2025 Position Previews: Shortstop
An in depth look at the shortstop position ahead of 2025 fantasy baseball draft season.
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Overview
WHEN I WAS A KID, shortstops sucked at hitting. I remember treating shortstop like catcher in fantasy. If you didn’t get Jose Reyes or Hanley Ramirez, you just kinda waited until the end of the draft and took whoever was left. They were mostly defensive specialists who would hit like 5-10 homers. You might get some batting average and steals from them, but largely, they were not helpful for fantasy.
A lot has changed in the last 10-20 years! And now, shortstop has some of the best players in the league. There are three shortstops going in the first round every time this year and two more that are right there knocking on the door. There are nine shortstops in the top 50 picks and 21 in the top 200. There’s a lot to like at this position.
One general rule would be to get two good shortstops and use the second one as your middle infielder. There’s a lot more to like at shortstop than at second base, at least for now. Every rule has its exceptions, and there are many ways to skin the fantasy baseball cat. So be smart! Let’s get into the tiers.
Tier One
#1 Bobby Witt Jr. (ADP Rank #1)
I could have put Witt Jr. in his own tier. I don’t think there will be a single (roto) fantasy draft this year where Witt is not the first shortstop off the board. He’s insanely good and still just 24 years old. His floor thus far in his career has been 20 homers, 30 steals, and a .252 batting average. That was his rookie year. In the last two seasons, he’s hit .304/.355/.542 with 62 homers and 80 steals. The K% has improved each year (21% → 17% → 15%), and so has his home run rate (3.2% → 4.3% → 4.5%). I’m really not sure what more I can say! But if you want more, click on his name, and you’ll be taken to his full-player preview.
#2 Elly De La Cruz (ADP Rank #2)
Only Ronald Acuna Jr. and Bobby Witt Jr. have stolen more bases than Elly since 2022, and Elly has played a lot less than those two. He has 102 steals in 258 career games. That’s a 64-steal pace over a 162-game season. That will get you near the first round in fantasy drafts all by itself.
Add to that his 25 homers and .259 batting average from a year ago, and you have yourself an elite fantasy player. Let’s quickly look at some of the improvements he made from his rookie year to last year:
K%: 33.7% → 31.3%
BB%: 8.2% → 9.9%
GB%: 55.3% → 47.1%
Brl%: 8.5% → 12.7%
There are more, but those are the most important.
The strikeout rate does throw into question the batting average he can provide. Looking back ten years, there are only three qualified hitters who have exceeded a .270 batting average with a K% above 30%. And only nine hitters who have gone above .250.
Elly was one of them last year, so that’s good to see. There’s little doubt he’ll generate a very high BABIP in his career with his combination of exit velocity and foot speed. That career BABIP for him so far is .350.
Projection systems cook all of this in, and they all arrive at a batting average above .250. He won’t hurt your team’s batting average too bad, but he won’t help it either unless he cuts that K% down a couple more points.
A reasonable floor for Elly seems to be 20 homers and 45 steals, and there’s upside for something insane like 40 homers and 60 steals. He is not my favorite first-round target, but I wouldn’t let him slide much past pick six or seven.
#3 Gunnar Henderson (ADP Rank #3)
So far, we haven’t seen Gunnar go crazy in any given category. We haven’t seen him be an Aaron Judge type in power, or an Elly De La Cruz type in steals, or a Luis Arraez type in batting average. What we saw last year was very strong production across the board. He hit .281 with 37 homers and 21 steals. Those are three very positive data points on any fantasy team. He feels safe, and I do think there’s untapped upside for him to improve even more at the age of 23.
Other Thoughts / Tier Recap
There’s a good case to be made for Gunnar slotting ahead of Elly in a points league. He projects about 30 points better in OBP, and the steals have less of an impact in those league types. Witt Jr. doesn’t walk much himself (7-8%), but he does everything else in such an elite manner that nobody is touching his gold medal in any league type.
We will see many more names to really like as we go, but I would not let that keep me from taking any three of these names if they are the best available. The game in the early rounds is to take the best available players and then fill in those position holes later on.
Tier Two
We have three more fantasy studs here. The difference is the age. All three probably have their best years behind them, but randomness reigns, and anything can happen.
#4 Mookie Betts (ADP Rank #4)
Betts is most appealing because of the counting stats these days. He did hit 39 homers two years ago, but the home run rate fell below 4% last year. That puts him at more of a 25-homer pace rather than upper-30s. On the steals front, he’s maxed out at 16 over these last four seasons (although that was last year when he missed almost a month due to injury).
I’m not saying he’s a negative or even neutral in either category, I’m just saying that he’s not a guy who is threatening to lead the league in either category.
What you get with Mookie is an absolute ton of well-hit balls in play (11% K%) and a lot of walks (14% BB% in 2023, 12% last year). That makes him one of the premiere players in the league at racking up runs and RBI. If he stays healthy, he’ll cruise past 200 R+RBI with at least 20 homers and 15 steals. He’s a stud. Depending on your league setup, you might be better off using him in the outfield. So keep that in mind if you draft him. You might want to go right back to the shortstop well if you do use your first or second round pick on him.
#5 Francisco Lindor (ADP Rank #5)
You would have thought that a 32-homer, 29-steal, .272 batting average season would get Lindor back into the first round. But no, he’s an early or mid-second-round option this year.
The knock on him is the batting average. He hit .230 in 2021 and .254 in 2023, so there hasn’t been great consistency there. His best work in that category was last year at .272. He’s “good” at best and mediocre at worst in that category.
With Soto in the lineup, I think his R + RBI production rivals Betts. It could be a very good year for the Mets lineup, and that will benefit Lindor. He’s a very strong second-round pick.
#6 Trea Turner (ADP Rank #6)
Turner is the guy who makes me want to pass on some of these names we’ve already talked about. He falls into the third round more than half of the time this year (in a 12-team context). It wasn’t long ago you had to use a top-five pick on Turner, and now he’s going between 25 and 30.
I do understand the reason for that. He’s never been a huge positive in homers, and the stolen base stuff is more “very good” rather than “best in the league” like it used to be. His last three steal counts are 27, 30, and 19. That 19 came last year when he missed a month and a half with an injury.
While he was on the field, he was still putting up fantastic fantasy production with a .295/.338/.469 slash line. He hit 21 homers in addition to those 19 steals, so I’d say it’s silly to think he’s not a 20-25 guy against his year with a good batting average. I think he’s too cheap this year, and I’m excited to take advantage of that.
Other Thoughts / Tier Recap
The walk rate on Turner is low. That will knock him down significantly in points leagues if he doesn’t post another .290+ batting average. Betts is a points league stud, and he’s going in as my #2 shortstop in that format.
But this is a tier full of studs. As I said, I would not be passing on Witt Jr. in the top two just because you can maybe get Trea in the third. You shouldn’t draft like that, but if your first-round pick goes to an outfielder, I really like grabbing one of these three studs at SS.