Ranking the 10 best pitchers in the 2026 MLB season so far

A couple months into the 2026 MLB season, the Cy Young race has taken on a new shape in both the National League and the American League. Tarik Skubal is hurt. Paul Skenes is still dominant, but he's at least fallible. And more electric arms are coming out of the woodwork to remind us that the kids will, in fact, be okay. At least when it comes to success on the mound.

Let's dive into MLB as a whole and attempt to condense the best pitchers into a list of 10, with decorated aces up against the next generation of stars.

Honorable mentions: Jacob deGrom (Texas Rangers), José Soriano (Los Angeles Angels), Braxton Ashcraft (Pittsburgh Pirates), Shota Imanaga (Chicago Cubs), Bryce Elder (Atlanta Braves)

10. Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers

Shohei Ohtani has found himself unusually devoid of power at the plate, but he's still the frontrunner for NL MVP, in large part due to his dominance on the mound. He has fewer innings under his belt than other Cy Young-caliber starters, but pound for pound, there's a case for slotting him even higher on this list. The man is pure filth right now.

Ohtani's luck will deplete eventually, but it's not exactly propping him up either. He has five-plus pitches, all of which he commands well. He leans hard on a high-90s heater and his best secondary pitch is a mid-80s sweeper, neither of which opposing hitters can figure out right now. Ohtani gets a lot of ride up in the zone and he puts as much break as anybody on the off-speed stuff. It's wise to take a moment every now and again to reflect on just how absurdly talented Ohtani is. He's the best player in baseball.

9. Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves

Atlanta's lineup is a wagon, but the reason the Braves are a cut above the competition right now is because their rotation continues to perform. Chris Sale, at the ripe age of 37, is still the ace of the staff. The big southpaw toggles effortlessly between a loopy slider and a firm fastball, with a changeup that typically serves as a death sentence once he gets around to it. Sale's ability to pound the edges of the zone and keep hitters in the dark, at his age, really does defy all common wisdom.

The Braves will need Sale to stay healthy, but there are few more dependable frontline starters in MLB. Lefties are hopeless against him and Sale's stuff is still too sharp for righties to make up the difference. Ask managers off the record who they'd hand-pick for a high-leverage postseason starter, and Sale is probably a popular answer.

8. Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates

Paul Skenes allowed five earned runs and recorded one out in an Opening Day meltdown spurred by a few Oneil Cruz lowlights in center field. Since then, save for a touch-and-go start against St. Louis last week, he's basically the best pitcher in baseball again. It's hard to win back-to-back Cy Young awards, but Skenes is very much positioned to copy Tarik Skubal and run it back, especially with Pittsburgh actually winning some of his starts now.

Skenes has tamped down the velocity a little bit compared to his explosive debut in 2024, but the fastball remains elusive, with a comical .111 opponent average against his signature offering. He has come to rely on his changeup more often and with similar success, while Skenes' sweeping fades across the zone like a phantom. His blend of power and precision is unmatched; Skenes has so few holes in his repertoire.

7. Dylan Cease, Toronto Blue Jays

The Tarik Skubal injury has opened the door for Dylan Cease to stake his claim in the AL Cy Young race. Toronto raised a lot of eyebrows when it handed Cease a seven-year, $210 million contract in the early days of free agency. The Jays are still waiting for their lineup to fully come to life, but the rotation is nails with Cease leading the way.

What makes Cease special, beyond the high strikeout numbers, is his durability. He's so consistent, so available, on a year-to-year basis. The results can fluctuate, as Cease struggles with command from time to time, but he's working out of jams this season because nobody can catch him with the solid part of the bat. He's in the 96th percentile for whiff rate and the 97th percentile for strikeouts, able to use his fastball (a very good pitch) to set up his slider (an elite pitch).

6. Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee Bucks

Jacob Misiorowski is a closer trapped in a starting role, but it's somehow sustainable. He literally threw the seven fastest pitches for a starter in recorded MLB history in the first two innings of last week's win over the Yankees. He can flirt with 104 and he's regularly over 100 with his fastball, with elite slider and curveball offerings he can mix in whenever. Also, his changeup, though a solid fourth in Misiorowski's pecking order, is basically a free out pitch against lefties. That changeup can touch the mid-90s, by the way.

He still needs to cut down on walks, but when Misiorowski works in the zone, his success rate is through the roof. He's the most prolific strikeout pitcher in the National League, with the exception of top relievers, and he's only at the beginning of his career, with less than a full MLB season under his belt. If Miz ever irons out the command issues (and if his elbow does not explode), he could accomplish truly historic things in Milwaukee.

5. Max Fried, New York Yankees

Max Fried hasn't lost a step since signing a historic contract in New York. If anything, he has found another gear. The talented southpaw comes at hitters in waves, each a slight variation on the last. His three-prong fastball arsenal — cutter, sinker, four-seamer — peppers the zone and generates a ton of soft, easy contact. Not even the Yankees' infield can mess it up.

When he needs to mix it up even further, Fried has a killer 12-6 curve and a changeup, the latter of which serves as his best swing-and-miss pitch. The deep arsenal, impeccable command, and penchant for weathering storms (his postseason résumé notwithstanding) has Fried in the frontrunner conversation for the AL Cy Young Award right now.

4. Nolan McLean, New York Mets

It was fair to wonder if we were all a bit premature in crowning Nolan McLean as MLB's next great ace after just eight starts on a torpedoing Mets team last year. Perhaps it was smarter to wait on a larger sample size. Perhaps the league just needed more time to figure him out. Through eight starts this season, however, it all feels very real. And wholly sustainable.

McLean is a 24-year-old with the poise of a multi-time All-Star a decade his senior. He piles up soft ground balls with his sinker. The four-seamer can ride up in the zone and paint corners. His sweeper glides across the plate in slow motion and never touches a barrel. His curveball allows his opponents to test out their golf swings, often unsuccessfully. He has a pitch for every situation. He mixes speeds and location and he never gets sped up or overconfident, unlike the vast majority of rookie pitchers who arrive in the majors and eventually fly too close to the sun.

3. Cristopher Sánchez, Philadelphia Phillies

Cristopher Sánchez's journey from low-level prospect to unflappable ace in Philadelphia deserves more shine. He finished runner-up in Cy Young voting last season and he could end up right back in the conversation this season. An inflated WHIP is more the result of a bad Phillies defense than anything Sánchez has done wrong, even if he hasn't thrown his sharpest stuff every week. And even without his sharpest stuff, Sánchez can patiently sidestep trouble and find ways to minimize damage, almost without fail.

He's a proper workhorse, typically on the mound into the sixth or seventh inning in each start. Sánchez mixes an elite 96th percentile groundball rate with real swing-and-miss ability. His changeup has long been a strength, but it may now be the single most effective offering in baseball. He can stack them, one after another, and hitters will wave over the top every time. Sánchez, frankly, could be even better than he has been this year. He's a special, special pitcher.

2. Cam Schlittler, New York Yankees

As if it weren't enough for the Yankees to overwhelm opponents with their superpowered lineup — with an established ace in Max Fried to anchor their rotation and future Hall of Famer Gerrit Cole due back midseason — Cam Schlittler is on an absolute scorcher for New York to begin his first full season in the majors. The 25-year-old, not unlike Fried, has three distinct "fastball" offerings, each of which serve a purpose.

Schlittler can work up in the zone with force, he can play the finesse game around the knees, and if all else fails, he has a curveball to sneak into the mix on occasion, which is effectively a setup pitch to keep hitters in the lurch. His poise and command is deeply uncommon for such a young pitcher, and we've already seen Schlittler hold up in October. There is every reason to believe the Yankees are in for another very special career on the mound.

1. Mason Miller, San Diego Padres

Mason Miller is on a rare trajectory. We haven't seen a closer win the Cy Young in two decades, and it's harder now than ever with our improved understanding of cumulative analytics. And yet, Miller might break the spell and put his name in the history books. His preposterous 55.9 percent strikeout rate in by far the best in baseball. His whiff rate (58.1 percent) is equally mind-bending.

Miller has refined his technique to become the most dominant reliever in the sport. This is why San Diego gave up a potentially generational talent in 19-year-old Leo De Vries. Miller anchors the top bullpen in MLB, with a fastball that sits around 101 MPH and a wipeout slider that he can dink and dunk all over the zone. He has thrown 11 changeups this season and allowed zero hits, with a 100 percent putaway rate, off of what is essentially an afterthought in his arsenal — a little trick he keeps in his back pocket, just in case a hitter can lock in on his primaries. Pound for pound, really nobody is doing it better right now.

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