Some injury news shook the baseball world earlier this week.
Tigers superstar Tarik Skubal is undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow, and his timetable to return is to be determined. It’s a massive blow to the Tigers, and to Skubal himself, with his hotly anticipated foray into free agency due at the conclusion of the World Series. There could also be significant implications for both the Trade Deadline and the AL Cy Young Award race, with Skubal -- previously a favorite to win his third straight -- now out of the running.
Less critical than all of those ripple effects -- but certainly still important for our purposes here -- is the Starting Pitcher Power Rankings getting turned upside down. When we last checked in two weeks ago, Skubal was on top -- which has been his customary position over the past few years. His injury leaves a void … but who will fill it?
Our MLB.com voting panel’s answer to that question: With an even bigger superstar.
All stats are through Tuesday’s games unless noted otherwise.
1. Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers (Last poll: 7)
Well, look who we have here. Ohtani might have a pedestrian (for him) .814 OPS at the plate, but on the mound? He’s never been better. Through six starts, he sports an MLB-low 0.97 ERA, having yet to allow more than two earned runs or five hits in any outing. Opponents are batting .160 with a .489 OPS against Ohtani, who could make a charge at the Cy Young Award, one of the few achievements to elude his grasp so far. The only strange thing about Ohtani’s season? The Dodgers are just 2-4 in his outings, scoring a total of five runs in the losses, including Tuesday’s at Houston.
2. Cam Schlittler, Yankees (5)
Team record has been no such issue for Schlittler, with the Yankees winning seven of his eight starts. The 25-year-old announced his presence on the national stage with a postseason gem against the Red Sox last October, and to say he has kept the momentum going in 2026 would be an understatement. Schlittler is tied atop the AL with five wins and is first with a 1.52 ERA, a 282 ERA+, a 1.75 FIP and a 0.87 WHIP. That’s a lot of letters, but the bottom line is this: Despite rarely throwing anything other than some variety of fastball, Schlittler continues to overpower big league hitters.
3. Chris Sale, Braves (not ranked)
“He’s a freak,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said after a dominant Sale start at Coors Field. “He's a Hall of Famer, and those guys are just different. That's what he's been doing pretty much his whole Major League career.”
Yeah, pretty much. Sale, of course, had a tough, injury-marred stretch from 2019-23, but since joining the Braves in ’24, all he’s done is go 31-9 with a 2.42 ERA and 171 ERA+ … from ages 35-37. He’s a big reason Atlanta is back on top of the NL East this season.
4. Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies (2)
In a season when so much has gone wrong for the Phillies early on, Sánchez has been exactly as good as he was in 2025, when he ascended to elite status and finished second in the NL Cy Young race. Sánchez is tied for the Major League lead in strikeouts (60), and his 2.42 ERA, 3.09 expected ERA and 2.40 FIP are nearly identical to what he posted last year. With the rest of the Philly rotation injured and/or struggling for much of the season, Sánchez has been a life preserver.
5. Max Fried, Yankees (10)
This season has been typical Fried. Despite leading the Majors with 52 2/3 innings pitched, he’s “only” tied for 14th in strikeouts, but nobody has been better at limiting hits (5.5 per nine innings) or homers (0.2). Opponents are batting .176 and slugging .231 against Fried, consistently unable to square up either his sinker or cutter, even though neither jumps out in terms of velocity. Fried has twirled four scoreless starts this season, each of at least six innings, and is now 23-6 with a 2.76 ERA in his first 40 starts as a Yankee.
6. Paul Skenes, Pirates (4)
Skenes had a five-start stretch from April 1-24 during which he posted a 0.95 ERA and allowed a grand total of 10 hits. So it’s not like he hasn’t been shutting down opponents for most of the season. However, that stretch was bookended by outings in which he allowed 10 runs (eight earned) in just 5 2/3 innings, on Opening Day against the Mets and April 30 against the Cardinals. For a pitcher who has rarely struggled since reaching the big leagues, those have been surprising speed bumps.
7. Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers (not ranked)
The Miz is a cheat code, throwing a 99 mph four-seamer, 95 mph slider, 93 mph changeup and 87 mph curveball, all as a starter. Between the velocity, and the fact that he achieves 100th percentile extension from his 6-foot-7 frame, the Brewers phenom is basically unleashing fireballs from close range. Misiorowski has 23 strikeouts of 100-plus mph this season, 17 more than any other starter, and he accounts for each of the top 14. That’s all well and good, but he’s only at No. 7 here because he is still working to translate that stuff into consistent results: So far, so good with a 2.84 ERA and 2.99 FIP across seven starts.
8. Shota Imanaga, Cubs (not ranked)
Why are the Cubs flying the W an awful lot early in 2026? A deep offense and an excellent defense are two reasons. The starting rotation isn’t necessarily high on that list, thanks to both injuries and underperformance. But Imanaga has been an exception to that, and the lefty getting back to his rookie form from 2024 is a huge development on the North Side. After a second-half swoon in ’25 (4.70 ERA) and some offseason drama, Imanaga has carried the Cubs’ staff with a 2.40 ERA and more than a strikeout per inning through seven outings.
9. Nolan McLean, Mets (9)
Even McLean has been unable to escape the Mets’ doldrums, with the club losing each of his past five starts. That’s been mostly about run support, with McLean holding up his end of the bargain with a 3.10 ERA, to go with a 39-to-7 K-to-BB ratio in 29 innings through those outings. There is going to be heavy competition for NL Rookie of the Year honors in 2026, but there is no reason to think McLean won’t continue being right in the middle of that discussion.
10. José Soriano, Angels (3)
What do we make of Soriano’s past two starts? Blip? An upstart White Sox team having his number? Inevitable regression to the mean? Obviously, Soriano’s 0.24 ERA through six starts was always going to balloon, so the eight runs over nine innings in a pair of battles against Chicago shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. The question now is how Soriano responds, and if we’ll look back on this recent stretch as a hiccup or the clear end of a fun early-season surge.
Others receiving votes: Tyler Glasnow (Dodgers), Dylan Cease (Blue Jays), Chase Burns (Reds), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Dodgers), Davis Martin (White Sox), Jacob deGrom (Rangers), Payton Tolle (Red Sox), Emerson Hancock (Mariners), Justin Wrobleski (Dodgers), Bryce Elder (Braves), Clay Holmes (Mets), Will Warren (Yankees), Parker Messick (Guardians), Max Meyer (Marlins)
Voters: David Adler, Jason Catania, Theo DeRosa, Jared Greenspan, Brent Maguire, Max Ralph, Manny Randhawa, Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, Andrew Simon