Yoshinobu Yamamoto grades as the Dodgers' best pitcher in 2026

Yamamoto leads Dodgers starters in both WAR (4.81) and innings pitched (165) with a 2.67 ERA, edging out Ohtani's lower ERA in a smaller sample and full-season rival Tarik Skubal.

Published: September 6, 2026 · Figures as of September 6, 2026

Asked: Who is the best pitcher on the Dodgers?

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the Dodgers' best pitcher this season

Yamamoto leads the Dodgers staff in Baseball-Reference WAR at 4.81 — tops on the roster — while also throwing the most innings of anyone on the staff (165) with a 2.67 ERA, 161 strikeouts, and an 0.90 WHIP. He's not just a compiler: his rate numbers are elite even at that workload.

How the leading candidates stack up (2026 regular season):

Pitcher	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	WAR
Yoshinobu Yamamoto	165.0	2.67	0.90	8.78	4.81
Tarik Skubal	132.1	2.86	0.98	10.83	3.64
Shohei Ohtani (pitching)	85.2	1.79	0.95	10.04	3.01
Tyler Glasnow	57.2	3.12	0.89	11.01	1.60
Blake Snell	32.0	1.97	1.09	12.09	1.17

Pitching WAR, Dodgers Starters (2026) — WAR
Pitcher	WAR (WAR)
Yamamoto	4.81
Skubal	3.64
Ohtani	3.01
Glasnow	1.60
Snell	1.17

Ohtani actually owns the lowest ERA on the staff (1.79) and a strong K/9 (10.04), but he's thrown just 85.2 innings across 14 outings — nearly half of Yamamoto's workload, since he's also anchoring the middle of the lineup as the DH. Snell's 1.97 ERA over just 32 innings (6 starts) is too small a sample to weigh against a full season. Skubal is the closest full-season challenger, with a slightly higher ERA but a better strikeout rate than Yamamoto; the gap between them (4.81 to 3.64 WAR) is real but not enormous.

Confidence: High that Yamamoto is the best pitcher by the numbers available — he combines both the top workload and top-tier rate stats, which no one else on the staff matches simultaneously. This is a regular-season, box-score-derived read (ERA, WHIP, K/9, bWAR); it doesn't capture postseason performance or advanced pitch-level data we don't hold.