The Los Angeles Dodgers are represented by Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the list of MLB Top-10 Starting Pitchers Right Now heading into the 2026 season.
The right-hander was ranked as the seventh-best starting pitcher for this year by MLB Network’s The Shredder. It is the first time in Yamamoto’s career that he made the list.
Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal was ranked as the No. 1 starting pitcher going into the 2026 season. He’s followed by Pittsburgh Pirates star Paul Skenes, who claimed the top spot last year.
The rest of the list is comprised of Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler (No. 3), Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves, the Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez, Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox, Yamamoto, the Houston Astros’ Hunter Brown, Max Fried of the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds’ Hunter Greene.
Blake Snell, who was ranked as the fifth-best starting pitcher for the 2025 season, did not make this year’s list. However, MLB Network host Brian Kenny included the left-hander in his personal rankings (ninth), as well as Yamamoto in the No. 3 spot.
Meanwhile, Tyler Glasnow fell in the just-missed category for the second consecutive season. Shohei Ohtani also wasn’t featured in The Shredder’s top-10 rankings for starting pitchers.
Key factors that The Shredder takes into account when compiling its positional rankings include past performance, advanced stats and traditional numbers, as well as analysis by the MLB Network research team.
An All-Star for the first time in 2025, Yamamoto went 12-8 with a 2.49 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 10.4 strikeouts per nine while also setting career-highs in innings pitched (173.2) and starts (30).
Yamamoto was particularly dominant in the postseason, going 5-1 with a 1.45 ERA and 0.78 WHIP over 37.1 innings across six games (five starts). He put together one of the greatest performances in World Series history, going the distance in Game 2 before earning the win in two consecutive elimination matchups on the road against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Yamamoto tossed 2.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen in the winner-take-all Game 7 just one day after throwing six frames of one-run ball.
He posted a 1.02 ERA and 0.68 WHIP with 15 strikeouts against two walks in 17.2 innings across his three appearances en route to winning World Series MVP honors.
MLB Top-10 Starting Pitchers Right Now for 2026
| Rank | The Shredder | Brian Kenny |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tarik Skubal (Tigers) | Paul Skenes (Pirates) |
| 2 | Paul Skenes (Pirates) | Tarik Skubal (Tigers) |
| 3 | Zack Wheeler (Phillies) | Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers) |
| 4 | Chris Sale (Braves) | Garrett Crochet (Red Sox) |
| 5 | Cristopher Sánchez (Phillies) | Cristopher Sánchez (Phillies) |
| 6 | Garrett Crochet (Red Sox) | Hunter Greene (Reds) |
| 7 | Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers) | Hunter Brown (Astros) |
| 8 | Hunter Brown (Astros) | Max Fried (Yankees) |
| 9 | Max Fried (Yankees) | Blake Snell (Dodgers) |
| 10 | Hunter Greene (Reds) | Logan Webb (Giants) |
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