Two-start pitchers: Tarik Skubal headlines a gaggle of elite options as we steamroll into May

Hello and welcome to the sixth installment of our weekly two-start pitcher article for the 2026 MLB season. I will be here every Friday to highlight some of the best two-start pitcher options in fantasy baseball leagues for the upcoming week providing my insights and recommendations on which options should be started or benched. It feels like we just drafted our teams, yet the weather is warming up around the league and balls are starting to fly out of the ballpark with more regularity as we head into the month of May.

We now have actual actionable data that we can use to make decisions on these pitchers, as most of them have taken the mound five or six times already. A pitcher can get lucky and post quality results despite poor underlying numbers through a couple of starts, but it’s much more difficult to sustain that over a longer stretch of time. This is a living document, so we'll update the options below as the weekend moves along.

Before we get into it, we'll start with a couple of notes on situations that may be unresolved or teams that may not have a two-start pitcher lined up for the upcoming week: ⚾️  Baseball is back! MLB returns to  NBC and Peacock in 2026 ! In addition to becoming the exclusive home of Sunday Night Baseball, NBC Sports will broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, “Opening Day” and Labor Day primetime games, the first round of the MLB Draft, the entire Wild Card round of the postseason, and much more.

Someone could wind up making two starts for the Astros next week (vs. Dodgers, at Reds), but we have no idea who that will be yet. The Astros’ rotation has been ravaged by injuries this season and now a doubleheader on Thursday has forced the issue even more.