Each week, Scott White delves into the noteworthy adjustments in his rest-of-season player rankings. You can access these rankings here, and if you haven’t yet, bookmarking them is highly recommended. This resource is unparalleled for assessing player value over the course of a long season.
The Brewers seem to always find a way to excel in pitching.
Trade away their star pitcher? No problem—they have Jacob Misiorowski stepping up as an even more formidable ace. Lose a key starter to injury? Kyle Harrison has more than filled those shoes. Both pitchers boast ERAs under 2.00 and strike out more than 11.5 batters per nine innings. At just 24 years old, they are performing beyond expectations.
Both players are climbing in my rankings.
While they’ve been steadily rising, their latest leap is substantial. Initially, I was skeptical about both. Misiorowski, despite his impressive skills, struggled with control in the minors, which also plagued his rookie year. Now, with a walk rate down to 2.8 per nine innings, he’s consistently pitching at least six innings in recent games, overcoming past inefficiencies. I’ve elevated him into my top 10 starting pitchers, even surpassing Nolan McLean, another promising second-year pitcher. Yes, Misiorowski has proven himself superior.
As for Harrison, once a top prospect with consistently high strikeout rates in the minors, his lack of secondary pitches seemed to limit his major league potential. It wasn’t just me who doubted him; the Giants included him in a deal for Rafael Devers last year, and the Red Sox traded him for Caleb Durbin this offseason. Yet, the Brewers have tapped into his hidden talent. This year, he’s leaning more on his fastball, and with a slightly adjusted arm angle, it boasts a 32.2 percent whiff rate, ranking sixth among starting pitchers. The top five—Misiorowski, Cam Schlittler, Mick Abel, Zack Wheeler, and Michael King—are also performing remarkably well.
Harrison is up to 34th in my starting pitcher rankings, ahead of other 2026 breakouts like Parker Messick and Jose Soriano. When in doubt, I opt for the best bat-misser.
Here are some of the other highlights from my latest rankings sweep:
- Bryce Miller’s move up the rankings is probably the most actionable for Fantasy purposes. He’s climbed about 30 spots, from 85 to 57, after a dominant effort against the White Sox in which he went back to his roots, blowing away hitters with his fastball. That pitch is up 2 mph from two years ago, when he had a 2.94 ERA and 0.98 WHIP. For some perspective, his new ranking puts him firmly in the must-roster range, ahead of Spencer Arrighetti, Max Meyer, Bryce Elder and Davis Martin.
- Cristopher Sanchez has leapfrogged Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Garrett Crochet to claim the No. 3 spot in my starting pitcher rankings. Three straight scoreless outings of seven-plus innings, with 30 strikeouts between them, will do that. He remains as good a strike-thrower and ground ball generator as there is, and the bat-missing keeps getting better and better.
- Tarik Skubal slipped to 50th in my rankings at the first report of him needing surgery to remove a loose body from his elbow, which I felt was pretty high, actually, for an injury of that severity. But then word came out of him having a new version of the procedure that uses “NanoNeedle” technology to create a smaller incision. He’s already back to throwing bullpen sessions and could return in the next week or two, so back up to No. 10 he goes.
- Zack Wheeler is another pitcher who’s proven my concerns to be overblown. Thoracic outlet surgery is often accompanied by a velocity drop, and we were seeing signs of that on his minor league rehab assignment. The decline has been much less than initially forecast, though, and the fastball has played as well as it ever has. I’m cautiously ranking him 20th now, but he may just be an ace.
- Gerrit Cole is set to return from his own procedure, the more conventional Tommy John, and while he has more to prove than Wheeler does, I’ve gone ahead and moved him up to 28th at starting pitcher. That’s just ahead of Gavin Williams and Spencer Strider, who I think are good but have their own reasons for skepticism. Maybe it’ll prove to be too aggressive, but Cole’s final rehab start was excellent, seeing him average 97 mph on his fastball.
- Jared Jones is nearing his own return from elbow ligament surgery (the lesser internal brace procedure) and showing similar signs of dominance on his rehab assignment, reaching triple digits with his fastball. He likely has a couple more turns to go and of course wasn’t nearly as established as Cole at the time of his injury, which is why I rank him lower. Still, 67th puts him firmly in the must-roster range.
- If you’re among the many who’ve been asking why Payton Tolle isn’t ranked as a starting pitcher, well, he is now, having finally made enough starts to qualify there. I’m ranking him pretty aggressively, too, at 44th, in between Emmet Sheehan and Shane McClanahan.
- Other risers at starting pitcher include Michael King (from 32 to 23) and Nathan Eovaldi (from 45 to 33). On the lower end are Walbert Urena, J.T. Ginn and Zebby Matthews, who have all climbed into the top 100.
- At relief pitcher, Andres Munoz has slipped behind Aroldis Chapman, Jhoan Duran and Raisel Iglesias, which is less about him than what those three are doing. His saves pace is bound to improve, but those other three come close enough to meeting his upside that there’s no reason for me to be stubborn about keeping Munoz ahead.
- Devin Williams was barely clinging to his job when he allowed eight runs over a span of four appearances in April, but since then, he’s thrown 8 2/3 scoreless innings while allowing just one hit and striking out 11. He’s caused enough stress over the past couple seasons that I can’t move him back into the elite yet, but I can at least move him ahead of Riley O’Brien and David Bednar, who’ve had their own struggles recently.
- It’s time to stop blindly trusting that better days are ahead for Luke Keaschall, whose already suspect exit velocities have dwindled even further this year. His speed and plate discipline will keep him startable at second base, but he’s not as valuable as Xavier Edwards or even Travis Bazzana, who is actually producing and may not be any less of a base-stealer and on-base threat.
- Colt Emerson lands at 22 among shortstops in his rankings debut, ahead of injury cases like Trevor Story and Jacob Wilson but behind tried-and-trues like Dansby Swanson and Willy Adames. It’s a difficult position to break into for Fantasy, and for all of Emerson’s upside, I have my doubts that he’s a fully realized player yet.
- Some of the biggest climbers in the outfield ranks include Spencer Steer (61 to 48), Carson Benge (70 to 49) and Jake Bauers (75 to 56), and if you’ve seen their numbers recently, you’ll understand why. Steer and Bauers are also eligible at first base, of course, but the climb there is a more difficult one. The bottom line is that Steer and Benge are back in the usable range even for three-outfielder leagues. Bauers faces the additional hurdle of inconsistent playing time brought about by Andrew Vaughn’s own strong performance.
