Donnie Football

He was a finalist for the Cy Young as a rookie.

He then won it with all of the votes in 2025.

I don't think there's really any debate beyond he and Tarek Skubal who the two best in the game are.

Mitch Keller is still waiting on that complete season of good baseball, but still not a bad guy to have as your two or three in the rotation.

Bubba Chandler getting ready for his first full season, and after some rocky outings early, he settled in.

He showed us a little bit of what he could be made of.

Is he quite Paul Skeens?

I'm not going to go there, but maybe we find some happy medium of rookie Jared Jones and rookie Paul Skeens, and I think that's actually fair to expect out of somebody like Bubba Chandler.

According to the Fangraph's projection,

The rotation will then be rounded out by Braxton Ashcraft and Jose Urquidy, who was signed a couple of weeks ago, the veteran righty.

Ashcraft, he showed promise in a hybrid role last season.

He made the Mike Burrows move possible.

Think about the domino effect that could have had

maybe it still doesn't stop them from going out and getting Brandon Lau or being as aggressive in that pursuit.

But if they didn't have two pitchers that really did the same thing, Ashcraft and Burroughs, that showed, hey, they can be useful starters that can go five or six, or they can be guys that piggyback, or they can be dudes that just come in for an inning or two out of the bullpen.

If Ashcraft didn't show that ability,

Maybe Burroughs doesn't get moved.

Maybe that trade never happens.

It's fair to think about something like that.

He's someone that can carry his own weight in the back end of the rotation.