Top 10 Rental Starting Pitchers at the MLB Trade Deadline
This year's trade deadline is sure to be dominated by the moving starting pitchers. We rank the top rental starters on the market.
The MLB Trade Deadline is just under a week a way. Rumors and reports, along with funky mock trades, are littering your timeline with who is, and isn’t, available changing by the day. With every game played we getting a clearer picture of who is a buyer and who is a seller.
What is not so clear is what will happen at the top with back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal. Detroit has won five of its past six series and has looked like a playoff team, especially in the American League, since June 1. Buyers? Ehhh, I’m not sure I’d go that far. Sellers? I guess it will all depend on how hard the Skubal package is to pass up.
How Detroit handles the trade deadline will greatly impact the rest of the starting pitching market. Not only with the Skubal decision, but with Casey Mize, who is putting together a career year, and Jack Flaherty to a lesser extent.
We do know the rest of the names on this list fall into the sellers bucket. Some by design and others but disappointment. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
10. Brady Singer – RHP – Cincinnati Reds
2026 Stats: 103.1 IP, 4.53 ERA, 5.21 FIP, 7.66 K/9, 2.79 BB/9
Singer’s start to the season was a complete disaster, but he has started to put together a much better stretch over the past two months. A 3.08 ERA in June and 2.77 ERA in July, paired with higher strikeout numbers, should help the return Cincinnati gets back.
Many might focus on his home ballpark and think it could be the reason for inflated numbers but that is not the case. His 2.98 ERA at home has been significantly better than his 5.89 ERA on the road. While I do think Singer is a good back end arm I don’t think teams will view him as more than that. Cincinnati should be able to get a return that is solid, but I don’t see Singer as the type that could bring in a surprisingly good package of prospects.
9. Trevor Rogers – LHP – Baltimore Orioles
2026 Stats: 103.2 IP, 4.17 ERA, 3.72 FIP, 7.21 K/9, 2.78 BB/9
If we surveyed everyone’s thoughts on Rogers, I’m sure the variance in answers would be wide. At times, he looks like a top-two in a rotation and other times he’s a back-end arm. While last season’s 1.81 ERA and 2.82 FIP are looking more like an outlier than they new standard, I do think Rogers is a quality arm that could help a team down the stretch.
Not an answer to your “who takes the ball in Game 7” question, but someone who could help you get to game seven. His drop in groundball rate has not done him any favors and the mess in Baltimore hasn’t either. I do think the improvements in his command since joining the O’s is real, but the upside is tricky to feel comfortable about. This is where the potential return is truly difficult for me to predict.
8. Robbie Ray – LHP – San Francisco Giants
2026 Stats: 116.2 IP, 3.16 ERA, 4.49 FIP, 7.79 K/9, 4.32 BB/9
Similar to Mize, Ray’s 2025 season is going to help make his 2026 season carry more value. After two years of injury, Ray returned in 2025, pitching 182.1 innings at a 3.65 ERA, and has carried that success into 2026. His swing and miss stuff is not nearly as good as last season and walking batters is a recurring issue, but a veteran lefty to boost your rotation is always needed.
While the underlying numbers give reason for concern, I do think the Giants can make out pretty well in a trade. We know their farm system will need some help.
7. Shane Bieber – RHP – Toronto Blue Jays
2026 Stats: 30.2 IP, 4.70 ERA, 5.82 FIP, 6.48 K/9, 3.52 BB/9
Well, here we are again talking about Bieber and injuries. A superb pitcher who has been lights out when healthy is starting to feel like a character in some baseball lore. When people do see him, they have stories of excellence, but he disappears often enough that some cannot believe the tales.
What do you really make of Bieber at this point? Only six starters this year, and nothing looks quite right to start, but then he puts together back-to-back excellent starts this month just before the deadline. We all know the talent, and teams will certainly be interested in adding the veteran arm to the mix.
The cost is going to be interesting to see. Personally, I would not give up too much for a player who has unfortunately dealt with the injuries Bieber has. But then you watch his last start of seven innings of three-hit, one-run ball (without his best stuff) and dream on what could be.
6. Freddy Peralta – RHP – New York Mets
2026 Stats: 113.2 IP, 4.99 ERA, 4.47 FIP, 8.95 K/9, 3.80 BB/9
Where the market changes from “sure thing” to more of a “roll of the dice” can be argued depending on how you view Foster Griffin’s (who we’ll get to shortly) sample size. To me, that change happens with Peralta, which is a tough sentence to type. Consistency is part of what made Peralta great for so many years in Milwaukee, but his short stint in New York has been untheatrically bad.
Breaking down what has gone wrong is a different article for a different day. What we do know is that Peralta still carries value and and plenty of teams will think they can turn it around and get a top flight starter at a discounted rate. They could be right.
Rumors of the Brewers being interested in a reunion not only make sense but also make me laugh. Of course, the Brewers could correct the issue, and of course that scenario would fit perfectly with the 2026 Mets and everything that has gone south. Although Peralta will not command the return he did over the winter, he will not come cheap. Struggles or not.
5. Foster Griffin – LHP – Washington Nationals
2026 Stats: 124 IP, 2.76 ERA, 3.94 FIP, 8.20 K/9, 2.03 BB/9
After spending the past three seasons in the NPB, Griffin returned stateside signing a one-year deal in Washington. What a find this was for the Nationals, who desperately needed pitching. A crafty lefty with high-end command and movement over velocity, a high groundball rate, and a rather safe profile.
A kitchen sink approach that includes six pitches and sequencing to keep batters off their barrel, Griffin is the type of pitcher the Nationals need. However, at this point in their rebuild the return makes more sense than an extension. For Griffin, nearly 31 years old, testing the market and capitalizing on his season is the best path forward. Because of this, I see Griffin as a pure rental but a damn good one at that.
When Washington traded MacKenzie Gore they went the route of more prospects instead of higher-end prospects. Well, now that we have a larger sample, it looks like they got both. Do they chase a higher-end return, or could they take a similar approach that could open the market to more teams? I see Griffin as the tipping point into both markets when it comes to these rentals.
4. Kevin Gausman – RHP – Toronto Blue Jays
2026 Stats: 121.2 IP, 4.51 ERA, 3.58 FIP, 9.10 K/9, 2.59 BB/9
Gausman is 35 years old but is not showing signs of slowing down. He can still work deep into games, his velocity hasn’t started trending in the wrong direction, and he’s putting up his best K/9 since the 2023 season. A veteran with a ton of experience and playoff experience is something most contenders would love to add to their rotation.
After making the World Series last season, the Blue Jays have fallen flat to a 49-58 record in 2026. The opportunity to move off their rentals, replenish the farm system, and get younger while still pushing ahead for 2027 is too good of an opportunity to pass up. Seeing Gausman leave will be tough, but necessary.
However, he won’t come cheap. Like our next entrant here, Gausman could be a rental team’s view as an asset now and a candidate to re-sign to a two or three-year deal. Could that lead to a team pushing an extra prospect into a deal? I think so.
3. Clay Holmes – RHP – New York Mets
2026 Stats: 52.2 IP, 2.39 ERA, 3.23 FIP, 7.69 K/9, 3.08 BB/9
Holmes proved in 2025 that moving from the bullpen into the rotation was no problem. He made 31 starts pitching in 165.2 innings to a 3.53 ERA. Although he has only pitched 52.2 innings and is currently on the IL, his return is near.
Usually, a pitcher who has been out as long as Holmes would not be this high on the list. However, the crop of rental starters is not particularly strong, although it is deep. New York is in fire sale mode and will be moving off several players with Holmes being near the top of their list.
What I think teams will like most about Holmes is his consistency. You know what you are getting. There’s also an angle where teams will view Holmes as a likely candidate to extend. Next year will be his age-34 season, making him a perfect target for a more approachable contract than someone of Skubal’s caliber.
2. Casey Mize – RHP – Detroit Tigers
2026 Stats: 86.2 IP, 2.70 ERA, 2.59 FIP, 8.83 K/9, 1.97 BB/9
Skubal’s season, paired with his trade value, has forced Mize’s career year into the shadows. Last season was only the second time Mize has started more than 25 games and he put up arguably his best season. Topping his 2025 in 2026 should only cement his value as real and not just a sample size asterisk.
Injuries have followed him throughout his career. This season was no different missing some time back in May when just about everyone was injured on the Tigers. The command has always been stellar and now the swing and miss has improved to a career-best K/9 and 28.8% whiff rate.
If the Tigers trade Skubal I don’t think it automatically means Mize is traded as well. It probably should, but keeping Mize could be the angle to sell fans on some type of a “sell while also still pushing for the playoffs” kind of thing. I’m not saying that’s the best route to go, but there’s a better chance of resigning Mize than Skubal. Who really knows, but the Tigers are in a tough spot.
1. Tarik Skubal – LHP – Detroit Tigers
2026 Stats: 90 IP, 2.70 ERA, 2.68 FIP, 11.00 K/9, 1.30 BB/9
The reports have changed from week to week, which has only made me think that nobody truly knows what will happen. Every day you check in to the baseball news, someone is flipping a coin – heads the Tigers will trade him, tails he’s going to stay. With so much uncertainty, we will just have to wait and see. What is more certain is that Skubal has once again been one of the best pitchers in baseball.
An injury held him out for a few weeks, but once Skubal returned, he didn’t skip a beat. Each of his last five starts has been two or fewer runs with his most recent being a 7.1-inning outing of one-run ball with 12 strikeouts, his second double-digit strikeout game of the season.
If Detroit continues to win at the pace they have been, trading Skubal will become a difficult move, optically, for the front office. A team that was built for playoff success has shown their true potential for two straight months leading to hope for both the players and fans. But, a package with top prospects and young major leaguers in exchange for three months of Skubal? Hard to pass up.
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