Building A Rotation OF MLB's Best Pitchers 25 Or Younger

Image credit: (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

We built a lineup of baseball’s best-position players 25 or younger two weeks ago. Today, our goal is to construct the best young rotation.

A few disclaimers:

I resisted including any prospects due to a lack of track record. This includes Roki Sasaki.
Eury Pérez will likely be high on this list next year if he can make a successful return from Tommy John surgery
Tanner Bibee turns 26 before the season starts, rendering him ineligible. He would’ve been a borderline call.
I settled on a six-man rotation as an ode to baseball’s shifting starting pitcher schedules.

Paul Skenes, RHP, Pirates | Age: 22

A generational talent, Skenes is already one of the best pitchers in MLB independent of age. He’s the clear choice to lead our 25-and-under rotation.

Since 1920, only one pitcher has finished with a higher ERA+ as a rookie than Skenes—Steve Rogers of the 1973 Expos. What Skenes has already accomplished is historic. The baseball community is eager to see what’s next.

The 22-year-old phenom recently stated that one of his 2025 goals is to throw more first-pitch strikes. Per Sports Info Solutions, Skenes ranked 62nd in F-strike% among starters who threw as many innings as he did. Cy Young winners Tarik Skubal and Chris Sale were in the top six.

Skenes’ metrics already appeared flawless in his debut year. Considering what could happen if he’s more efficient in the strike zone to begin at-bats is fascinating.

Garrett Crochet, LHP, Red Sox | Age: 25

While starting last season, Crochet was the only pitcher to produce a lower SIERA than Skenes. His 3.58 ERA was nearly a run higher than the estimator, likely due to underperforming some luck-based metrics. Crochet didn’t perform well in HR/9, BABIP, or left-on-base rate in 2024.

Of course, some of Crochet’s poor luck may have been earned, as he ran into HR/FB% trouble by allowing plenty of hard contact last April.

As shown above, Crochet began the season by throwing his cutter nearly as often as his sweeper. While his sweeper finished the year with an elite 42% whiff rate, it also had a -6 run value (per Statcast) due to a .561 SLG against it.

As Crochet increased the usage of his 91.6 mph cutter, it gave him an answer for righties sitting on his sweeper. The fastball-cutter combination became his foundation. Carlos Rodón was the only lefthanded starter with a higher cutter velocity. It was Crochet’s first season throwing the pitch.

He also added a sinker late in the season, which should terrify opposing hitters. The .138 wOBA it allowed was the best of all his weapons, though it was only a 50-pitch sample. Crochet’s ability to tinker with his arsenal is another feather in his cap for a breakout campaign that becomes more impressive the deeper one looks under the hood.

Zooming back out, Crochet led all starters in key metrics such as SIERA, K%, and K-BB% while finishing in the top two in swinging strike rate and zone contact allowed. It’s easy to look at a mid-3s ERA and a worrisome health history and lose sight of how special his season was. Freed from playing on one of the worst teams of all-time, Crochet should be considered one of the favorites to win the American League Cy Young award in his first season with the Red Sox.

Grayson Rodriguez, RHP, Orioles | Age: 25

While Rodriguez didn’t fulfill his best-case scenario as a sophomore, he still improved his SIERA, K-BB%, SwStr%, CSW% and zone contact allowed. He entirely ditched the cutter, which led to a rough initial go-round in the majors, settling on a four-pitch arsenal in which he used each offering over 15% of the time.

Unfortunately, Rodriguez missed time in 2024 due to right shoulder and lat issues, which prevented him from proving himself as the budding ace Baltimore now needs him to be. Rodriguez has shown he has the stuff and arsenal size to become one. Now, he needs to do it over an entire season.

Hunter Greene, RHP, Reds | Age: 25

After two seasons with an ERA in the mid-to-high 4s, Greene posted a 2.75 mark last season, finally getting his long-time homer issue under control:

Last year, he became a different pitcher, adding a splitter that allowed his entire arsenal to play up. Instead of returning negative run values, his upper-90s four-seamer graded out as one of the best pitches in baseball.

In exchange for a slightly reduced strikeout rate, Greene did much better at limiting hard contact. The adjustments worked, though his 3.80 SIERA suggests he over-performed a bit. It’s also worth mentioning he suffered a late-season elbow injury. Greene returned to make two starts in late September, but keep it in mind when targeting Greene in fantasy drafts.

Spencer Schwellenbach, RHP, Braves | Age: 24

Schwellenbach, one of this offseason’s biggest fantasy darlings, enters 2025 without much of a track record as a starting pitcher. What he showed last summer was borderline Skenes-esque, however.

His Stuff+ metrics don’t jump off the page, but he threw six different pitches at least 7% of the time last season:

Schwellenbach’s 3.35 ERA was backed up by a 3.42 SIERA. Among starters, he ranked inside the top 20 for K-BB% and swinging strike rate.

A former shortstop, Schwellenbach flew past AJ Smith-Shawver and Hurston Waldrep in Atlanta’s pitching prospect pipeline last year. Including the minors, he finished with 168 innings, well above his 65 innings in 2023. The absence of a workhorse track record is the only thing to hold against Schwellenbach this winter. The entirety of his advanced metrics back up the hype.

Jared Jones, RHP, Pirates | Age: 23

Many of Jones’ metrics help explain his hot start in April of last season. He combines an elite swinging strike with elite contact suppression inside the zone. However, Jones also gets hit hard and has some control/command concerns, leading to elevated walk and homer rates.

These weren’t issues through mid-May when Jones compiled a 2.89 ERA with a 31% strikeout rate after nine starts. Over his final 13 outings, Jones had a 5.11 ERA with a 23 K%. Inconsistent velocities and a strained lat in July led to an uneven encore to his blazing debut.

Between a rising fastball from a unique slot and a plus slider, Jones has traits to build around heading into 2025. Reaching his ceiling will require further development and more consistent velocity/health.