Opening Day is finally here! Whether you’ve been waiting for months to dive back into daily fantasy baseball, or you’re dipping your toe in for the first time, the season is officially underway. Pitchers are already ranked by price, with the ones who are projected to perform better eating up more of your budget, but I am here to add my two cents. I’ll be sharing my own rankings for the top five starting pitchers for DFS in the five-game afternoon contest.
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1. Garrett Crochet, BOS (@ CIN)
Salary: $9,700
The Red Sox pushing their chips in for Garrett Crochet paid off big time in 2025, when he went 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA, 1.028 WHIP, 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings, 5.54 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 6.3 WAR. The AL Cy Young runner-up is projected to go 14-9 with a 3.02 ERA and 5.6 WAR in 2026, per FanGraphs’ Steamer model. At this point, he is firmly on the Mount Rushmore of elite starters across MLB. He was also better on the road than he was at home last season, going 13-2 with a 2.25 ERA, 1.000 WHIP, 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings and 5.92 strikeout-to-walk ratio in away contests.
The Reds’ moderately below-average lineup from last year will get a bump from All-Star slugger Eugenio Suárez on his prove-it deal. However, Suárez hit .164 with a .714 OPS against lefties last year compared to his .252 batting average and .865 OPS versus righties. Elly De La Cruz’s OPS was also 230 points lower against southpaws in 2025, while TJ Friedl’s was 101 points lower and Noelvi MartĂ©’s was 259 points lower. Crochet tossed three perfect innings with five strikeouts to open his only start against Cincinnati last year, although he ultimately allowed five earned runs in six innings. I think he has the juice to put together a more complete start this time around, also improving on his two-run, 5.0-inning outing on Opening Day last year.
2. Hunter Brown, HOU (vs. LAA)
Salary: $9,500
Framber Valdez is gone, leaving Hunter Brown as the Astros’ unchallenged ace. He has more than earned that distinction, considering he was named an All-Star and finished third in AL Cy Young voting in 2025. He has made 31 appearances in three straight seasons, improving his WAR from 0.1 to 2.8 to 6.1 along the way. The 27-year-old righty put up that big number last year thanks to his 12-9 record, 2.43 ERA, 1.025 WHIP, 10.0 strikeouts per nine innings and a 3.61 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The Angels’ lineup put up the eighth-worst OPS and sixth-fewest runs in the big leagues last season, and it is largely the same group heading into 2026. Adding Josh Lowe doesn’t exactly turn them into a juggernaut, given he is a platoon player who posted a .650 OPS and 0.1 WAR in 108 games with the Rays in 2025. Brown made two starts against Los Angeles last year, allowing five hits, five walks, two solo home runs and two earned runs with nine strikeouts in 11 innings.
3. Tarik Skubal, DET (@ SD)
Salary: $10,500
The two-time reigning AL Cy Young winner has gone 31-10 with a 2.30 ERA, 0.906 WHIP, 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings, 6.9 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 13.1 WAR over the past two seasons. By all accounts, he is the best pitcher in the American League, and maybe the most dominant MLB arm in a decade. FanGraphs’ Steamer model has him atop the league leaderboards once again with a 5.9 projected WAR, going 14-9 with a 2.79 ERA in 32 starts.
At the same time, the Padres pose Skubal with a tough matchup. The top half of their lineup has 17 All-Star appearances between them. Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts were both better against lefties than righties in 2025, while Fernando Tatis Jr. has even OPS left/right splits in his career. Even Jake Cronenworth started trending in the right direction versus southpaws last year. Plus, the drama around Skubal’s workload in Spring Training and the World Baseball Classic has me a little hesitant to spend such a large chunk of my DFS budget on Thursday, not even taking into account the six hits, four earned and two homers he allowed at the Dodgers to open 2025. He will be elite all year and could easily have a solid showing on Opening Day, I just don’t know if Skubal will be worth a big spend on day one.
4. Drew Rasmussen, TB (@ STL)
Salary: $6,700
Since joining the Rays in 2021, Rasmussen is 29-16 with a 2.73 ERA and 1.027 WHIP. The 30-year-old righty is fresh off his first All-Star campaign, as well as a ninth-place finish in the AL Cy Young race. Put simply, when Rasmussen is healthy, he is elite. And while his length of start began to dwindle down the stretch last season when Tampa Bay was out of the Wild Card race, he tossed at least five frames in 15 of his first 16 starts. Expect that kind of workload in 2026, as well.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, fully committed to their rebuild by trading away Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras over the offseason. Not a single member of St. Louis’ Opening Day lineup is older than 27 years old, with corner infielders Alec Burleson and Nolan Gorman being the only ones with more than three years of MLB service time. The homegrown experiment could work out, but I don’t see it panning out on day one.
5. Nathan Eovaldi, TEX (@ PHI)
Salary: $8,300
This marks the third year in a row that Eovaldi has served as the Rangers’ Opening Day starter. In 2024, he allowed four hits, one walk and two earned runs with three strikeouts across six innings versus the Cubs. In 2025, Eovaldi gave up three hits and two earned runs with nine strikeouts in another 6.0 innings of work against the Red Sox.
The 36-year-old is also coming off a season in which he posted a 1.73 ERA, 0.854 WHIP, 11-3 record and 4.4 WAR. The Phillies have plenty of veteran bats throughout their lineup, but replacing Nick Castellanos with Adolis Garcia probably won’t move the needle too much. This same Philadelphia core got shut blanked by MacKenzie Gore for six innings on Opening Day 2025, while Spencer Strider held them to two runs in six innings on Opening Day 2024. I like Eovaldi to hold down the fort to open 2026, and his track record gives me a solid amount of confidence he deals a quality start.
