Welcome once again to Bleacher Report's series of the 25 greatest players at each position in modern MLB history. Up next are the starting pitchers, which was the most difficult list to trim to just 25 names.

The first step in this exercise was to decide what "modern" means for the sake of this discussion, and we settled on everything from the 1969 season forward.

That was the first year of the "divisional era," when each league expanded from 10 to 12 teams and split those clubs into two divisions. That also meant an expanded playoff format, with the ALCS and NLCS playing for the first time that year. The postseason had previously consisted of just the World Series.

That gives us 54 years of players to consider for a spot in our rankings, but we didn't simply ignore what happened prior to 1969. A pair of lists were also created for the dead-ball era (pre-1920) and the pre-divisional era (1920-68).

Players were ranked based on a combination of their overall body of work and their peak performance, with postseason success also taken into account.

Catch up on our other Top 25 All-Time lists: Catchers, First Basemen, Second Basemen, Shortstops, Third Basemen, Center Fielders, Corner Outfielders

Top 10 Dead-Ball Era (Pre-1920)

Top 10 Dead-Ball Era

1. Walter Johnson
2. Cy Young
3. Christy Mathewson
4. Pete Alexander
5. Kid Nichols
6. Ed Walsh
7. Smokey Joe Williams
8. Mordecai Brown
9. John Clarkson
10. Tim Keefe

Prior to the 1893 season, pitchers stood just 55 ½ feet from home plate, and rather than standing on a pitcher's mound, they stood in a flat box. In other words, it's extremely difficult to compare pitchers from the dead-ball era to others across history since it was a completely different game.

Even into the early 1900s and leading up to the offensive explosion in 1920, the spitball was still legal, and pitchers held a significant advantage over their offensive counterparts.

Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson were part of baseball's inaugural Hall of Fame class in 1936, alongside Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner. They were closely followed by all-time wins leader Cy Young (1937) and Pete Alexander (1938), while everyone else on this list was elected by way of the Veterans Committee.

Top 15 Pre-Divisional Era (1920-68)

Top 15 Pre-Divisional Era

1. Satchel Paige
2. Sandy Koufax
3. Bob Gibson
4. Lefty Grove
5. Carl Hubbell
6. Whitey Ford
7. Warren Spahn
8. Hal Newhouser
9. Bob Feller
10. Bullet Joe Rogan
11. Juan Marichal
12. Robin Roberts
13. Lefty Gomez
14. Dizzy Dean
15. Don Drysdale

Satchel Paige is widely regarded as the greatest pitcher in Negro League history, and he has reached legendary status over the years. Many consider him to be the best pitcher the sport has ever seen, and he even found some MLB success as a reliever in his 40s after the color barrier was broken.

In the four years leading up to his retirement at the age of 30, Sandy Koufax went 97-27 with a 1.86 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 1,228 strikeouts in 1,192.2 innings. Arthritis in his throwing elbow ultimately cut his career short, but his peak performance puts him squarely in the conversation for greatest pitcher of all time.

Bob Gibson was so dominant during the 1968 season that Major League Baseball lowered the mound the following year to give hitters a chance. That year, he finished 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA and 0.85 WHIP in 304.2 innings, tossing 28 complete games and 13 shutouts over 34 starts. He was also 7-2 with a 1.89 ERA in nine career World Series starts, throwing eight complete games and two shutouts in the Fall Classic.

No. 25-21

25. Dwight Gooden

There were a lot of players in consideration for this final spot, including CC Sabathia with his consistent top-of-the-rotation production, Félix Hernández for his stellar peak in Seattle and both Kevin Brown and David Cone with their underrated career resumes.

In the end, Gooden got the nod for his peak performance before off-the-field issues derailed his career. His 1985 season, in which he went 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA and 268 strikeouts in 276.2 innings at the age of 20, is one of the best individual pitching seasons of the modern era.

24. Madison Bumgarner

Bumgarner has a 3.42 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 2,060 strikeouts in 2,192.2 innings and 33.3 WAR over 14 seasons, but he earns a spot on this list for his epic postseason production. He has a 2.11 ERA in 102.1 career playoff innings, and his 2014 run when he won NLCS and World Series MVP while slamming the door for a five-inning save in Game 7 of the World Series is the stuff of legend.

23. Johan Santana

During the five-year span from 2004 when he first became a full-time starter with the Minnesota Twins through his first season with the New York Mets in 2008, Santana went 86-39 with a 2.82 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 1,189 strikeouts in 1,146.2 innings. He won two AL Cy Young Awards and led the league in ERA three times and in strikeouts twice during that stretch. That short but elite peak earns him a spot in the top 25.

22. Jacob deGrom

The next few seasons will be pivotal for deGrom's long-term legacy. Will he make a significant climb up these rankings, or wind up being an elite-peak guy like Johan Santana or Tim Lincecum, who fades before he truly establishes himself as an all-time great? His 155 ERA+ in 1,326 innings speaks to just how dominant he's been when healthy, but he'll be 35 years old in June and has made just 26 starts the past two years.

21. John Smoltz

Since this is a list of the greatest starting pitchers of the modern era, it's only fair to exclude the time that Smoltz spent closing games for the Atlanta Braves from the conversation. That bumps him down a few spots relative to where he would be on a more general list of all-time great pitchers, but he still went 209-149 with a 3.40 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 2,804 strikeouts in 3,211.2 innings when working as a starter.

Nos. 20-16

20. Zack Greinke

Outside of Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, Greinke has the best career resume of any active pitcher, and while he might not be a first-ballot selection, he should be headed for the Hall of Fame. The 39-year-old has gone 223-141 with a 3.42 ERA, 123 ERA+, 1.17 WHIP and 2,882 strikeouts in 3,247 innings. He won AL Cy Young in 2009, finished runner-up in the NL balloting in 2015 and has 71.4 WAR in 19 seasons.

19. Phil Niekro

Niekro floated his knuckleball for 5,404 career innings, a total that ranks fourth on the all-time list behind a trio of dead-ball era hurlers. He pitched at least 200 innings in 19 different seasons, doing so for the final time in 1987 at the age of 47. That longevity helped him pile up 318 wins and 97.0 WAR.

18. Tom Glavine

Glavine spent a decade as the best No. 2 starter in baseball behind Greg Maddux in the Atlanta Braves rotation, but he put together a Hall of Fame career in his own right. The left-hander finished his career 305-203 with a 3.54 ERA and 2,607 strikeouts in 4,413.1 innings, and he won NL Cy Young in 1991 and 1998.

17. Bert Blyleven

Armed with one of the best curveballs in baseball history, Blyleven racked up 3,701 career strikeouts, a total that trails only Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Steve Carlton on the all-time list. He won 287 games and tallied 96.1 WAR over 22 seasons in the majors.

16. Fergie Jenkins

Jenkins completed 267 of his 594 career starts, a total that ranks 10th among all pitchers since the beginning of the live-ball era in 1920. He won 20 games six years in a row pitching for some bad Chicago Cubs teams and took home NL Cy Young in 1971 when he finished 24-13 with a 2.77 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 263 strikeouts in 325 innings.

Nos. 15-11

15. Mike Mussina

Mussina ranks 23rd all-time and 11th among pitchers eligible for the modern era list with 82.8 WAR over 18 seasons. The five-time All-Star and seven-time Gold Glove winner won 270 games while finishing in the top 10 in AL Cy Young voting nine times, and he ended his career on a high note by going 20-9 with a 3.37 ERA in 200.1 innings as a 39-year-old in his final season.

14. Gaylord Perry

One of 13 pitchers in MLB history to toss at least 5,000 innings, Perry pitched for eight different teams over his 22-year career. He finished 314-265 with a 3.11 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 3,534 strikeouts in 5,350 innings, winning AL Cy Young in 1972 and NL Cy Young in 1978 on his way to a Hall of Fame career.

13. Roy Halladay

Halladay is one of only six pitchers to win a Cy Young in both leagues, claiming AL Cy Young in 2003 (22-7, 3.25 ERA, 204 K, 266.0 IP) and NL Cy Young in 2010 (21-10, 2.44 ERA, 219 K, 250.2 IP). One of baseball's last true workhorses, he tallied 67 complete games and 20 shutouts while topping 220 innings eight times over 16 seasons.

12. Jim Palmer

Palmer won 20 games eight times during the 1970s, claiming three AL Cy Young Awards along the way as the ace of the Baltimore Orioles staff. He also won two ERA titles and led the league in innings pitched four times during that decade, and while he doesn't have the career longevity of some others from his era, his 10-year peak more than makes up for it.

11. Curt Schilling

With 80.5 WAR and 3,116 strikeouts over 20 MLB seasons, Schilling has an impressive regular-season resume, but it's his postseason track record that sets him apart from others just outside the top 10. In 19 career playoff starts, he went 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA in 133.1 innings, and he had a 2.06 ERA in seven World Series games while winning three rings.

10. Max Scherzer

Stats: 201-102, 3.11 ERA (135 ERA+), 1.07 WHIP, 3,193 K, 2,682.0 IP, 70.7 WAR

Accolades: 8x All-Star, 3x Cy Young, 3x K title

Since winning AL Cy Young honors during a breakout 2013 season with the Detroit Tigers, Max Scherzer has been a consistent front-line starter and perennial Cy Young candidate.

During that decade stretch, he went 149-60 with a 2.78 ERA, 150 ERA+, 0.98 WHIP and 2,364 strikeouts in 1,877.1 innings, winning three Cy Young Awards and finishing in the top five in voting five other times.

The seven-year, $210 million deal he signed with the Washington Nationals prior to the 2015 season goes down as one of the most successful free-agent signings in MLB history, as he won two Cy Young Awards and helped lead the team to a World Series title in 2019 during the life of that contract.

With a 2.29 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 173 strikeouts in 145.1 innings in his first season with the New York Mets last year, he appears to still have plenty left in the tank heading into his age-38 season.

9. Justin Verlander

Stats: 244-133, 3.24 ERA (132 ERA+), 1.12 WHIP, 3,198 K, 3,163.0 IP, 78.1 WAR

Accolades: 9x All-Star, 3x Cy Young, 2x ERA title, 5x K title, 2011 AL MVP

At an age when most pitchers are putting the finishing touches on their career or already spending their retirement golfing, Justin Verlander is still going strong.

The 40-year-old is coming off one of the best seasons of his career last year, finishing 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA, 0.83 WHIP and 185 strikeouts in 175 innings to win AL Cy Young honors in his return from Tommy John surgery.

It was the third Cy Young win in his career, with the first coming back in 2011 when he won the pitching Triple Crown by going 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA and 250 strikeouts in 251.0 innings and also claimed AL MVP honors.

He parlayed his 2022 performance into a two-year, $86.7 million deal with the New York Mets, where he will join fellow future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer in pursuit of a third World Series ring.

8. Steve Carlton

Stats: 329-244, 3.22 ERA (115 ERA+), 1.25 WHIP, 4,136 K, 5,217.2 IP, 84.1 WAR

Accolades: 10x All-Star, 4x Cy Young, 1x ERA title, 5x K title

An All-Star in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, left-hander Steve Carlton pitched 24 seasons in the big leagues, with the bulk of his time spent slotted atop the Philadelphia Phillies starting rotation.

He ranks second all-time among southpaws in both strikeouts (Randy Johnson, 4,875) and wins (Warren Spahn, 363), and he is one of only four pitchers in MLB history to win at least four Cy Young Awards.

He led the NL in wins (27), ERA (1.97), strikeouts (310), innings pitched (346.1), starts (41) and complete games (30), accounting for 45.8 percent of the Phillies' victories in 1972 as they finished in the NL East cellar.

The Phillies' deal to acquire him from the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the 1972 season in exchange for right-hander Rick Wise stands as one of the most lopsided trades in MLB history.

7. Nolan Ryan

Stats: 324-292, 3.19 ERA (112 ERA+), 1.25 WHIP, 5,714 K, 5,386.0 IP, 83.6 WAR

Accolades: 8x All-Star, 2x ERA title, 11x K title

Nolan Ryan is one of the most iconic pitchers in the history of the sport, thanks in large part to being baseball's all-time leader in strikeouts (5,714) and no-hitters (7) as he spent 27 seasons in the big leagues.

There are some knocks against him, though, that keep him outside the top five in these rankings.

He is also baseball's all-time leader in walks (2,795), a category he led the league in eight times during his career, and despite his gaudy strikeout numbers, he never won a Cy Young Award and only finished in the top five in voting six times.

None of that is meant to be a knock against one of the greatest pitchers to ever take an MLB mound, but simply an explanation of why he's not slotted higher in these rankings.

6. Tom Seaver

Stats: 311-205, 2.86 ERA (127 ERA+), 1.12 WHIP, 3,640 K, 4,783.0 IP, 106.0 WAR

Accolades: 12x All-Star, 3x Cy Young, 3x ERA title, 5x K title

The 1970s were a Golden Age of pitching, and Tom Seaver was the headliner of that generation.

Over the first 11 seasons of his career with the New York Mets, he went 189-110 with a 2.49 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 2,406 strikeouts in 2,814.2 innings while racking up 73.5 WAR and winning three NL Cy Young Awards.

He helped lead a fledgling Mets franchise to a World Series title in 1969 when he went 25-7 with a 2.21 ERA in 273.1 innings to take home his first Cy Young Award, and he continued to pitch at a high level for another decade after the Mets traded him to the Cincinnati Reds in one of the most panned deals in franchise history.

He received 98.8 percent of the vote in his first year on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1992, a total that stood as the record until he was surpassed by Ken Griffey Jr. (99.3 percent), Derek Jeter (99.7 percent) and Mariano Rivera (100 percent) in recent years.

5. Clayton Kershaw

Stats: 197-87, 2.48 ERA (157 ERA+), 1.00 WHIP, 2,807 K, 2,581.0 IP, 73.1 WAR

Accolades: 9x All-Star, 3x Cy Young, 5x ERA title, 3x K title, 2014 NL MVP

Clayton Kershaw would be a no-doubt, first-ballot Hall of Famer if he retired today.

He may not have the counting numbers of some of the other all-time greats around him on this list, but that's as much a product of his era as anything, and his 157 ERA+ trails only closer Mariano Rivera and Negro League legends Bill Foster and Bullet Rogan on the all-time list.

He is no longer the durable workhorse he was in his prime, but he is also still pitching at an extremely high level, having gone 12-3 with a 2.28 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and 137 strikeouts in 126.1 innings during the 2022 season.

A lack of postseason success is a blemish on his resume, but it's not enough to overlook a truly elite peak that saw him go 118-41 with a 2.10 ERA, 179 ERA+, 0.91 WHIP and 1,623 strikeouts in 1,452 innings during a seven-year stretch in his 20s.

4. Roger Clemens

Stats: 354-184, 3.12 ERA (143 ERA+), 1.17 WHIP, 4,672 K, 4,916.2 IP, 138.7 WAR

Accolades: 11x All-Star, 7x Cy Young, 7x ERA title, 5x K title, 1986 AL MVP

PED allegations ultimately kept Roger Clemens from earning Hall of Fame induction during his 10 years on the ballot, but his career cannot simply be ignored.

The hard-throwing right-hander made his MLB debut as a 21-year-old in 1984, and two years later he won AL MVP honors when he went 24-4 with a 2.48 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 238 strikeouts in 254 innings for a Boston Red Sox team that reached the World Series.

He also won the first of his record seven Cy Young Awards that year as he would win two more in Boston, two during his brief time with the Toronto Blue Jays, one with the New York Yankees and his final one at the age of 41 with the Houston Astros.

He ranks in the top 10 all-time among pitchers in WAR (138.7, third), wins (354, ninth) and strikeouts (4,672, third), and he was one of baseball's best pitchers across three different decades.

3. Randy Johnson

Stats: 303-166, 3.29 ERA (135 ERA+), 1.17 WHIP, 4,875 K, 4,135.1 IP, 103.5 WAR

Accolades: 10x All-Star, 5x Cy Young, 4x ERA title, 9x K title

With a towering 6'10" frame, a fastball that regularly touched triple-digits and a knee-buckling power slider, Randy Johnson was a truly terrifying presence on the pitcher's mound.

After overcoming command issues early in his career, he steadily developed into a bona fide ace during his time with the Seattle Mariners, winning his first Cy Young Award during the 1995 season when he was 31 years old. At an age when most pitchers start to decline, he was just hitting his stride.

He won the NL Cy Young honors in each of his first four years with the Arizona Diamondbacks spanning his age-35 through age-38 seasons. During that stretch, he went 81-27 with a 2.48 ERA, 187 ERA+, 1.04 WHIP and 1,417 strikeouts in 1,030 innings.

He also went 5-1 with a 1.52 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 41.1 innings during the 2001 postseason, recording the final four outs in Game 7 of the World Series on no rest to help lead the D-backs to a title.

2. Greg Maddux

Stats: 355-227, 3.16 ERA (132 ERA+), 1.14 WHIP, 3,371 K, 5,008.1 IP, 104.8 WAR

Accolades: 8x All-Star, 4x Cy Young, 4x ERA title

Armed with a fastball that sat in the low 90s, Greg Maddux succeeded thanks to pinpoint command and a baseball IQ that gave him an advantage over almost any hitter who stepped into the batter's box.

He walked just 999 batters in 5,008.1 career innings—177 of which were intentional walks—painting the corners with his two-seam fastball and keeping hitters off-balance with a lethal mix of offspeed stuff.

He won four straight NL Cy Young Awards spanning his final season with the Chicago Cubs in 1992 and his first three years with the Atlanta Braves, and he followed that up with four more top-five finishes in the balloting over the subsequent five-year stretch.

His back-to-back performances in 1994 (16-6, 1.56 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 202.0 IP) and 1995 (19-2, 1.63 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 209.2 IP) stack up to any pitching peak in MLB history.

1. Pedro Martínez

Stats: 219-100, 2.93 ERA (154 ERA+), 1.05 WHIP, 3,154 K, 2,827.1 IP, 86.1 WAR

Accolades: 8x All-Star, 3x Cy Young, 5x ERA title, 3x K title

At his peak, Pedro Martínez was the most overpowering pitcher the game has ever seen.

During the seven-year stretch from 1997 through the 2003 season—the height of the Steroid Era—he went 118-36 with a 2.20 ERA (213 ERA+), 0.94 WHIP, .196 opponents' batting average and a stellar 1,761-to-315 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 1,408 innings while racking up 57.3 WAR.

He won three Cy Young Awards during that span, and his 2000 season might be the most dominant ever as he posted a 1.74 ERA, 291 ERA+, 0.74 WHIP and a .167 opponents batting average in 217 innings.

His decline in his 30s was steeper than some of the others on this list, and he doesn't have the same overall body of work as a result. That does nothing to take away from his legacy, though, and he has earned a spot among the legends of the game.

On the strength of his otherworldly peak performance at a time when hitters clearly had the advantage, Martínez got the nod as the best starting pitcher of the modern era.

All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference.