In the final week of the regular season, you have to take any two-start possibility with an enormous grain of salt
What, no italics? That’s right, I’m abandoning the usual boilerplate intro for this final edition of the two-start pitcher rankings to issue a grave warning …
Don’t count on any of these guys actually making two starts.
They appear to be in line to — and some indeed will — but the second start would come on the final day of the season. With no tomorrow, a team can throw caution to the wind and pretty much use whomever it wants. I’m not saying it’ll start someone on short rest, but a bullpen game or a spot starter? Why not?
And actually, I think the pitchers most in danger of losing their second start are the ones on the teams with a tomorrow — i.e., the ones resetting their rotation for the playoffs. If they’ve already secured their spot prior to the final day of the season and one of their top hurlers is scheduled to go, they’ll almost assuredly opt for someone else.
To reiterate, you should be skeptical of any pitcher listed here actually making two starts, but especially Zack Wheeler, Max Fried and Kevin Gausman. Maybe Cristian Javier, Nick Martinez and Robbie Ray as well. You’re probably going to ask about Payton Tolle because you’re likely to see two baseball indicators next to his name on your lineup page, signaling two starts, but I’m so confident he won’t actually make that second start that I’ve left him out of these rankings altogether. Of course, you’ll probably still want to use him with one start because he’s that good.
That should the litmus test. If you wouldn’t be comfortable getting just one start from any of these pitchers, you’re better off not using him at all. For now, though, here’s how the two-start pitcher slate stacks up for Fantasy Week 27 (Sept. 21-27). All information is up to date as of late Sunday.
Better left for points leagues
