Ranking the Ace Pitcher for Every 2025 MLB Playoff Team
Technically, every team has an ace. But not all aces are created equal.
We've gone through the 12 teams that will be in the postseason, and ranked their No. 1 starters, while recognizing that the No. 2 or No. 3 starter for certain teams could be better than the ace of other clubs.
When there was a tie to break in terms of who the ace was for a given team, we leaned on either who got the ball in Game 162, or who is likely to toe the rubber in the first playoff game for each club.
12. Shota Imanaga, Chicago Cubs
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Shota Imanaga didn't pitch as well as his rookie season of 2024, in which he finished fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting. However, with a 3.73 ERA and 0.988 WHIP, Imanaga is still a tough out when he takes the ball.
What will likely make-or-break his postseason will be whether he can keep the ball in the yard. Despite being limited to 25 starts this season, he gave up 31 home runs, tied for the fourth-worst mark among all starting pitchers.
With a right ribcage injury sidelining Cade Horton for at least this series, the Cubs need Imanaga to step up and pitch like an ace against the San Diego Padres if they are going to advance in the postseason.
11. Gavin Williams, Cleveland Guardians
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Gavin Williams was in line to start this past Sunday, but Stephen Vogt—who is likely to repeat as AL Manager of the Year—opted to save him for Game 1 of the ALWCS after Cleveland clinched a postseason spot in Game 161.
As it turned out, the Guardians edged out the Detroit Tigers and won the AL Central, so Williams will get the ball at Progressive Field Tuesday as Cleveland looks to take the lead in the best-of-three series.
Williams was Cleveland's best starting pitcher this season, going 12-5 with a 3.06 ERA over 31 starts. Granted, he did lead all starters with 83 walks and both his 4.28 expected ERA and 4.39 FIP suggest he wasn't as good as his back-of-the-baseball-card stats would lead you to believe. But he was the easy choice for Game 1 starter based on the success he had across 167.2 innings this season.
Interestingly, Williams' final two starts of the regular season came against the Tigers. Facing a team this many times can sometimes work to the advantage of hitters, although he struck out 21 batters and allowed just two earned runs over 11 innings (1.64 ERA) across those final two starts.
10. Kevin Gausman, Toronto Blue Jays
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Blue Jays' manager John Schneider took a risk giving the ball to Kevin Gausman in Game 162 as Toronto tried to secure the AL East title and a first-round bye.
Gausman struggled, giving up eight hits and four earned runs over 3.2 innings pitched, but the Jays won nonetheless.
The last start not withstanding, he was tremendous in the second half of the season. After posting a 4.19 ERA across 19 starts in the first half of the season, he pitched to a 2.81 ERA in 13 starts following the All-Star Game.
A two-time All-Star, Gausman has struggled in the postseason in his career, with a 4.91 ERA to show for 25.2 postseason frames. For the Blue Jays to get back to and win the World Series for the first time since 1993, he will need to get that monkey off his back and pitch like a frontline starter this October.
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9. Nick Pivetta, San Diego Padres
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The Padres didn't sign Nick Pivetta to a four-year, $55 million deal until mid-February, but the pact that president of baseball operations A.J. Preller inked him to turned out to be one of the best of the winter.
While the Dylan Cease/Yu Darvish duo struggled and Michael King was limited to just 15 starts, Pivetta turned in a career year.
Across 181.2 innings pitched, Pivetta struck out 190 batters and posted a 2.87 ERA. After years of flashing frontline potential with the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox, he finally reached it in San Diego in 2025.
Pivetta pitched very well for the Red Sox in the 2021 postseason, finishing with a 2.63 ERA over 13.2 innings. He's an even better overall pitcher now, and with some uncertainty in the rotation behind him, Mike Shildt and the Padres need him to continue pitching like an ace this October.
8. Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds
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Andrew Abbott was Cincinnati's best starter during the regular season, but Hunter Greene will get the ball in Game 1 of the NLWCS against the Reds, and the power righty is still the arm that you fear most coming out of Terry Francona's rotation.
A right groin strain did limit him to just 19 starts during the regular season, but with an 11.0 K/9 and 2.76 ERA, Greene was still a difficult out when he was on the mound.
While we typically think of teams that play at Great American Ball Park as being offensive focused, if this Reds teams is going to advance, it will be because they have the type of starting pitching to steal a short series.
Greene will have to set the tone in his postseason debut against Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and the defending World Series champions Tuesday.
7. Bryan Woo, Seattle Mariners
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There's a bit of an asterisk—or perhaps a nautical rose—here because Bryan Woo is trying to work his way back from right pectoral inflammation that has kept him from pitching since Sept. 19.
At the time of publication, we're still waiting to see if he will be available for the ALDS, and whether he'll get the ball in Game 1 or a bit later.
Even in a rotation with Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo and George Kirby, Woo deserves to be mentioned as the club's ace based on how he pitched prior to this injury.
An All-Star for the first time in 2025, Woo went 15-7 with a 2.94 ERA, 198 strikeouts and a 0.927 WHIP over 186.2 innings pitched. He's not going to win the AL Cy Young Award, but he'll certainly get some down-ballot support.
Assuming the 25-year-old is able to return this fall, his next start will be the first in his postseason career. If Woo is able to get back in form, there's no reason he and the M's can't reach and win the World Series for the first time in franchise history this year.
6. Blake Snell, Los Angeles Dodgers
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The Dodgers were the most difficult team to decide on an ace for.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was their best overall pitcher this season, posting an MLB-best 5.9 H/9 across 173.2 innings pitched this season. Shohei Ohtani might be their most gifted starter, as he posted a 0.00 ERA over 14.2 innings pitched in September.
But it is expected to be Blake Snell, the two-time Cy Young Award winner, who takes the ball for Dave Roberts and Co. in Game 1 of the NLWCS against the Reds Tuesday.
So, he'll get the nod here, and frankly, either Yamamoto or Ohtani probably would have landed on a similar spot of the countdown.
After signing a five-year, $182 million deal to join the Dodgers in the offseason, left shoulder inflammation limited Snell to only 11 starts in his first season with L.A. Fortunately for the Dodgers, he's healthy now, and he pitched to a 2.35 ERA when he did pitch this season.
Obviously, Snell would like to have the No. 1 postseason memory of him be anything other than being pulled early by Kevin Cash in Game 6 of the 2020 World Series when he was pitching for the Tampa Bay Rays.
He actually has a 3.33 postseason ERA in 48.2 October innings, but it will likely take a World Series run for Snell to change what people remember about him in the postseason.
5. Max Fried, New York Yankees
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Max Fried assumed the role of staff ace for the Yankees in the first season of an eight-year, $218 million deal after Gerrit Cole was lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery in March.
The long-time Atlanta Brave did a tremendous job of seizing that role, going 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA and 3.07 FIP across a career-high 195.1 innings pitched. The lefty is likely headed for the third top-five finish in Cy Young Award voting in his career.
With a 5.10 ERA in 67 career postseason innings, Fried hasn't been at his best in October, although he wasn't always healthy entering the playoffs. Nonetheless, he's got a chance to change his playoff legacy if he outpitches Garrett Crochet and the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the ALWCS at Yankee Stadium Tuesday.
4. Freddy Peralta, Milwaukee Brewers
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The Brewers won an MLB-best 97 games despite not really having a superstar.
Freddy Peralta was probably the best overall performer on a team where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts, going 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA and 204 strikeouts over 176.2 innings pitched.
Jose Quintana (left calf strain) has uncertain availability for the NLDS, while a right lat injury has made Brandon Woodruff's status for the postseason even murkier. Quinn Priester and Jacob Misiorowski are two young starters who have shown excellent flashes, but never pitched in the postseason.
All of that context puts more pressure on Peralta to come through and deliver an ace-like performance to open each series.
The two-time All-Star has a 4.00 ERA across 18 innings in his playoff career, so like some of the other names on this list, he's looking to make his postseason resume look more like his regular season one.
3. Cristopher Sánchez, Philadelphia Phillies
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Cristopher Sánchez's continued emergence as an ace—he's likely to finish runner-up to Paul Skenes in NL Cy Young Award voting—has allowed the Phillies to overcome the loss of Zack Wheeler (blood clot, thoracic outlet syndrome) for the season.
The 28-year-old southpaw finished the season with 22 quality starts, tied with Crochet and Logan Webb for the top mark among all starters. He was also top-three in terms of innings pitched (202), FIP (2.55), HR/9 (0.53) and WAR, per FanGraphs.
All that's left for Sánchez to do to really gain national recognition as one of baseball's most dominant arms is to have a great postseason run.
He's got a 3.68 ERA across two playoff starts, which isn't bad, but the Phillies are going to need more from their ace if they are going to get over the hump and win a World Series this October.
2. Garrett Crochet, Boston Red Sox
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If not for the No. 1 name on this list, Garrett Crochet's first season with the Red Sox would have been good enough for him to win the AL Cy Young Award.
After an offseason trade from the Chicago White Sox, Crochet led baseball with 255 strikeouts, while leading the AL in K/9 (11.2), innings pitched (205.1) and batters faced (814). Crochet was a true ace for Alex Cora's squad.
Crochet actually made four postseason appearances for the White Sox between 2020 and 2021, but did so as a reliever. Tuesday will be his first start in the playoffs, and he has a chance to add to his legend by going into Yankee Stadium and shoving.
1. Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers
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A.J. Hinch and the Tigers opted not to have Tarik Skubal take the ball in Game 162, instead saving him for the first game of the ALWCS.
That decision may have cost them a division title and forced them to go on the road to begin the postseason, but it was the right one.
Skubal is going to become the first AL pitcher to repeat as Cy Young Award winner since Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez did it in 1999 and 2000.
Skubal led all of baseball in WHIP (0.891), BB/9 (1.5), strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.30) and WAR (6.6), per FanGraphs. If you just look at the junior circuit, he finished with the top marks in terms of ERA (2.21), ERA+ (187) and FIP (2.45).
With likely NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes at home this October, Skubal is unquestionably the best pitcher who will be competing in the postseason. The Tigers rotation has serious questions after him, but will have a massive advantage in any outing where he toes the rubber.
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