The MLB offseason has kicked into full gear with the Winter Meetings wrapping up and major contracts being signed. As a result, it’s time to take stock of what happened in 2024 and see what lessons we can learn for 2025. In order to do that, we’re going to go position by position to break down the overall landscape and help find the best pockets of value.
Similar to last year, when I wrote my State of the Union for each position, I’m going to look at the value produced in 2024 by regular starters at each position to see where the most value is coming from each position and identify areas of strength that we can target in our drafts and areas of weakness that we can try and avoid. Last year, much of my analysis was based on the impact of the new rule changes, so this year we’ll just look at the overall landscape and see how much carried over.
Table of Contents
- 2024 Player Rater Review
- 2024 Roto Category Review
- Key Takeaways
- Off-season storylines
- My top 15 rankings at the position for 2025
We started with first base and then covered second base and third base last week, so now we’ll wrap up the infield by talking about shortstops. To get a quick sense of the position, I looked at how many shortstops earned $10 in value according to the Fangraphs Player Rater.
Fangraphs Player Rater $10+ Earned | |
2023 | 2024 |
12 | 14 |
After watching these numbers dwindle at the other infield positions, it seems like shortstop might actually be getting deeper in terms of fantasy value.
Some of that has to do with Mookie Betts picking up shortstop eligibility in 2024, but he’s going to play there again in 2025, so it’s not like it was a fluke addition like the year Anthony Rizzo picked up 2B eligibility because he was shifted so much. We also had Elly De La Cruz move to shortstop full-time and fellow young stars like Ezequiel Tovar, Anthony Volpe, Jeremy Pena, and Zach Neto also crack double-digit fantasy value. Add a healthy Oniel Cruz season to that and you have plenty of impactful fantasy players to pick from at the shortstop position.
Category Breakdown
Now we’ll see what value the shortstop position provided in each standard category in a Roto 5x5 league. I sorted by players who accumulated 300 plate appearances and looked to see if there was any meaningful change in the standard 5x5 offensive categories (batting average, home runs, runs, RBI, and steals). I did this for 2022 and 2023 last year, so we’ll compare those numbers and then dive into WHAT changed, WHY it may have happened, and HOW it should impact our 2025 draft plan.
Batting Average
Average over .240 | ||
2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
24 | 24 | 29 |
Perhaps we’re in a shortstop renaissance.
These are not cheap qualifiers too. The only guys within the 29 who qualified who I think you would likely not have used in a SS or MIF spot in most formats are Kevin Newman, Nicky Lopez, and maybe Miguel Rojas; although, he was the starting shortstop for the Dodgers for a while. Even if some of these guys didn’t produce all season, players like Ceddanne Rafaela, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Ernie Clement, David Hamilton, Geraldo Perdomo, and Josh Smith were incredibly useful players for stretches of 2024 and would have found their way onto a lot of rosters.
Eight shortstops also hit .280 or better and four of them hit .295 or better, including Bobby Witt Jr., Trea Turner, Carlos Correa, and Xavier Edwards, who all have a clear case for 12-team value. In fact, with Gunnar Henderson, Francisco Lindor, Corey Seager, and Ezequiel Tovar all hitting .270 or better, there are plenty of shorstops to choose from who will give you a solid batting average floor in leagues of all sizes. There’s not much of an excuse for taking a batting average drain at this spot
Home Runs
Home Runs at 20 or over | ||
2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
9 | 9 | 12 |
Another category where we’re seeing an improvement in value among shortstops. While one of the new names on here is Paul DeJong, much of the improvement is because younger players are getting better.
Elly De La Cruz hit 25 home runs in his first year as a full-time shortstop. Zach Neto clubbed 23 home runs in his rookie season. Oneil Cruz hit 21 home runs in first full healthy year, and CJ Abrams reached the 20 home run plateau for the first time in his career.
Bobby Witt Jr., Corey Seager, Willy Adames, Francisco Lindor, Dansby Swanson, and Trea Turner have homered at least 20 times in three straight seasons, while Gunnar Henderson has done it in each of his past two. Henderson, Lindor, Witt Jr., and Seager have also regularly pushed for 30 home runs, which means a strong crop of shortstops is emerging here that can provide high-end production in multiple categories.
RBI
RBI at 70 or over | ||
2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
10 | 9 | 12 |
Another category and another improvement led by the youth movement at shortstop. All of Ezequiel Tovar, Zach Neto, Oneil Cruz, Elly De La Cruz, and Ceddanne Rafaela put up at least 75 RBI this season. With all of them figuring to play regularly for their teams going forward, this RBI boost at the shortstop position doesn’t feel flukey.
Willy Adames paced the position with 112 RBI and there were four shortstops that drove in at least 90 runs. Adames, Francisco Lindor, Bobby Witt Jr., and Gunnar Henderson have all driven in at least 80 runs in each of the last three seasons (well, two for Henderson because that’s all he’s played), and Corey Seager would have made that five hitters with at least 80 RBI had he not been injured in 2024 and limited to 123 games. Although, that is part of his story.
We’re now three categories in but not only are we starting to see the same names appear, but we’re starting to see the same names put up elite stats in various categories. All of Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Francisco Lindor, Elly De La Cruz, Mookie Betts, Corey Seager, and Willy Adames don’t just seem like good shortstops but elite fantasy picks regardless of positions.
Runs
Runs at 70 or over | ||
2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
12 | 14 | 17 |
The trend continues with yet another category where the shortstops continue to outproduce what they’ve done in the past, and the names driving the improvement are the same as well. All of Elly de la Cruz, Anthony Volpe, Ezequiel Tovar, Oneil Cruz, Zach Neto, and Ceddanne Rafaela scored 70 runs or more this season.
Once again, the names at the top also remained the same. Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Francisco Lindor, and Elly De La Cruz all topped 100 runs. Trea Turner only played in 121 games this season and finished with 88 after scoring over 100 in two straight years, but with him and Mookie Betts, who also only played 116 games this year, added to the mix, there are potentially six shortstops who could easily account for 100 runs this season which would be a massive boon to your fantasy lineup.
Stolen Bases
Steals at 15 or over | ||
2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
11 | 14 | 21 |
Let’s just round out the trend here with yet another category where we see a major improvement in the depth and quality of the shortstop position. Not only did 21 players steal 15 or more bases, but eight shortstops stole at least 30 bases this year while seven did that in 2023 and only three did that in 2022.
Much like we discuss in the batting average category, these were not cheap steals either. There was only one player within the 21 shortstops who stole 15 bases that would not have regularly been in lineups and that was Zach McKinstry. Even the players on the fringe (Ceddanne Rafaela, Tyler Fitzgerald, David Hamilton, Dylan Moore, and Jose Caballero) were in lineups for the vast majority of the season.
Even though we have some new names at the top of the category here, like Caballero, Hamilton, and Moore, we also had a least 20 steals from Gunnar Henderson, Francisco Lindor, Zach Neto, CJ Abrams, and Bobby Witt Jr., plus 67 swipes from Elly De La Cruz, which means the top players are this position are contributing in all five categories.
In fact, there were seven shortstops who qualified for every category benchmark here: Elly De La Cruz, Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Francisco Lindor, Willy Adames, Oneil Cruz, and Zach Neto. Mookie Betts also missed by just one home run despite playing only 116 games, Trea Turner missed by eight RBI despite playing just 121 games, and CJ Abrams missed by just five RBIs, so there are conceivably 10 shortstops who could meaningfully contribute in all five categories. That’s huge for fantasy baseball.
Key Takeaways
I love the shortstop position this year. There are five players who seem like locked-in first round picks (Witt Jr., Henderson, De La Cruz, Lindor, and Betts), but there are also the other three names I mentioned above that should help you in all five categories and Corey Seager, who won’t steal any bases but will produce elite stats in the other four categories. Plus, you have guys like Dansby Swanson, Ezequiel Tover, Ha-Seong Kim, Anthony Volpe, and Jeremy Pena, who have produced strong multi-category upside in the past, and young players like Xavier Edwards, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Masyn Winn who should continue to get better.
I love snagging one of the top five shortstops in the first or second round, but I’m happy to take any of those top 10 guys (well, maybe not Zach Neto until we know more about his shoulder injury), and then I definitely want my MIF pick to come from this shortstop pool as well.
Offseason Storylines
- How will the move to San Francisco impact Willy Adames for fantasy?
- How many games will Zach Neto miss to start the season?
- Will Francisco Lindor continue to hit leadoff in the new Mets lineup?
- Why didn’t Trea Turner run as much in 2024? Will we see a speed decline at 32 years old?
- Will Ceddanne Rafela be replaced in the Red Sox lineup?
- Does Carlos Correa remain in Minnesota?
- Where does Ha-Seong Kim sign and is he given a starting job?
- Will the Marlins produce enough of a lineup around Xavier Edwards for us to want to draft him?
- Will Tyler Fitzgerald enter the season as the Giants’ starting second baseman?
- Does the Cardinals new lineup look bad enough that it makes it hard to draft Masyn Winn?
Top 15 Fantasy Shortstops for 2025
- Bobby Witt Jr. - Kansas City Royals
- Gunnar Henderson - Baltimore Orioles
- Elly De La Cruz - Cincinnati Reds
- Mookie Betts - Los Angeles Dodgers
- Francisco Lindor - New York Mets
- Willy Adames - San Francisco Giants
- Trea Turner - Philadelphia Phillies
- Oneil Cruz - Pittsburgh Pirates
- Corey Seager - Texas Rangers
- CJ Abrams - Washington Nationals
- Ezequiel Tovar - Colorado Rockies
- Dansby Swanson - Chicago Cubs
- Anthony Volpe - New York Yankees
- Jeremy Pena - Houston Astros
- Carlos Correa- Minnesota Twins
Zach Neto would be ranked 11th if there was an indication that he will be healthy for the start of the season.
