30. Paul Blackburn — Oakland Athletics
Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports
The Athletics project to be the worst team in all of baseball in 2024. As such, it shouldn’t be too surprising to see their ace — Paul Blackburn — ranked this low on our list. Having posted middling numbers throughout his career, Blackburn has turned things around a bit over the past two years. Oakland’s ace was an All-Star in 2022, and he put up very similar numbers last year. Blackburn increased his strikeout rate (9.0 SO9, up from 7.2 in ’22) but saw his WHIP balloon to 1.543 — up nearly 300 points from the year before.
