Ranking all 30 MLB pitching rotations heading into 2018

The Marlins' two most tenured arms, Wei-Yin Chen and Dan Straily — who are combined 90-68 in their respective careers — are, at best, third or fourth starters on most MLB clubs. In Miami, they are easily the rotation toppers with the organization’s teardown most evident in the lack of depth (to put it nicely) in the rotation. The Marlins' rotation will likely host several options as the season drags on.

Despite a plethora of promising young arms over the past few years, the Reds have yet to produce that breakthrough performer, a true catalyst in accelerating their rebuilding efforts. While a few of them are still sorting it out, such as Amir Garrett, Tyler Mahle, Sal Romano and Anthony DeSclafani, Luis Castillo may finally be the answer. The fireballing 25-year-old enjoyed a very nice debut in 2017, posting a 3.12 ERA and 9.9 strikeouts per nine innings.

Perhaps more than any other team, the Padres have the most pedestrian rotation in the game. None of their arms is projected to become a world-beater in the next year, with Dinelson Lamet and Luis Perdomo offering the most upside. While solid can get the job done, it is tough to envision the Pads able to regularly best some of the better rotations in the NL West.

The A’s could desperately use a veteran arm or two to ease the load on their collection of talented youngsters, who are a bit overextended carrying the bulk of the workload. Kendall Graveman is the closest thing they have to that type, but he is yet to work 200 innings in a season. The maturation of Sean Manaea, Andrew Triggs and eventually A.J. Puk will be the priority for pitching coach Scott Emerson.

With Gerrit Cole moving on to Houston this winter, Clint Hurdle and Ray Searage are tasked with identifying a new ace this summer. Ivan Nova will take the ball on Opening Day, but hopes remain high that either Jameson Taillon or Tyler Glasnow can live up to their top prospect billings and seize the role. Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl also will be depended on to replicate their solid campaigns of a year ago.

There's nothing truly to write home about here. Michael Fulmer is the standout of the group and a legitimate All-Star performer, but he has some lingering elbow issues that could limit his availability if the workload catches up to him. Outside of Fulmer, a spattering of over-30 types who have something to prove in Jordan Zimmermann, Mike Fiers and Francisco Liriano are the core of the rebuilding staff.

After a complete debacle of a year on the mound in 2017, when O's starters posted an MLB-worst 5.70 ERA, they predictably shook things up a bit this winter. The hopes are that the additions of Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner, along with Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman continuing to mature, can keep Baltimore's pitching boat from capsizing again.

The strength of the Rockies’ pitching remains the bullpen, but the starting staff boasts more talent than at perhaps any other time in franchise history. Composed of four homegrown talents, led by Jon Gray and amplified by German Marquez, they are adept at missing bats and keeping the ball on the ground, the unquestioned recipe for success at Coors Field.

The Braves' rotation is a textbook example of what a club in transition's staff looks like. Julio Teheran again leads the crop as an over-slotted ace, with a spattering of veterans falling in behind him. Brandon McCarthy, Scott Kazmir and Mike Foltynewicz will be called upon to eat innings and perhaps have the occasional showing of past brilliance. Amid it all, southpaw Sean Newcomb will be expected to become a difference-maker.

As if there was any doubt before, Chris Archer is by far the clear-cut ace in the deck in Tampa as the club enters a new era in its rotation sans Alex Cobb and Jake Odorizzi. Top prospect Brent Honeywell, who was anticipated to take on some of the innings haul this year, will also not be available due to Tommy John surgery. It will be an interesting year for the usually reliable Tampa starting staff.

While much of the Royals' everyday lineup undergoes changes in the new year, the rotation remains mostly intact. Danny Duffy will captain it, with Ian Kennedy behind him. The bottom half is questionable, with Jason Hammel, Jake Junis and Nathan Karns eating innings but not providing much upside otherwise.

Suddenly, Cole Hamels finds himself in a similar position as the one he left in Philadelphia a few years ago: the clear-cut top gun in the rotation. He is looking for a rebound season of sorts after injuries and subsequent control issues left him well short of his customary form. There is also the hovering prospect of a six-man rotation being deployed in Arlington this summer, an idea that has garnered mixed reviews (at best) from the starters.

Much like the rest of the roster, the Chicago staff is made mostly of veterans who could be headed out of town and recent promotions with some exciting upside. Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Carson Fulmer are all shy of their 25 ^th  birthdays and could be the core the club builds its rise around. Looming in the minors is flamethrowing top prospect Michael Kopech, who should join the club by mid-summer.

Although it was widely believed they would add a top-shelf arm to take their staff to the next level, the Brewers are starting the year betting on a rotation that exceeded expectations a year ago. They did add the dependable Jhoulys Chacin, but much of the responsibility for keeping the Crew going will again fall to Chase Anderson and Zach Davies, who will need to replicate their 2017 efforts while Jimmy Nelson rehabs from shoulder surgery.

Much of the hopes of the Angels hinge on their starters realizing their full upside this year. Garrett Richards has the talent, but it has gone unrealized due to making only 12 starts over the past two years. Of course, there is the tantalizing presence of Shohei Ohtani, who has the raw ability to lead a rotation, but he has a unique learning curve in his rookie campaign.

After deploying more starters than any team in baseball last year, the Mariners hope for more stability this time around. They will lean heavy on James Paxton keeping his health intact, as well as innings eater Mike Leake, who performed well after joining the team last August. If Marco Gonzales is able to convert to a full-time starter and Felix Hernandez can capture some consistency that he lacked in making it to the mound and performing once there, the two can be considered wild cards in the rotation mix.

The hope in Philly is that the addition of Jake Arrieta gives the team a turning-point presence for the rebuilding Phillies in the same vein as Jon Lester represented for the Cubs in 2015. He joins a talented young staff of Aaron Nola, Vince Velasquez, Ben Lively and Nick Pivetta that badly needed the rotation captain who joined them. Arrieta’s 14 wins in 2017 represented a three-year low for him, but simply replicating that would be the most for a Philadelphia starter since Cliff Lee in 2013.

Aside from the continued emergence of Marcus Stroman, the Toronto staff disappointed last year. Marco Estrada’s ERA finished close to 5.00, while J.A. Happ posted a losing record a year after winning 20 games. The biggest blow came via the blister issues that sent Aaron Sanchez to the DL three separate times. While Sanchez returns healthy, Stroman is having shoulder issues himself entering the year.

Madison Bumgarner remains among the best of the best in the game, but time will tell if Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija can live up to their billings behind him. If both can work to their previous forms, the Giants could see a quick spring back into contention. Yet if consistency continues to allude them this year, it could be another frustrating season for San Francisco.

After letting workhorse Lance Lynn walk in the offseason, the Cardinals are seemingly ready to depend on their cadre of young arms to step up behind ace Carlos Martinez and the venerable Adam Wainwright. A blend of Michael Wacha, Alex Reyes, Luke Weaver, Jack Flaherty and Miles Mikolas, who returns to the majors after a two-year sabbatical in Japan, will be asked to do some heavy lifting for a club looking to break a two-year postseason dry spell — its longest in 10 years.

After burning through 16 starters a year ago, the Twins were aggressive about acquiring reliable starting pitching. In adding Lance Lynn and Jake Odorizzi to work alongside Jose Berrios, Paul Molitor stands to have a far more dependable group this year. In addition, the injured Ervin Santana stands to be back in action close to the All-Star break.

While their bullpen has received much of the pitching praise in the Bronx, the starting staff could be the Yankees' secret weapon. Sonny Gray, CC Sabathia and Luis Severino have all looked sharp this spring. All that stands between the staff truly being a dominant group is whether or not Masahiro Tanaka can keep the ball in the park after allowing 35 long balls a year ago.

Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom are the best one-two punch in baseball, and if both are healthy, they could easily raise the Mets back to respectability this year. With accomplished former Cleveland pitching coach Mickey Callaway taking over for Terry Collins as manager, there could also be returns to form from Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler as well, which could give the Mets’ staff unlimited upside.

While Zack Greinke’s rough spring should raise some concerns, the D-backs still have backup ammunition available. Robbie Ray had a breakout season in 2017, leading the NL in strikeouts per nine innings (12.1) and allowing the second fewest hits per nine innings as well (6.4). Throw in Taijuan Walker and the underrated Zack Godley, and Arizona can still get the job done even without its ace at 100 percent right away.

The Cubs' rotation spent much of last year underachieving before Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks and Jose Quintana found their form late in the year. With strikeout hound Yu Darvish moving to the North Side in 2018, the rotation could easily return to being the dominant unit it was two years ago, when the starting staff was the secret strength of the 2016 World Series champions.

Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before, but the situation remains true. The presence of 300-strikeout man Chris Sale atop the Boston rotation assures that there will be hard days ahead when facing the BoSox. If David Price and Rick Porcello can bounce back to form, while Drew Pomeranz continues to mature into one the game’s top southpaws, the Red Sox have a chance to be something special.

Led by the two-time defending NL Cy Young winner in Max Scherzer and All-Star Stephen Strasburg, who finished third in the voting, the Nationals yet again own one of the NL’s most intimidating rotations. Don’t forget about Gio Gonzalez, either, who posted an ERA below 3.00, and Tanner Roark, who averaged nearly 10 strikeouts per nine innings after the All-Star break.

There is a very real chance that Houston’s starting staff could outshine its star-studded lineup, and that is a terrifying thing to consider. As if the Astros' rotation wasn’t impressive enough in their championship season with the rejuvenated Justin Verlander leading the way, coupled with Lance McCullers Jr. and Dallas Keuchel joining him, they went the extra mile to bring aboard former Pirates ace Gerrit Cole as well this winter. Manager A.J. Hinch could get 1,000 strikeouts from his rotation alone.

A year ago, four Dodgers starters posted double digits in victories, led by Clayton Kershaw and Alex Wood, who combined to go 34-7. While the potential of L.A.’s starting staff always is cautioned by the prospect of injury, it is impossible to deny how dominant this collection of arms can be if it can hold together most of the year.

Corey Kluber was baseball’s most dominant pitcher in the second half of 2017, posting a 1.79 ERA and 143 strikeouts as a resounding final touch to a second Cy Young season — a season in which he led the AL in ERA (2.25), wins (18), shutouts (3), complete games (5), WHIP (0.869) and strikeout to walk ratio (7.36). But Kluber is far from alone in driving the Indians' rotation, as Carlos Carrasco was his equal in victories and Trevor Bauer enjoyed a breakthrough season as well. Add in the emergence of Mike Clevinger, and the Indians remain a handful for opposing hitters more nights than not.