude this tandem.

Detroit Tigers: Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize

Skubal has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball since returning from flexor tendon surgery last summer, having gone 10-3 with a 2.54 ERA and 4.3 WAR over 20 starts. Mize—the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 MLB draft—missed all of 2023 as he recovered from both Tommy John and back surgeries. Still only 26, Mize has impressed in his first four starts this season, but that's not a large enough sample size for him to be considered a legitimate No. 2 just yet.

Boston Red Sox: Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck

This was the hardest tandem to decide what to do with. Before the season, the Red Sox starting rotation looked like it would be a weakness, particularly once Lucas Giolito was lost for the season. But Crawford and Houck are currently first and second in WAR among starting pitchers, per FanGraphs. Crawford had a nice season a year ago, posting a 4.04 ERA and 3.83 FIP over 129.1 innings pitched, but nothing like the 1.56 ERA and 2.52 FIP he currently has. Meanwhile, Houck has a 1.60 ERA and 1.99 FIP across six starts, after finishing 2023 with a 5.01 ERA and 4.43 FIP over 106 innings pitched. Call us crazy, we'd like to see them do it a little longer than a month before putting them on a list like this.

Verlander is one of the greatest pitchers in modern MLB history and has looked good over his first two starts, with his fastball averaging 94 mph and only two earned runs allowed across 10.1 innings pitched.

But at age 41, Verlander is no longer the workhorse he was at the height of his powers. He's only a couple years removed from his third AL Cy Young Award, but the Astros do need to manage him a bit considering he missed most of the first month with right shoulder inflammation.

Meanwhile, Valdez has recently been activated from the injured list himself. He's been one of the best pitchers in baseball since the start of the 2021 season, with a 3.11 ERA and 3.46 FIP over 546.1 innings pitched. However, he's coming back from left elbow inflammation, so that's something to monitor.

Ronel Blanco doesn't yet qualify as one of Houston's top two starters considering all that Verlander and Valdez have accomplished with the franchise. But Blanco deserves a mention here because he's already thrown a no-hitter as part of what looks to be a breakout season. And with the way things have gone for the Astros, they're gonna need all the help they can get to climb out of an early hole and reach the playoffs.

Justin Steele suffered a left hamstring strain in his Opening Day start against the Texas Rangers but is set to make a Triple-A rehab start this week, so it doesn't sound as though his return is especially far off.

A year ago, Steele was an All-Star for the first time, going 16-5 with a 3.06 ERA and 4.9 WAR across 173.1 innings pitched for the Cubs. Steele finished fifth in National League Cy Young Award voting.

Steele will be rejoining a starting rotation that's seen rookie Shota Imanaga emerge as a legitimate front-line option in his absence. The Cubs and Imanaga worked out a complicated contract to lure the 30-year-old over from Japan, and so far it looks very team-friendly. Imanaga is 4-0 with a minuscule 0.98 ERA.

Imanaga is going to come back down to earth to some degree, but with Steele returning, the Cubs have a chance to climb up even higher on this list as the year goes along.

This is one of the newer duos on this list, as Blake Snell joined the San Francisco Giants in March on a two-year, $62 million deal, which includes a player opt-out after 2024. So far, things aren't trending toward Snell exercising that opt-out.

Snell has an unsightly 11.57 ERA over his first three starts with the Giants, and is now on the injured list with a left abductor strain. On one hand, what Snell has been outside of his two Cy Young campaigns scared some teams off in free agency. On the other hand, he's a two-time Cy Young Award winner, and the most likely scenario when the 31-year-old returns is that he pitches at a high level.

Additionally, Snell really is the No. 2 in San Francisco to Logan Webb, who is off to another tremendous start with a 2.33 ERA over six starts. Ironically, Webb finished runner-up in NL Cy Young Award voting to Snell last season. Since the start of the 2021 season, Webb is fifth in both innings pitched (595.1) and WAR (14.0) among all starters in baseball.

A year ago, this might have been the best duo in the sport. Snell's slow start and injured list stint knock them down a few spots, but San Francisco's tandem has a higher ceiling.

This is a case where you want to take the first month of the season into account, but not overreact to it.

Yes, Kevin Gausman has a 5.57 ERA through his first five starts of 2024. But between 2021 and 2023, he finished second among all starting pitchers in FIP (2.48) and WAR (15.8). He's earned the benefit of the doubt.

If Gausman is indeed able to recover from a disastrous first month, Toronto will be in great shape. José Berríos had a bounce-back season a year ago and has been downright dominant in the early going of 2024. Berríos is 4-1 with a 1.23 ERA over six starts. His 313 ERA+ (100 is the league average) is the best mark among all AL pitchers.

Even if Berríos comes back down to earth a bit, if Gausman also finds his level, you'll be able to argue the Blue Jays should be even higher.

With Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller all on the injured list, the top two spots in the Dodgers' rotation could look very different by the time the postseason comes. But the Dodgers made major investments in Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto this past offseason, so it feels more than fair to say Los Angeles views both as aces.

Glasnow was acquired in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays and signed to a five-year, $136.6 million extension before ever throwing a pitch for the Dodgers. So far, so great. He's 5-1 with a 2.72 ERA. The biggest issue for Glasnow in his career has been durability. The 120 innings he pitched a year ago were a career high. He currently leads all pitchers with 43 innings pitched. Do the Dodgers have a plan to keep him healthier than the Rays did, or are they just operating under the belief that reinforcements are on the way and they need innings right now?

Yamamoto was arguably the top pitcher available on the free-agent market this past offseason. The Dodgers won the bidding for his services with a 12-year, $325 million deal. Yamamoto lasted just one inning in the first start of his big league career but has a 3.54 ERA and 2.66 FIP after six starts. Yamamoto hasn't yet gone longer than six innings, but the early returns largely suggest the 25-year-old is going to be a really good MLB pitcher.

Concerns about Glasnow's durability and a feeling like Yamamoto isn't quite at peak form yet hurt the Dodgers a bit on this countdown, but they still came in at No. 6, a sign of how talented this duo is.

Gerrit Cole is the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner and has been the best pitcher in baseball over the last six seasons. However, between his injury and some uncertainty behind him in the starting rotation, the Yankees couldn't be any higher than this.

Let's start with Cole: He ranked No. 1 on the B/R countdown of the top aces heading into the season but hasn't pitched yet this year as he's tried the rest-and-rehab approach to nerve inflammation and edema in his pitching elbow. So far so good, but Cole hasn't even thrown a bullpen session yet, let alone made a rehab appearance. There are still quite a few boxes to check before he's back on the mound in the Bronx.

You could make a case that Marcus Stroman is the No. 2 behind Cole, as he was signed to a two-year, $37 million deal this offseason at least in part because the Yankees weren't sure what to expect from Carlos Rodón. So far, Stroman has a 2.93 ERA and 4.17 FIP over five starts in pinstripes.

Ultimately, Rodón is the pitcher that's in the second season of a six-year, $162 million deal, so the pressure to be the No. 2 starter goes to him. Rodón had a disastrous first campaign with the Yankees, going 3-8 with a 6.85 ERA across 14 starts. However, he earned that deal by finishing third among all pitchers in WAR between 2021 and 2022, and the Yankees need something closer to that version to re-emerge. Rodón has pretty similar numbers to Stroman so far this season, with a 2.70 ERA and 4.14 FIP.

Whatever order you want to put this duo in, they are a tremendous pairing and headline probably the most underrated rotation in baseball.

Castillo was an All-Star for the third time a year ago, finishing fifth in AL Cy Young Award voting in his first full season with the Mariners. His 4.15 ERA so far this season doesn't jump off the page, but both his 3.22 FIP and track record of success suggest he's going to wind up having another strong campaign.

Gilbert has emerged as a front-line starter over the last two seasons, posting a 3.47 ERA over 376.1 innings for the M's. If that wasn't enough to make him a household name nationally, what he's doing so far in 2024 should be. Gilbert is 2-0 with a 1.87 ERA and 0.80 WHIP through five starts this season.

On top of Castillo and Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryce Miller give manager Scott Servais tremendous length in this rotation. If only they had a lineup to match their great pitching staff.

Zac Gallen is one of baseball's best pitchers, having posted consecutive top-five finishes in NL Cy Young Award voting, including finishing as high as third a year ago. He and Merrill Kelly were the duo that helped the Snakes make a surprising World Series run last year, but the Diamondbacks didn't rest on their laurels this offseason, adding two big-time arms.

While Eduardo Rodríguez has yet to make his debut with the team because of a lat strain, Arizona swooped in just days before the regular season started and signed former Texas Rangers World Series hero Jordan Montgomery to a one-year, $25 million deal, which includes a $25 million vesting option that the lefty can opt out of if he so chooses.

Arizona took advantage of one of the better left-handed pitchers in baseball having a miserable stint in free agency and bolstered its rotation by adding Montgomery's services. Montgomery has a 2.77 ERA after his first two starts with the Diamondbacks.

Gallen and Montgomery are the top two options in this rotation, but both Kelly and Brandon Pfaadt played key roles in Arizona getting to the World Series last year. If Rodríguez returns and pitches well, this could be the best rotation in baseball.

The Orioles acquired former NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes from the Milwaukee Brewers during spring training, and so far the three-time All-Star has been just what the doctor ordered atop the rotation of the defending AL East champions.

Burnes is 3-0 with a 2.55 ERA over his first six start with the O's. He projects to be the top pitcher available in free agency next offseason, and you can't help but think that signing him to a megadeal would be a great way for a new ownership group in Baltimore to endear itself to the city.

Kyle Bradish is set to return to the rotation this week after opening the season on the injured list with a right UCL sprain. You always worry about elbow injuries getting reaggravated, but Bradish has successfully built up through rehab outings to get back to this point. Bradish posted a 2.34 ERA after the All-Star break a season ago, ultimately placing fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting.

Burnes and Bradish have a chance to be as good of a one-two punch as anyone in the league. If Grayson Rodriguez gets on track and/or general manager Mike Elias taps into the incredible farm system depth the Orioles have to acquire another front-line starter, the rotation could help carry them to a World Series title.

The Phillies have recently committed $298 million to make sure that Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola stay atop their rotation for the foreseeable future, and it's not hard to see why.

Since Wheeler joined the Phillies in 2020, he's been probably the second-best pitcher in baseball, behind only the aforementioned Cole. Over parts of five seasons in red pinstripes, Wheeler leads all pitchers with 20.6 WAR, according to FanGraphs. He's also developed into a workhorse, as his 666 2/3 innings pitched over that period are second in baseball.

The only pitcher who has thrown more innings than Wheeler over that period is Nola, who has logged a league-leading 690 innings since the start of the 2020 campaign. Nola isn't as dominant as Wheeler and is prone to giving up some home runs. At the same time, there's a reason a slew of contenders were interested in Nola last offseason before the Phillies re-signed him. He has two top-five NL Cy Young finishes (2018 and 2022) on his resume and is probably the most reliable pitcher in terms of taking the mound every five days as there is in baseball right now.

What's scary for the rest of the league is that Ranger Suárez has pitched very much like an ace early in 2024, while the Phillies have gotten strong production out of Spencer Turnbull and Cristopher Sánchez as well. Wheeler and Nola are the best duo in the sport and might headline the top starting rotation in baseball.

All WAR references via FanGraphs