The Los Angeles Dodgers keep stacking aces, and the rest of baseball is left trying to keep up.
After finally landing Tarik Skubal following more than a year of trade rumors, the Dodgers added another frontline arm to a rotation that already included Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. At full strength, that’s the kind of group that makes every other staff in the league look ordinary.
Los Angeles now has as many combined Cy Young and MVP awards on its roster as the rest of the National League combined: 10. And even before Skubal arrived, the numbers told the story.
The Dodgers had the league’s fourth-best team ERA at 3.60, hitters were batting just .216 against them - the lowest mark in MLB - and they had allowed only 414 runs, second-fewest in the game. With Snell and Glasnow still on the IL, Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki have been part of the mix, along with the occasional bullpen game.
Still, this is the staff sitting at No. 1.
The New York Yankees check in next, and their rotation has quietly become one of the most dangerous in baseball. Max Fried, Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Will Warren give the Yankees a group that pairs star power with depth. Their cumulative ERA sits at a league-low 3.30, and opponents are hitting only .225 against them, the third-lowest mark in the majors.
Cole has settled back in after returning from Tommy John Surgery, and the right-hander has been locked in over his last seven starts, going at least five innings and striking out five or more each time. Fried and Schlittler are in front of him in the pecking order, and even while the Yankees sit 3.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for the AL East’s No. 1 spot, they’re still widely viewed as the American League’s top contender.
Milwaukee lands at No. 3, and the Brewers’ rotation looks built to keep them in the hunt again. Jacob Misiorowski has emerged as one of the sport’s premier arms, leading MLB with 190 strikeouts through 21 games - nine per outing - while also unleashing a huge share of the fastest pitches seen in the modern era.
Brandon Woodruff is out after season-ending shoulder surgery, but the group still has plenty of life with Kyle Harrison set to return from the 15-day IL after left forearm tightness. Logan Henderson and Brandon Sproat, acquired in the Freddy Peralta deal with the New York Mets, round out a staff that could carry Milwaukee into another deep run.
Tampa Bay slots in at No. 4 despite a rough injury ledger. Ryan Pepiot has been out for the entirety of the 2026 season, Shane McClanahan has dealt with another injury after missing the full 2024 and 2025 campaigns because of Tommy John surgery and another elbow procedure, and yet the Rays have still pieced together a strong group.
Drew Rasmussen and Nick Martinez helped hold things together before the club added Freddy Peralta in a trade with the Mets. Griffin Jax, who was one of Team USA’s bright spots at this year’s World Baseball Classic, struggled early as a bullpen arm before moving into the rotation.
Since then, he’s bounced back, going more than five innings and striking out six or more in each of his last four outings. Tampa Bay’s staff has the sixth-lowest ERA in the majors at 3.68 and the fourth-lowest opponent batting average at .228.
Boston rounds out the top five, and the Red Sox have done it with production from both established names and younger arms. Garrett Crochet has been on the IL since April 29 with left shoulder inflammation and still does not have a throwing timetable, but Boston has still posted the third-lowest team ERA in MLB at 3.53 and allowed a league-low 410 runs.
Sonny Gray has been the anchor. The veteran has rediscovered the form that once made him one of the more intriguing pitchers in the sport, and his 13-2 record as of August 2 trails only Philadelphia Phillies ace Cristopher Sanchez.
Behind him are offseason pickup Ranger Suarez, who has had an uneven 2026 season at 4-3 with a 3.15 ERA and 105 strikeouts, plus Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett. Tolle is 6-6 with a 3.30 ERA and 110 strikeouts, while Bennett is 6-4 with a 2.74 ERA and 46 strikeouts.
The Dodgers may have the most star-studded staff in the league, but the Yankees, Brewers, Rays and Red Sox all have rotations that can change a season in a hurry.
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Rutschmans status adds another layer to the pause, since he is dealing with an injury that has kept him out. For a Red Sox club weighing both the short-term fit and the long-term cost, that makes this less about simply adding a name and more about deciding whether the timing, health and price all line up well enough to move forward. [Read more 🡒]