Justin Mason Starting Pitcher Ranks: 11/12/21
2021 is over and we turn the page to 2022. Here are my current ranks for the starting pitching position for 2022. I will post updates as things change with signings, injuries, or news in Major League Baseball.
See my other ranks here: https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/category/rankings/
Justin Mason 2022 Starting Pitcher Ranks
| Rank | PlayerName | Team | POS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gerrit Cole | NYY | SP |
| 2 | Max Scherzer | FA | SP |
| 3 | Corbin Burnes | MIL | SP |
| 4 | Jacob deGrom | NYM | SP |
| 5 | Zack Wheeler | PHI | SP |
| 6 | Brandon Woodruff | MIL | SP |
| 7 | Walker Buehler | LAD | SP |
| 8 | Lance Lynn | CHW | SP |
| 9 | Julio Urias | LAD | SP |
| 10 | Sandy Alcantara | MIA | SP |
| 11 | Chris Sale | BOS | SP |
| 12 | Lucas Giolito | CHW | SP |
| 13 | Shane Bieber | CLE | SP |
| 14 | Robbie Ray | FA | SP |
| 15 | Joe Musgrove | SDP | SP |
| 16 | Freddy Peralta | MIL | SP |
| 17 | Kevin Gausman | FA | SP |
| 18 | Jack Flaherty | STL | SP |
| 19 | Chris Bassitt | OAK | SP |
| 20 | Charlie Morton | ATL | SP |
| 21 | Logan Webb | SFG | SP |
| 22 | Trevor Rogers | MIA | SP |
| 23 | Aaron Nola | PHI | SP |
| 24 | Yu Darvish | SDP | SP |
| 25 | Dylan Cease | CHW | SP |
| 26 | Max Fried | ATL | SP |
| 27 | Pablo Lopez | MIA | SP |
| 28 | Alek Manoah | TOR | SP |
| 29 | Shane Baz | TB | SP |
| 30 | Frankie Montas | OAK | SP |
| 31 | Shohei Ohtani | LAA | SP |
| 32 | Jose Berrios | TOR | SP |
| 33 | Blake Snell | SDP | SP |
| 34 | Tyler Mahle | CIN | SP |
| 35 | Luis Castillo | CIN | SP |
| 36 | Framber Valdez | HOU | SP |
| 37 | Luis Garcia | HOU | SP |
| 38 | Shane McClanahan | TBR | SP |
| 39 | Carlos Rodon | FA | SP |
| 40 | Lance McCullers Jr. | HOU | SP |
| 41 | Hyun-Jin Ryu | TOR | SP |
| 42 | Zac Gallen | ARI | SP |
| 43 | Cal Quantrill | CLE | SP |
| 44 | Anthony DeSclafani | FA | SP |
| 45 | Nathan Eovaldi | BOS | SP |
| 46 | Jose Urquidy | HOU | SP |
| 47 | Michael Kopech | CHW | RP |
| 48 | Marcus Stroman | FA | SP |
| 49 | Logan Gilbert | SEA | SP |
| 50 | Sean Manaea | OAK | SP |
| 51 | Huascar Ynoa | ATL | SP |
| 52 | Sonny Gray | CIN | SP |
| 53 | Ian Anderson | ATL | SP |
| 54 | Carlos Carrasco | NYM | SP |
| 55 | Adam Wainwright | STL | SP |
| 56 | Zack Greinke | FA | SP |
| 57 | Clayton Kershaw | FA | SP |
| 58 | Justin Verlander | FA | SP |
| 59 | Ranger Suarez | PHI | SP |
| 60 | John Means | BAL | SP |
| 61 | Joe Ryan | MIN | SP |
| 62 | Tarik Skubal | DET | SP |
| 63 | Aaron Civale | CLE | SP |
| 64 | Alex Wood | FA | SP |
| 65 | Kyle Gibson | PHI | SP |
| 66 | Luis Severino | NYY | SP |
| 67 | Jordan Montgomery | NYY | SP |
| 68 | Noah Syndergaard | FA | SP |
| 69 | Taijuan Walker | NYM | SP |
| 70 | Mike Clevinger | SD | SP |
| 71 | Eduardo Rodriguez | FA | SP |
| 72 | Marco Gonzales | SEA | SP |
| 73 | Casey Mize | DET | SP |
| 74 | Nestor Cortes | NYY | SP |
| 75 | Patrick Sandoval | LAA | SP |
| 76 | Cristian Javier | HOU | SP |
| 77 | Kyle Hendricks | CHC | SP |
| 78 | Adbert Alzolay | CHC | SP |
| 79 | Chris Paddack | SDP | SP |
| 80 | Dinelson Lamet | SDP | SP |
| 81 | Wade Miley | CHC | SP |
| 82 | Danny Duffy | FA | SP |
| 83 | German Marquez | COL | SP |
| 84 | Chris Flexen | SEA | SP |
| 85 | Luis Patino | TBR | SP |
| 86 | Adrian Houser | MIL | SP |
| 87 | Elieser Hernandez | MIA | SP |
| 88 | Zach Plesac | CLE | SP |
| 89 | Tony Gonsolin | LAD | SP |
| 90 | Carlos Hernandez | KCR | SP |
| 91 | Josiah Gray | WSN | SP |
| 92 | Madison Bumgarner | ARI | SP |
| 93 | Yusei Kikuchi | SEA | SP |
| 94 | Jameson Taillon | NYY | SP |
| 95 | Jon Gray | FA | SP |
| 96 | Matthew Boyd | DET | SP |
| 97 | Steven Matz | FA | SP |
| 98 | Tanner Houck | BOS | SP |
| 99 | Bailey Ober | MIN | SP |
| 100 | Kyle Wright | ATL | SP |
Ranks are intended for 5×5 Roto leagues.
Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.
How is Taijuan Walker higher than Erod?
As far as I know, these apply more to Fantasy than real life baseball, and listing can be subject to volume and point-building abilities
Nate Pearson and Jesus Luzardo not going to be SPs? Or just not good enough for top 100?
The latter is my guess. I look at Josiah Gray at #91 and feel relatively assured he’ll have a starting job and be relatively decent. Can’t say the same on both counts for Pearson and Luzardo at this point. Spring training will likely change these rankings anyway to reflect where everyone here really is at.
Damn, does this seem deep this year? Aside from minor quibbles, I’m pretty stoked on almost every pitcher down to Anderson at 53. Plenty of interesting stuff after that, too.
Mahle one spot ahead of Castillo is an interesting decision.
I trust the stuff of course but I’m not touching deGrom this year. Partial tear in his right UCL that apparently “resolved itself” doesn’t give me confidence he’ll pitch more than 10 outings. I have deGrom, Ray and Bieber in a keep 2 pitchers league and no idea who the two will be. I’m hoping for more info on deGrom’s elbow but we’ll see.
What a shame about deGrom. He was historically dominant, only be derailed by the elbow. Could have been a year for the ages.
He threw like 90 innings and was the #13 overall player in my 5×5 yahoo league at the end of the year, so even ten starts would be possibly enough to accumulate significant value.
My vote for underrated is Ranger Suarez. He is obviously not putting up that same ERA next year, but he really looks like a sustainable mid 3s guy. Overrated is Ynoa. I think he doesn’t have the command or the third pitch and his late season results showed that the league was on to him. Though this is splitting hairs in the 50s.
Also, Greinke to me is waiver wire fodder for next year
Sadly, Greinke has gone the way of David Price in terms of irrelevance. Maybe Greinke can show enough to model the end of CC Sabathia’s career (4-5 innings of shaky baseball). He looks to be more name value now unless a fledgling team gives him the Jake Arrieta treatment.
Yeah, he’s going to end up on a lot of teams as a mid to late draftee because drafting name brand Greinke just makes you feel better than drafting Patrick Sandoval. But the latter is going to provide waaaaaaaaay more value.
I would bump Stroman to top 40. The volume and consistency has serious value. Especially if you also draft someone like DeGrom, Peralta, Ohtani – basically someone high end but with reason to fear low volume.
Agreed. Reminds me of how Kyle Hendricks has been drafted for the past couple of years. Never dominant, but 6+ innings of steady baseball was what one could usually expect from Hendricks. Not anymore, mind you, but Stroman looks like he’s taken up that torch. Good consistency is valuable nowadays.
So are we just in “stick our heads in the sand and pretend he doesn’t exist” mode on Trevor Bauer?
Maybe for next year and beyond he won’t, I guess, depending on how things turn out. With Justin not putting him the rankings it seems apparent where he thinks Bauer will be next year.
I think Bauer plays next year
Just about all of the reporting has said Bauer is likely to be suspended for the entire 2022 season (I’m not here to argue whether that’s fair or not, that’s just what the speculation has been). I think it will be interesting to see what becomes of him the year after that though.
He’s volatile for sure, but I would take Triston McKenzie over ~30 pitchers listed here.
Came here to say exactly that.
Is this assuming that the NL adopts the DH or using no DH as the assumption?
Justin,
Love your rankings because you seem to be one of the few experts who create a list, as opposed to massaging the consensus list. Just curious why you didn’t include Kaprielan?
Waino over Kershaw, wow. Of course, there isn’t a tad of difference adjacent pitchers ranked in the 50s, but still ….