A year ago, there was spirited debate about the top starting pitcher available on the free-agent market. This time around, no such debate exists.

In our 2026-27 free-agent edition of the Starting Pitcher Power Rankings, left-hander is the unanimous No. 1 choice, to no one’s surprise. Instead, the uncertainty centers around the order behind him. Six pitchers received at least one second- or third-place vote from our eight-member voting panel, with significant differences of opinion from our voters about where a number of those arms should rank.

Only time will tell how these pitchers actually stack up as free-agent signings, but for now, here are the results of our poll, which considered only pitchers currently on the open market.

1) LHP Tarik Skubal
When the Cy Young Awards are announced next Wednesday, Skubal won’t win his third straight. (He isn’t among the three finalists in either league.) But that has much more to do with Skubal missing about six weeks of action due to an elbow injury, and then changing leagues at the Trade Deadline, than it does with his actual performance. Sure, maybe Skubal didn’t seem quite as dominant at times as he was in 2024-25, but his ERA was still well under 3.00, and his 2.51 FIP was a near-exact match for his numbers from the previous two seasons. His Baseball Savant page remained bright red. (That’s a good thing.) Of course, one wonders about the NanoScope surgery Skubal underwent earlier this year, but the fact that he came back strong from that should give interested teams plenty of confidence going forward.

2) RHP
King ranked fifth on our list last year, and now he’s a free agent again after opting out of the final two years of his contract with the Padres. It’s fair to say King raised his stock in 2026, setting career highs in starts (32) and innings (185), a year after injuries limited him to just 15 starts. The icing on the cake was King’s postseason performance, which included one run and five hits allowed over 14 innings, including a two-inning save against the Brewers in NLDS Game 3. All that said, though, the 31-year-old right-hander’s under-the-surface stats still show some cause for concern: His K-rate dropped below average, and his 4.42 expected ERA ranked in only the 33rd percentile.

3) RHP
It was a tale of two seasons for Peralta … or was it? On the surface, it looks like the two-time All-Star struggled mightily after an offseason trade to the Mets (4.99 ERA in 22 starts) and then rediscovered himself after a Deadline trade to the Rays (3.25 ERA in 10 starts, plus a strong postseason run). Under the surface, things are less clear. Peralta’s expected metrics, based on opponents’ quantity and quality of contact, were almost identical between his two teams. (His strikeout rate actually declined with Tampa Bay.) With that said, Peralta has a recent track record of durability and productivity, and at age 30, there is plenty of reason to think his early-2026 struggles were just a hiccup.

4) RHP
It’s been a winding road for Gray, who would be changing teams for the seventh time should he depart the Red Sox after one season. If Gray does in fact go one-and-done in Boston, he certainly made the most of his time there, going 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA, even as his whiff and strikeout rates showed concerning declines. Despite those question marks, and the fact that he’s headed into his age-37 season, Gray’s 2026 success should set him up well for another go at free agency.

5) RHP Kaima Taira
Taira, a star in Japan’s NPB, has entered the posting process, making him available to all 30 MLB teams. He presents a fascinating case, too. On the plus side, the right-hander will pitch next season at just 27 years old, is coming off a 1.36 ERA for the Saitama Seibu Lions and boasts a high-powered pitch arsenal. But there also are reasons for caution, including Taira’s height (5-foot-8) and relatively limited track record of holding up for a full season in a starting role. Basically, Taira has as much potential as any non-Skubal pitcher on this list, but it also wouldn’t be a huge surprise if his ultimate role winds up being in the bullpen.

6) LHP
Rogers’ big league career has seen plenty of ups and downs. The left-hander was an All-Star and NL Rookie of the Year runner-up for the Marlins in 2021. Then he struggled with underperformance and injuries for the next three seasons, getting traded to the Orioles at the 2024 Deadline. Then he was brilliant for Baltimore in 2025 (1.81), albeit in just 18 starts after coming back from a knee injury. Then in 2026, he had a miserable first two months (6.84 ERA through May), followed by an excellent last four (2.90). It’s also notable that Rogers was the only starting pitcher among the eight players to receive the one-year, $23.15 million qualifying offer from his team for 2027. Given his upside, though, there’s plenty of reason to think Rogers will decline that offer before the Nov. 17 deadline and open the bidding to other suitors.

7) RHP
Holmes had spent his whole big league career as a reliever, including saving 74 games for the Yankees from 2022-24, before converting into a starter after joining the Mets before his age-32 season in 2025. It’s fair to say that experiment has been a success, even with a comebacker fracturing his right fibula this May and keeping him out of action for almost three months. In 51 games (49 starts) over the past two seasons, Holmes, with his elite ground-ball tendencies, has delivered a 3.44 ERA. His 119 ERA+ (19% better than the park-adjusted league average) tied for 19th in that span, among 82 pitchers who logged at least 250 innings.

8) RHP
Like Holmes, Gausman joined the Cubs at the Trade Deadline, but the 35-year-old had a bit of a rough time on the North Side, allowing five-plus earned runs in three of his nine starts and serving up 11 homers. (He also didn’t fare too well in his NL Wild Card Series start against the Padres.) Even in Toronto, Gausman’s 4.38 ERA would have been his highest in a season since 2019, but there is still plenty to like in his profile, including excellent walk (86th percentile) and chase rates (88th) and well above-average whiff (70th) and K-rates (66th). No pitcher in MLB racked up more strikeouts on splitters than Gausman’s 91.

9) LHP
Imanaga, our third straight pitcher who ended the 2026 season with the Cubs, was a close second to Gausman on that leaderboard for splitter K’s. Like Gausman, he also excels at limiting walks, getting batters to chase and piling up whiffs and strikeouts. The trouble for Imanaga comes when batters make contact, as that contact typically goes in the air, leading to 66 homers allowed over the past two seasons (tied for most in MLB). Imanaga has been an above-average pitcher despite that (110 ERA+ across 2025-26), but moving to a more homer-suppressing environment than Wrigley Field could potentially give him a boost.

10) LHP
When we did this exercise a year ago, Griffin wasn’t really on the radar. Once a first-round pick by the Royals, he had spent all of 2023-25 in Japan, following some cups of coffee in the Majors in 2020 and ‘22. But Griffin returned to the States as a different pitcher, signing a one-year deal with the Nationals and becoming an All-Star at age 30, though he didn’t find the same success after a Trade Deadline deal to Cleveland (5.19 ERA). Griffin is a poster child for the trend of expanded pitch arsenals, making up for well-below-average velocity by keeping batters off-balance with eight different offerings, including all three fastball types. The left-hander looks poised to make his second MLB stint a much more lasting one.

Others receiving votes: RHP Nick Pivetta, RHP Hiromi Itoh, RHP Nick Martinez, RHP Tyler Mahle, LHP Kris Bubic, RHP Casey Mize, LHP Matthew Boyd, LHP Robbie Ray, RHP Dustin May, LHP David Peterson, RHP Michael Soroka, RHP Brandon Woodruff

Voters: David Adler, Theo DeRosa, Jared Greenspan, Brian Murphy, Max Ralph, Manny Randhawa, Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, Andrew Simon