Dive into fantasy baseball draft rankings for the shortstop position. We’ll help you navigate your fantasy baseball draft, identifying how to tier fantasy baseball shortstops in 2025.
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Fantasy Baseball Shortstop Primer: Rankings & Tiers
Check out our latest fantasy baseball draft primer. This article dives into the shortstop position. Here’s a rundown of the top shortstop in fantasy baseball, including fantasy baseball rankings, tiers and player notes to help guide your fantasy baseball drafts.
Here are my fantasy baseball shortstop tiers for 2025.
Tier 1 & Notes
Bobby Witt Jr. is arguably the top player in the game depending on how much you expect Shohei Ohtani to regress after his historic season. Witt has gotten better and better each season, improving his walk rate, strikeout rate and power production. The Royals are getting better around him. He is about as safe as you get with massive upside.
I don’t understand why Francisco Lindor is as underrated as he is. He was one stolen base short of a second straight 30/30 season last year. The Mets have added Juan Soto to hit behind him. The upside is 120 runs scored with a 30/30 season.
Elly De La Cruz has unlimited upside. He led the Majors in stolen bases and has a massive amount of power in the bat if he can elevate the ball a bit more. He made a swing change this offseason to make more contact. If it works, he could be the top player in the game pretty easily.
Tier 2 & Notes
If not for the intercostal injury suffered in spring training, Gunnar Henderson would be in the top tier. He has elite talent and the team around him continues to get better, but the injury will make him miss a little time, dropping him a bit in the overall ranks.
Trea Turner missed time last year, but when he was on the field, he was still an elite player. He is hitting atop a fantastic lineup and should rebound now that he is completely healthy entering 2025.
Mookie Betts had a down season in 2024 and is aging. However, he is still an elite player on a per-plate appearance basis, is multi-positional eligibility and hits in the best lineup in baseball. There are a lot of reasons to target Betts.
Tier 3 & Notes
CJ Abrams has speed for days and enough power that plays, but he will never be a very good on-base or average guy. The Nationals are starting to get better around him, which just increases his value as he gets driven in more. There is some downside with his approach but he continues to be a pretty high ceiling gone.
Corey Seager is a top-tier talent, but he misses time every year, keeping him in this tier. If you could project him for 600 plate appearances, he might be in his own tier between Tier 1 and Tier 2, but he has only done that once since 2017. At his age, it is better to project him for 500 plate appearances and hope he exceeds it.
Tier 4 & Notes
- Willy Adames (SS – SF)
- Oneil Cruz (SS, OF – PIT)
- Anthony Volpe (SS – NYY)
- Dansby Swanson (SS – CHC)
- Jeremy Pena (SS – HOU)
- Bryson Stott (2B, SS – PHI)
Willy Adames is coming off of a career year and got a massive contract, but he is going to regress hard in 2025. He is moving away from a great hitter’s park in Milwaukee to one of the worst in San Francisco.
Adames is also moving to a much worse offense overall, which will hurt his runs and RBI. On top of that, the Brewers were the team with the second-most stolen bases in baseball last year and the Giants were second-worst. He will still volume his way to being valuable, but not nearly as valuable as he used to be.
Oneil Cruz is a physical freak. However, there are a lot of pitfalls with that physicality. He swings and misses a ton and that leads to a lot of ups and downs. I like the top half of the lineup in Pittsburgh but this is still not a very good team. His fantasy baseball ADP continues to rise because of the upside, but it doesn’t reflect the downside of what could be a terrible batting average and lackluster runs and RBI.
Anthony Volpe is similar to Cruz but with a lower ceiling. He should have a better floor considering he has a much better lineup and park to play in. He made strides with the strikeout rate last year, but it seems unlikely he will lead off again in New York.
There is power and speed upside with Volpe, but the lack of contact makes it seem he may not reach those power goals and the average could be lacking.
Danby Swanson is underrated in the market but he is a perfect accumulator type of player. He has enough power and speed and the Cubs got better with the addition of Kyle Tucker this season. There isn’t the upside you once got from him, but you get a lot of safety at the position.
Similar to Swanson, Jeremy Pena is a boring accumulator who is underrated in the market. He never grew into the star that some expected, but he will accumulate at the top of a good Astros lineup. He will give you enough home runs and stolen bases to provide a great floor at the position.
Bryson Stott is a speedy player with a good hit tool. His issue is that he has struggled against left-handed pitching and is starting to lose time against them. He can hit for a good average versus righties and still steal 30 bases, but the lack of volume will be a problem if he is in a strict platoon.
Tier 5 & Notes
- Xavier Edwards (SS – MIA)
- Bo Bichette (SS – TOR)
- Xander Bogaerts (2B, SS – SD)
- Ezequiel Tovar (SS – COL)
- Zach Neto (SS – LAA)
- Masyn Winn (SS – STL)
- Carlos Correa (SS – MIN)
- Tommy Edman (SS, OF – LAD)
Xavier Edwards has speed for days and can make a lot of contact, which should give him a great average, but he is stuck on one of the worst offenses in baseball and in a terrible park, so the power, runs and RBI could be a problem. He only fits certain builds, but if you need speed, he is your guy.
Ezequiel Tovar has power and speed and plays in Colorado, but the underlying skills are terrible. He swings outside the zone a ton and is a terrible in-zone hitter. Being in Colorado helps, but the downside is huge if he can’t make more contact.
Zach Neto would be much higher on this list if he wasn’t going to miss time at the beginning of the season recovering from offseason surgery. Reports are good and it sounds like he will be back in April, but you will need a replacement until he returns.
Masyn Winn is another accumulator type with a great floor, but a limited ceiling. What separates him from guys like Swanson and Pena is the lineup around him as the Cardinals have gotten worse and they appear to be heading in the wrong direction right now.
Tier 6 & Notes
- Ceddanne Rafaela (2B, SS, OF – BOS)
- Nico Hoerner (SS, 2B – CHC)
- Trevor Story (SS – BOS)
- Willi Castro (2B, 3B, SS, OF – MIN)
- Tyler Fitzgerald (SS, OF – SF)
- Ha-Seong Kim (SS – TB)
- Brooks Lee (2B, 3B, SS – MIN)
- Jacob Wilson (SS – ATH)
Ceddane Rafaela has power and speed and is a great defender, but he has terrible underlying skills. He led the Majors in O-Swing% last season and had one of the worst in-zone contact rates in baseball. If he can improve the hit tool, he could be a star, but this is the hardest thing in baseball to fix when you have no idea where the zone is.
I love Nico Hoerner, but he is coming off of surgery and won’t be ready for the start of the season. There is not a concrete timeline. He could be a value pick if he is back quickly.
Tyler Fitzgerald had a breakout season last year, but the truth of the matter is he had a hot three-and-a-half-week stretch where he hit 12 home runs and stole five bases with a .350 average. After that, he hit .230 with one home run and five stolen bases over the last six weeks of the season. He is a terrible in-zone hitter and the latter part of the season is more indicative of the player he is.
Ha-Seong Kim is another favorite player of mine, but he will be out until at least May, so he is a stash play, at best.
Jacob Wilson doesn’t have much power or speed, but he is an elite in-zone hitter who can help in batting average late in deeper drafts.
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