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USATSI

Paul Skenes has been outpitched before. Not often, but it's happened. I'm not sure any pitcher has ever out-stuffed him until he squared off against Jacob Misiorowski Wednesday in Milwaukee. 

Misiorowski out-pitched Skenes on Wednesday, and he did so while looking like the genuinely more electric pitcher. That is, of course, not to say Misiorowski is better than Skenes – we're a long way from even beginning to have that conversation, and I doubt we'll ever get there. But what we can say is Misiorowski has stuff few pitchers in baseball can even touch, and that includes Skenes. He pumped a mind-boggling 12, 100-plus mph fastballs in just the first inning alone of Wednesday's start and finished with just two walks and two singles over five shutout innings before being pulled with eight strikeouts. 

It's too early to say Misiorowski is in Skenes' class, but we have to rank him somewhere. So, where should we start? Well, he's through his first three MLB starts with a 1.13 ERA and 33.3% strikeout rate, after he had a 2.13 ERA and 31.6% strikeout rate in 13 Triple-A games before his promotion. Expectations were high for Misiorowski, and he has done everything he can to live up to them.

Is ranking him as a top-40 starting pitcher too aggressive? Given the iffy command we've seen flashes of and concerns about how many innings we're likely to see from Misiorowski the rest of the way – the Brewers have allowed him to pitch more than five innings just once in three starts and he was pulled after 74 pitches Wednesday, after all – I could make a case for top-40 being too aggressive at this stage.

But I don't really want to make that case. Misiorowski's stuff is incredible – The Athletic's Eno Sarris compared him to Jacob deGrom, and yeah, I can see it – and he hasn't been held back by the iffy command yet. I do think there are limits to just how we can reasonably rank Misiorowski the rest of the way because of the command and potential workload limitations, but … wouldn't you rather have Misiorowski than Kevin Gausman at this point? Or Jack Flaherty? Or Luis Castillo? Don't those actually feel like pretty easy calls at this point? 

Those three are all consensus top-36 SPs in our rankings right now, so doesn't Misiorowski need to be, too? I think it's pretty tough to justify getting him much higher than, say, 30th, at this point, but I'm comfortable putting him that high. That is a handful of spots ahead of fellow fireballing rookie Chase Burns, who debuted Tuesday, but I think both could very well pitch their way into the top 24 before long.

And, looking ahead to 2025, that isn't the ceiling for either. Not by a long shot. These could be two of the very best pitchers in baseball eventually. Right now? Just be happy you've got them on your roster if you do. 

Here's what else you need to know about from Wednesday's action around MLB: 

Thursday's waiver-wire targets

Nick Kurtz, 1B, Athletics (83%) – We usually try to keep things limited to 70% rostered or below here, but I'll make an exception just to say this: Go add Nick Kurtz if you're in one of the leagues where he's still available. He was a top prospect who is now hitting .306 with 10 homers over his past 19 games after going 3 for 3 with a homer Wednesday. The batting average will come down because he still strikes out a lot, but Kurtz is hitting as advertised as a prospect right now, and I'm willing to fully buy in. He'll probably be a top-10 first baseman when I update my rankings this week, ahead of the likes of Spencer Torkelson and Tyler Soderstrom, who have kind of fizzled out of late. Kurtz may follow in their footsteps, but he's locked in right now, and they aren't, so it's an easy call, given his talent level. 

Jacob Lopez, SP, Athletics (39%) – Jacob Lopez is weird, and in this context, that's a compliment. Hitters tend to perform better the more they've seen of a pitcher, and they tend to perform better when pitchers throw like other pitchers. Lopez is relatively new to the majors and has an approach few pitchers possess. He doesn't throw hard from his near side-arm angle, but he gets a lot of extension with his delivery and a lot of arm-side movement on his four-seamer. His changeup gets more run than most, too, while his slider breaks further to the opposite side than most sliders. It all adds up to a funky approach that many hitters just don't see very often, and his extreme flyball approach also means he could continue to run unusually low batting averages. I think at some point the league will catch up to Lopez and the ball will start leaving the park at untenable rates, but that hasn't happened yet, as he has 38 strikeouts to eight walks in 27.1 innings in the month of June. For now, while he remains a novelty, Lopez should be rostered in pretty much all leagues. 

Jo Adell, OF, Angels (61%) – We've written about Adell a lot as a waiver-wire target in the past few weeks, and he just isn't showing any signs of slowing down. He's riding an eight-game hitting stretch with four homers in that stretch, and is now up to a .266/.356/.658 line in June with 10 homers in 91 plate appearances. And, despite how hot he has been, he is still underperforming his expected stats across the board for the season. I don't expect Adell to be a .266 hitter the rest of the way, but .245 with a 30-plus-homer pace seems within reach, and should make him a must-roster Fantasy option in most leagues. 

Kyle Teel, C, White Sox (27%) – For most of the season, it would have been hard to recommend Teel in a one-catcher league, even though he is a top prospect who has more or less held his own in his first taste of the majors. One-catcher leagues are shallower, after all, and it's too early to declare Teel as a top-12 option at the position, especially with how many breakouts we've seen. But with a few guys hitting the IL lately and a few more struggling, Teel is worth a look in the shallower formats, especially with his high walk rate lending itself well to the H2H points format. He's also striking out a lot in the early going, which is probably tied to his high walk rate, as he's swinging at a relatively low 44.9% of pitches seen so far, while swinging and missing in the strike zone a bit too much. That's not too concerning for a player with his pedigree, and he's still finding ways to contribute – and his .346 expected wOBA compared to his actual .314 mark suggests better days are still to come.