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Rounding out an obvious top three in drafts (alongside Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge ) is Witt, who has gotten better with passing each season. His best category is now batting average, however unlikely it might have seemed two years ago, while he remains as big of a power/speed threat as ever.
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Predicting Betts' eligibility from one season to the next has become an exercise in futility, but 2025 marks the first year he'll qualify at this position from the start. It's a crowded one, but he's been as bankable as any first-rounder over the past decade and actually made strides toward improving his most concerning area, stolen bases, this year.
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Henderson managed to hang with Aaron Judge in home runs for the first half, but that was never a realistic standard for the 23-year-old. Still, the strides he's made in just two seasons give him the look of a first-rounder for years to come, making him a reasonable choice to pick ahead of Betts for those willing to project continued growth.
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De La Cruz's proclivity for strikeouts makes him the clearest batting liability among first-rounders, but he also led the majors with 67 steals. It's a profile of extremes, which might lead some drafters to make him the second shortstop off the board, particularly since the exit velocity readings also point to a massive power ceiling if only he could put the ball in the air more.
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| 5 | |
Falling just shy of his second consecutive 30/30 season -- a milestone he would have reached if not for a bad back the final two weeks of the season -- Lindor now deserves to rank among the true elites in Fantasy, not that he was ever far off. His batting average is never quite where you'd like it to be, sort of like Jose Ramirez , but he did hit .306 in the second half.
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That a stalwart like Turner could rank this low is a testament to the amount of high-end talent at shortstop. Somebody had to come in sixth, and when you match up the numbers, he just hasn't been the same caliber of base-stealer since leaving Washington. A likely 25/25 guy with good batting characteristics is nothing to sneeze at, though, and there's danger in undervaluing Turner just because he's an old hat.
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A hurried return from hernia surgery wrong-footed Seager from the start, and by the time he really got rolling, he needed a second hernia surgery that ended his season. His numbers were impressive, considering, though not at the MVP level we saw in 2023. His frequent injuries and lack of base-stealing put him a tier below the elites at the position.
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Cruz remains more sizzle than steak through age 25, but he was able to eke out a 20/20 season even with an inflated strikeout total and still-too-high ground-ball rate. Seeing as he continues to pace the league in max exit velocity, his 2024 production is probably closer to his downside than upside, which is why the helium level figures to remain high in 2025 drafts.
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| 9 | |
It was a tale of two halves for Abrams again, with things turning so ugly late in the year that he was optioned to the minors for the final week-plus after staying out at a casino until 8 in the morning. Clearly, there are some maturity issues to work through here, but Abrams offers something approaching Francisco Lindor 's upside if he can stay within himself.
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| 10 | |
Adames' 2024 production merits a higher ranking than this, but he has enough of a track record that we should know better than to regard a career season as his new baseline, particularly when the skill indicators were basically unchanged. Maybe his new interest in base-stealing will continue, which would help, but he also faces the uncertainty of free agency this offseason.
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The breakout shortstop of 2024 delivered something akin to the typical Adames season, only with 30 steals to boot. Neto's power requires a high pull rate, which means his batting average is likely to remain in the .240-.260 range, but his home run and stolen base contributions should remain high enough to make him a quality starter in 5x5 leagues and a serviceable one in points leagues.
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Though his home run and stolen base output had been in steady decline since his monstrous 2021, this past season represented the first time Bichette outright failed as a major-leaguer, and digging into the data, it's not so clear why. An onslaught of injuries, namely to his calf, likely had something to do with it, and seeing as he'll be 27 next year, I'd consider this a buy-low opportunity.
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| 13 | |
Bogaerts' slow start to 2024 was made indelible by a fractured shoulder that cost him two months just as the weather was warming up, but he performed more like his normal self after returning in mid-July. He's closer to a 15/15 guy than 20/20 now, albeit with a good batting average. You're more likely to draft him at second base, where I rank him ninth.
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Really tough to rank, this one. The fact he lost all of 2024 to shoulder surgery, of course, raises doubts for 2025, and many already doubted he could repeat his impressive 2023 given his high strikeout rate and middling exit velocities. But McLain was indeed studly in 2023 and, most importantly, figures to regain eligibility at the much scarcer second base early in 2025.
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Correa at least managed to reverse the idea that he's a hitter in decline, making the All-Star team with plus production in four of the five Rotisserie categories -- and with great plate discipline to boot. But his 2024 ended up being another season defined by injury, this time a lengthy bout with plantar fasciitis, which I have no choice but to factor into his price tag again.
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Edwards was the sixth-best shortstop in both 5x5 and points scoring after taking over on July 2, but only because he was a true standout in batting average and stolen bases despite having zero power. That's a profile we haven't seen work in the majors since, like, Juan Pierre. Maybe he can settle in with something like Nico Hoerner numbers, but it's possible the league just swallows up Edwards in Year 2.
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Speaking of unsustainable profiles, Fitzgerald was like a better version of Zach Neto after taking over as Giants shortstop in the second half, and indeed, he's objectively a fast runner with a swing that's geared for home runs. But his combination of poor exit velocity readings and an even worse strikeout rate just isn't one that you ever see work in the majors -- not over the long haul, anyway.
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| 18 | |
Even as Swanson sleepwalked through the first four months of 2024, the underlying data revealed him to be fundamentally the same player, and sure enough, he came to life over the final two months, batting .283 with seven homers, 12 steals, and an .822 OPS. He's a reliable enough accumulator of stats that you should probably opt for him in deeper leagues over the more volatile Edwards and Fitzgerald.
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Volpe tooled around with his swing this year in a way that improved his batting average slightly while costing him some home runs, but the bottom line is that he finished with an OPS in the mid-.600s again. His defense should keep him in the lineup and allow him to steal bases, but the 23-year-old simply isn't impacting the ball hard enough to deliver on his once-lofty potential.
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Kim's season ended in August because of a small tear in the labrum of his right shoulder, and that's reason enough to rank him cautiously for 2025. But he was roughly on pace for 14 homers and 28 steals, showing the same basic skill set as during his 17-homer, 38-steal 2023, which is to say there's potentially a lot of value to derive even from this far down in the shortstop rankings.
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