2026 Fantasy Baseball Season in Review – Starting Pitching Studs

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  • By Paul Williamson

    Last Updated on November 2, 2026 1:13 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: November 2, 2026

    We have a new collection of starting pitcher studs that really came up and delivered excellent results for fantasy managers, including some familiar faces.

    Who were this year’s fantasy studs on the mound? How much trust can we put into them for 2027?

    Let’s dive in.

    Jacob Misiorowski – Milwaukee Brewers

    My goodness.

    This man just went nuclear this year and was unreal, helping lead his team to their first ever World Series win and was a big reason many managers won their fantasy leagues this year.

    He returned a 1.80 ERA, 0.80 WHIP and 37.9% K%.

    That kind of K% is usually reserved for high-end relief pitchers as it is ridiculously hard for starting pitchers to strikeout batters at that rate.

    But when you throw 101+ with the most extension of any pitcher in the league (7.6 feet!), you can do that. That four-searmer had a +29 Run Value (RV), 40.2% whiff rate, .168 xBA and .230 xwOBA.

    The best news about his arsenal is that the four-seamer has friends that join the party.

    • Cutter – .261 xwOBA, .308 xSLG
    • Slider – .237 xwOBA, 35.3% whiff%
    • Curve – .167 xwOBA, 43.9% whiff%

    The Miz is not a one-trick pitch pony. So, entering 2027 and beyond, we do not need him to continue to hit these other-worldly velocity numbers for him to be the best pitcher in baseball.

    He could tone it down to ‘just’ 99-100, hit 103 when he needs it, and rely a little more on his filthy secondaries.

    I don’t think there is much debate as to who the first starting pitcher off the board will be as how early he gets drafted overall will depend on overall draft strategy.

    If you are not one to draft starters in the first round, then you will miss out (and I don’t blame you, especially in standard 12-team leagues) because he will be drafted in the top-10 in the vast majority of leagues and if he falls beyond pick 10, it might just be too good to pass up.

    Cam Schlittler – New York Yankees

    I thought Schlittler had a great ceiling but I have to admit, I did not see this good of a season coming.

    He threw 193.2 innings this year (which is why an argument can be made he might have been more valuable than The Miz because of the volume). Schlittler returned a 1.95 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and a 31.4% K%.

    The young Yankee did very well to miss barrels with a 7.3% barrel rate and paired it with a 38.1% hard-hit rate. He missed bats to support the K% with a 13.9% SwStr% and 72.9% contact rate.

    But those numbers spiked in the second half where he had a 34.9% K% as his curve usage jumped from 7.0% to 13.9%.

    Why?

    Opposing offenses tried to get an advantage but throwing a ton of lefties at him as he completed 115.2 innings vs. LHH with 78.0 innings completed vs. RHH.

    The curve is what he uses to neutralize lefties and that curve had a 44.2% whiff rate on it.

    Against righties he spams three elite fastballs with the four-seamer leading the way with a 34% whiff rate and .231 xwOBA against it.

    He got quick outs with the cutter and sinker to help him get to nearly 200 innings.

    I am generally a bit skeptical about the K-upside of a fastball heavy arm like Schlittler as I feel like we generally see them top out at a 25-28% K% and returning a 30%+ K% is difficult.

    And I would imagine managers might not be so aggressive in sending lefty bats against him seeing how disastrous that strategy wound up being. He does have a very low usage slider that graded out at 112 on the stuff+ metric so maybe that can help him sustain his K-success.

    He is clearly one of the top starting pitchers but I am on the fence if I am putting him number two behind The Miz. There is argument to be made but the following names on this list also have something to say about that.

    Yoshinobu Yamamoto – Los Angeles Dodgers

    I was out on him to open 2026 given the heavy October workload, plus pitching in the WBC was a quick turnaround for him as I mistakenly feared fatigue and being babied by the Dodgers.

    Well, he wound up throwing 185.0 innings with a 2.53 ERA, 25.7% K% and 0.87 WHIP.

    Yamamoto induced soft contact (6.5% barrel, 35.6% hard-hit) and tons of ground balls (48.5% groundball rate) as he did have a 2.94 xERA and 3.33 FIP to support his ratios.

    His ability to induce tons of grounders and soft contact will allow him to outperform ERA metrics like a 3.40 SIERA.

    One potential red flag is the K% dropping from 29.4% to 25.7%.

    This is likely the result of his using the sinker more and the four-seamer less as that sinker had the biggest Put Away rate (28.7%) of his entire arsenal as he used that pitch to help induce soft contact, get those ground balls, and get out of innings quicker.

    He actually pitched nearly 12 more innings this year in two less starts and that was likely due to that sinker getting quicker outs and being less reliant on the strikeout.

    Which is both good and bad for fantasy.

    When it comes to Yamamoto, he has multiple whiff offerings in his arsenal, so he does not necessarily have to hunt for strikeouts throughout his outing. His changeup, four-seamer, slider and splitter all have, at one point, returned elite whiff numbers.

    He is someone we can count on to, regularly, go 6+ innings with at least a K or more per inning with great ratios

    And that is what separates him from an arm like Schlittler who does not have multiple elite whiff offerings Which is why I am tempted to move Yamamoto into the SP2 spot behind The Miz.

    Chris Sale – Atlanta Braves

    The ageless wonder strikes again. Despite being 37 years-old and having his history of injuries, Sale just refuses to regress and continues to absolutely shove.

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    November 2, 2026, 1:13 pm