Last Wednesday at Wrigley Field, the Cubs dinged Jacob Misiorowski for five hits, four walks and five earned runs over four innings. It was tied for his shortest outing of the year and was his first time allowing more than three earned runs.
It was a rare dent in the Miz’s armor. Was it a window opening for his talented competitors in the Starting Pitcher Power Rankings? If so, Miz quickly slammed it shut. Tuesday night brought a rematch against the rival Cubs, this time in friendlier conditions at American Family Field, and Miz looked much more like the utterly dominant pitcher who has left us in awe all season long.
So, here he is again at the top of our poll, for the seventh time in a row. But how do those challengers stack up behind him? Below you'll find the latest Starting Pitcher Power Rankings, as voted on by a panel of MLB.com experts.
(All stats are through Tuesday’s games, unless otherwise noted.)
1) Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers (Last poll: 1)
We could throw around incredible Miz numbers all day, but here’s one: On Tuesday night, he threw his 1,000th pitch of 100-plus mph this season, ultimately getting that total up to 1,010. The previous single-season record for the pitch-tracking era (2008-present) is far in the rearview mirror: 673 by Jordan Hicks in 2018. (The most thrown in a starting role is far below that: 337 by Hunter Greene in 2022.) In fact, no entire team has thrown even 700 triple-digit pitches in a season. Even if you look over the entirety of the pitch-tracking era (all 19 seasons), just 14 teams other than the Brewers have 1,000 pitches of 100-plus mph from all of their pitchers, combined. Miz is on a different planet.
2) Cam Schlittler, Yankees (2)
Rather than fading down the stretch in his first full MLB season, Schlittler just keeps tightening his grip on the AL Cy Young Award race. Since a slight rough patch from late June to early August, he’s put together a streak of six consecutive starts with no more than one run allowed. During that stretch, Schlittler has a 1.15 ERA, struck out 49 batters in 39 innings and held opponents to a .150 batting average.
3) Chris Sale, Braves (4)
Despite Misiorowski's utter dominance, Sale has been doing his best to make the NL Cy Young Award race interesting. The 37-year-old lefty is, incredibly, throwing harder than ever-- and harder than nearly any starting pitcher his age has in the pitch-tracking era. Thanks in part to that heat, he’s posted a 1.90 ERA and 1.23 FIP over a streak of eight consecutive quality starts. Since the start of August, he’s stared down a bear of a schedule -- facing the Yankees, D-backs, Brewers, Dodgers and Phillies -- and refused to blink, striking out 41 and walking just three.
4) Jesús Luzardo, Phillies (T-7)
If Sale has been keeping contact with Misiorowski in that race for a while now, Luzardo is the dark horse who’s been making a late but incredibly spirited charge from the outside. His latest burst came on Monday, when Luzardo twirled only the 10th individual shutout of the 2026 season -- and did so while striking out 12 in a crucial showdown with the NL East-leading Braves. The left-hander allowed five earned runs or more in four of his first eight starts this season but since that point has a 1.93 ERA in 21 outings in which the Phillies have gone 18-3.
5) Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies (5)
Sánchez has fallen off a bit after his 50 2/3-inning scoreless streak ended on June 3, but it’s nice when “fallen off” amounts to a 3.60 ERA and 3.32 FIP over 16 starts. (Subtract one anomalous disaster start on July 6 at Kansas City, when he gave up nine earned runs, and Sánchez’s ERA over that stretch would go down to 2.85. His season-long ERA would drop from 2.58 to 2.17.) It’s still been an absolutely incredible two-year run for the lefty, who has a good shot to finish top-two in the Majors in both major forms of WAR for the second season in a row.
6) Dylan Cease, Blue Jays (3)
With Schlittler on a roll, Cease might not have been able to afford the rare hiccup he had on Monday in West Sacramento, allowing five runs (four earned) over five innings against the Athletics. That interrupted a stretch of 11 starts in which Cease posted a 1.36 ERA. If Cease ultimately finishes second in a Cy race for the second time in his career -- he also was runner-up to Justin Verlander in 2022 -- a short stint on the injured list in late May and early June for a left hamstring strain might prove to be costly.
7) Parker Messick, Guardians (10)
Since Messick made his Major League debut last Aug. 20, here are the only pitchers with a lower ERA than his 2.57 in at least 200 innings: Schlittler, Sale, Skubal and Sánchez. Cleveland’s second-round pick in the 2022 Draft has been instrumental to keeping his team in the playoff chase, and he’s been dialing up the strikeouts of late, notching each of the first three double-digit K performances of his career since mid-June. That includes a career-high 12 in his last start, on Saturday against the Tigers.
8) Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers (6)
The Dodgers’ rotation is talented but chaotic. Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki and Justin Wrobleski have all missed time due to injuries. Emmet Sheehan was demoted to Triple-A and is now back. Tarik Skubal was acquired at the Trade Deadline. But there’s no chaos with Yamamoto -- just talent and consistency. He’s made every start and completed at least six innings 22 of 25 times, with the Dodgers going 16-9. Since June, Yamamoto’s ERA has hovered between 2.49 and 2.86 after each outing.
9) Drew Rasmussen, Rays (9)
In May 2021, the Brewers traded Rasmussen to the Rays in a deal that sent Willy Adames back to Milwaukee. Since then, Rasmussen has pitched 581 2/3 innings for Tampa Bay and posted a 2.77 ERA, with his current 2.88 mark the highest in any season. Of the 98 pitchers to clear the 500-inning threshold since Rasmussen’s Rays debut, only Ohtani, Snell, Sale and Max Fried can beat his ERA. The righty has been locked in lately, too. The Rays have won each of his past nine starts, and he has a 2.17 ERA over that span.
10) Tarik Skubal, Dodgers (not ranked)
It doesn’t feel as though Skubal has completely hit his stride yet as a Dodger. In seven starts since arriving from Detroit, he’s only struck out more than seven batters once. On Sept. 3, he gave up 10 hits against the Cardinals. And yet … Skubal owns a 2.93 ERA and 2.53 FIP in Dodger Blue, with a 48-to-10 K-to-BB ratio and only three homers allowed. Just about any pitcher in baseball would kill for those numbers.
Others receiving votes: Reid Detmers (Angels), Payton Tolle (Red Sox), Nolan McLean (Mets), Sonny Gray (Red Sox), Logan Henderson (Brewers), Blake Snell (Dodgers), Gavin Williams (Guardians), Chase Burns (Reds), Cade Cavalli (Nationals), Tyler Mahle (Braves)
Voters: David Adler, Jason Foster, Jared Greenspan, Brian Murphy, Max Ralph, Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, Andrew Simon