Fantasy Baseball 2025 Two-Start Pitchers & Streaming Starters - Week 21

Week 21 provides a wealth of top-tier arms to employ as Fantasy Baseball 2025 Two-Start Pitchers in your team rotations. There are also a plethora of Fantasy Baseball 2025 Streaming Starters to consider sliding onto your pitching staffs for this week, or if things work out well, perhaps going forward as roster fixtures as the season winds down.

Please realize that these articles feature most recent rotation information available when the article is written, but that circumstances do change due to weather conditions, injuries and general craziness with managers. If a pitcher listed here as having two starts ends up with one (or perhaps none) in the upcoming week, apologies but this article is meant to provide analysis, it is up to the manager to set the lineups or rotations.

Without further ado, here are this week’s two start pitchers:

As noted above in the intro, this week fantasy owners are graced with a huge selection of top-tier hurlers that are providing dual-start eligibility this coming scoring period. Do not overthink things; if you own one or more of these SPs, now is the time to reap the benefits of your savvy draft or waiver wire pickup skills and plug these SPs into your lineups.

Boyd has collected eight quality starts (QS) since the beginning of June, posting a super set of ratios over those 74.1 IP: 1.94 ERA, 0.87 WHIP. He “struggled” in his last trip to the hill, handing out seven hits (no walks, though) and three earned runs over 5.0 IP in St. Louis to the host Cardinal hitters. He gets his tougher matchup against the visiting Brewers at Wrigley Field, where he has enjoyed great success this season in his 11 home starts thus far, although his results while on the road have been admirable, too, making the second start in Anaheim a good bet for the 34-year-old southpaw. With his excellent control and good K potential, he tops off the middle tier of dual start SP in Week 21.

Kelly, until his most recent loss against the visiting Philly team, had made five trips to the bump where he allowed two or fewer earned runs in each outing. Overall, this season he has been successful, posting a 3.37 ERA and 1.08 WHIP over his 138.2 innings for the Diamondbacks and his new team, the Rangers. A 131:43 K/BB ratio has value as well. 

Ray has only allowed more than three earned tallies three times this season in his 25 trips to toe the rubber, one of those outings coming against the Padres at home in his last start. He carries a 2.98 ERA out of that game, with a very attractive 1.14 WHIP. He has been striking out better than a hitter per frame (9.2 K/9 through 148.0 IP). His home/road splits favor his taking the ball at home, but not so out of kilter to suggest not employing his services for two road contests, either.

Leiter only walked two batters in his latest start, a positive trend given his season walk rate of 4.2 BB/9. He and his teammate Kelly profiled a couple of paragraphs above both head to Kansas City but then get to face the Guardians at home, not a terrible set of matchups. The young righty has finally managed to push his ERA below 4.00 (3.94) but the WHIP is inflated due to the propensity to hand out free passes to opposing hitters.

May twirled a QS in his second start for the Red Sox, his new team, while collecting eight Ks and allowing just one hitter to reach base on a free pass. The home start against the Orioles to open Week 21 looks promising for him to continue his success while on the hill for Boston, but the second start at Yankee Stadium is less attractive as a potential time to use him in your fantasy rotation, given the Yankees’ overall success at home this year.

Cortes seems to be on a pitch count, which cost him the opportunity to collect his first win with the Padres as he only lasted 4.2 innings while holding the host Giants to one earned run on five hits and a walk. He did strike out six San Fran hitters in his short stint on the bump. He gets a pair of home starts in Week 21, including an opening contest against the Giants where he can seek some revenge and stick around long enough to notch a victory.

Wacha has tossed six consecutive games where he has allowed two or fewer earned runs. Over those 36.0 IP, he has accumulated a 2.00 ERA and similarly excellent 0.78 WHIP. The strikeout rate is well below average at 6.6 K/9 this season. Given his home/road splits in 2025, his first start of the scoring period at home against the Rangers carries the most promise in Week 21.

Because of the wealth of top-tier talent, the bottom group is not overly jam-packed with those arms you want to avoid plugging into your fantasy rotations if at all possible. Sure, there are those SPs in this group that could potentially be useful as a streaming starter, but for the most part these pitchers should be relegated to bench roles, or left on the waiver wire. Now is not the time to damage your ratios, especially for limited counting stat value returns.

Potential Streaming Options for Week 21

There is no promise that each game day will provide a streaming option. First of all, the pitcher must be available in at least 50% of leagues to be a viable candidate to snag off the wire. Then, the pitchers discussed above are not included as they have a different sort of value, even though some might be available as free agents in your league. Plus, some days the matchups and/or venues just do not figure as positive enough factors to favor plugging the arm into your rotation, even for one start. That all being said, here are this week’s best Fantasy Baseball 2025 Streaming Starters candidates:

Emmet Sheehan, Los Angeles Dodgers @ Colorado Rockies

The 25-year-old righthander struggled in his last trip to the hill against the host Angels, but had allowed just two earned runs during his previous three times on the mound. He still sports a useful 3.86 ERA and 1.23 WHIP over his limited 35.0 IP as a starter and reliever, and his peripheral metrics suggest that better, more consistent results may be in the offing. He does offer great strikeout potential with his 9.5 K/9 rate.

Tomoyuki Sugano, Baltimore Orioles @ Boston Red Sox

The Oriole righty has collected three victories (and two no-decisions) over his last five times atop the bump. His ratios are not great (4.24 ERA, 1.31 WHIP through 121.0 IP) and he is not a great source of Ks with his 6.0 K/9 rate over the course of the season so far. He relies on his control to keep him out of unnecessary trouble while dealing from the hill, as well as a strong ability to generate groundballs: 2.3 BB/9, 41.1% GB through his 22 starts.

Shane Smith, Chicago White Sox @ Atlanta Braves

The rookie righthander has not had a decision since returning from an ankle injury, despite pitching effectively overall, allowing just four earned runs over those 14.1 IP, and collecting 17 Ks during that stretch, as well. The eight walks allowed during that trio of contests are a concern. The matchup in this scheduled start is not daunting as the Braves are a .500 team at home as of this writing.

Michael McGreevy, St. Louis Cardinals @ Miami Marlins

The young righthander has strung together a pair of consecutive QS,  most recently against the visiting Rockies, not necessarily an astounding event this season. In limited action he has been better on the road this year, so heading to Miami is a positive aspect for him in this upcoming matchup. Do not rely on him to miss a ton of bats, but also anticipate him to avoid hurting himself with free passes (1.2 BB/9 through 51.0 IP).

Landon Roupp, San Francisco Giants @ San Diego Padres

The word out of the Bay is that the righthander will be activated following his trip to the IL with an elbow issue and make a weekend start against the Rays, where he will likely be on a limited pitch count restriction. Keep an eye on his first start back to make certain this mid-week appearance will actually occur. 

Nick Martinez, Cincinnati Reds @ Los Angeles Angels

The Reds’ rotation is in a bit of flux, with Nick Lodolo hitting the IL, Hunter Greene returning to the starting staff and rookie Chase Burns perhaps heading to the bullpen to help limit his inning count on the season. That means the veteran righty will likely get a start this coming weekend against the Brewers, which may impact his use in this middle of the week contest. He is coming off a 7.0 IP effort in Pittsburgh where he held the opposition to a single earned tally, giving him his 10^th win of 2025.

Cameron Schlittler, New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays

The righthanded rookie has tossed exactly five innings in each of his last three trips to the hill, and while he has struck out a batter per frame over his six starts, the 14 walks and 31 hits allowed, resulting in an inflated WHIP of 1.50 are a concern. The Rays are only slightly better than .500 at home, so this is not a terrible matchup if you want some Ks from a streamer.

Colin Rea, Chicago Cubs vs Milwaukee Brewers

The veteran righty managed to go 6.0 IP in his last start, a welcome development. He looks to stick in the rotation for the time being, with the Cubs facing a stretch of 14 games in 13 days coming up. While he did rack up six Ks in his start against the host Cardinals, but do not expect quite the same production against the Brewers in this contest, as they are not exactly a free-swinging offense.

Brad Lord, Washington Nationals vs New York Mets

Since returning to the Washington rotation, the rookie righthander has been effective while dealing with opposing hitters from atop the mound, racking up an attractive 2.70 ERA and 1.10 WHIP over his last 20.0 IP thrown. His road results are such that this home matchup is only a so-so streaming start.

Jason Alexander, Houston Astros @ Baltimore Orioles

Over his last four appearance, he has been superb in terms of ratios: 2.78 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. The Ks are just sub-par, sitting at 6.9 K/9 over the course of the season. He has been more of a road warrior this season, so a road game in Charm City should not be a major concern if you want to use him on Thursday as the best streaming option available.

Joey Wentz, Atlanta Braves vs New York Mets

Since joining the Braves’ rotation in mid-July, he has produced useful results while toeing the rubber, compiling a 3.16 ERA and 1.05 WHIP over those 25.2 IP. He is also a road warrior based on his home/road splits, and thus a game at home against the visiting Mets is another so-so streaming option, but his recent results suggest he has some potential fantasy value.

Ryan Bergert, Kansas City Royals @ Detroit Tigers

The rookie righty has allowed just seven earned runs over his last four starts, comprising a total of 20.0 IP. He has also struck out 21 batters over that stretch of games, although he also handed out nine walks during that span for a 4.0 BB/9 rate. Yet another road warrior SP, but this one gets to show his stuff while actually in the opponent’s venue for this start.

Chris Paddack, Detroit Tigers vs Kansas City Royals

The new addition to the Tiger rotation has yielded just a single run in three of his most recent starts. He did allow four runs to be scored in the other contest, but a sub 3.00 (2.91) ERA and 0.78 WHIP over 21.2 IP is not something to downplay when seeking a streaming arm to plug in to your fantasy rotation in mid-August as the season works through the dog days of summer.

Logan Allen, Cleveland Guardians @ Texas Rangers

The control which the southpaw had exhibited most of this season has departed from his repertoire of late, as he has handed out eight free passes over his last two starts. His home/road splits are fairly even, but show him to be a slightly better road operative for fantasy purposes. There is still the issue that the Rangers are tough to beat in their home park.