| | | | Monday, February 10, 2025 | | 45 days until Opening Day ... | | The weird thing about writing about the shortstop position in 2025 is, it's by far the best position on the infield, and it is, as a result, probably the least interesting position to think about. | | You're almost certainly going to have a great shortstop in your lineup. The only question is whether you want to have multiple great shortstops in your lineup, and when you want to draft them. There are five who will probably go off the board in the first round in most drafts, and there are at least two more who should be drafted in the first three or four rounds. Eight will probably come off the board inside of the top 100 overall, and probably another five inside of the first 150 picks of most drafts. It's just an absurdly deep position, especially when someone like Bo Bichette – an early-round pick for five straight years before 2025 – is going closer to 150 than 100 in most drafts. | | Shortstops are going to be the building blocks of most teams, but because of how deep the position is, it's also one where you don't really need to go into the draft with a plan, with one notable exception: Elly De La Cruz. Because he's such a unique player, you kind of need to have a plan if you are going to take him. And he's going to be a top-five pick in most drafts, so it's a high-risk approach. | | What makes De La Cruz the one player at shortstop you have to plan around? Well, in a Roto league, it's because there just isn't another player with his mixture of upside and limitations. He's likely to be the biggest source of steals in baseball in 2025, and among 50-plus steal threats, he's almost certainly the best power source among them. But, for a first-rounder, his 25-ish homer projection is on the lower end, and his .250-ish batting average is the low end. He can still be worth that first-round pick despite those limitations, but you need to know going on that he's going to dictate how your entire draft goes in a way no other first rounder (except Paul Skenes if you think he's a first-rounder) will. | | If you take De La Cruz in the first, you're taking the likes of Brice Turang off your draft board entirely, both because the added steals will be overkill and because De La Cruz's deficiencies in average, HR, and RBI mean you really can't afford another zero in those spots. You're going to need to focus on guys like Yordan Alvarez and Freddie Freeman, and you might need to take a Kyle Schwarber off your board if you can't get at least one slugger who is a standout in batting average, too. | | Again, none of this is to say De La Cruz isn't worth drafting in the first round. But of all the studs at the top of this position, he gives you the narrowest path through the rest of your draft, and you need to know that going in. For me, it isn't worth the headache, but your mileage certainly may vary. | | | | In Monday's episode of Fantasy Baseball Today, we dove deep into our thoughts about the shortstop position, and you can head here to watch Frank Stampfl, Scott White, and I break it all down. In the rest of today's newsletter, we're going to be diving into Scott White's Shortstop strategies piece and my Shortstop preview piece to make sure you know what you need to tackle the position. | | Let's take a closer look: | | | | 2025 Shortstop Preview | | "If you've been following along with my position strategy articles to this point, you've probably noticed a trend. | | Every. Position. Stinks! I hate everything, and when you hate everything, you essentially hate nothing because, well, what sort of contrast can be drawn to your general state of being? | | So maybe I'm just full of it, the kind of person who mistakes relentless negativity for having something to say. Whiny. Mopey. A sorry sack of a man. | | Or maybe those other positions really are that bad." | | -From Scott White's 'Shortstop Strategies' column | | | | Offseason Recap | | Willy Adames signed with the Giants Ha-Seong Kim signed with the Rays | | There wasn't a lot of movement at the shortstop position this offseason, and the two biggest moves worth knowing about both probably come with downgrades. In Kim's case, it's mostly because we just don't know what to expect from him coming off a shoulder injury that will keep him out until May. Given the relatively small contract he ended up signing (two years with an opt out after one), it seems MLB teams were at least a little scared off of Kim. His landing spot in Tampa should give him a decent home park and the chance to rack up big steals, but it's also possible the shoulder issue lingers and wrecks his season. He's really only worth drafting in leagues with multiple IL spots to play with. | | As for Adames, I just don't love the landing spot in San Francisco. It's a very tough home park, and while Adames should have enough power to still challenge for 25 homers, I don't expect a repeat of last year's production. And that's especially true with regards to his speed, where Adames stole a career-high 21 bases, 13 more than he had ever had before. I think he's still a must-start SS, but he's not someone I want to pay a premium for coming off a career year. | | Injuries to know | | Corey Seager (hernia surgery) – Expected to be ready for Opening Day. Zachary Neto (shoulder surgery) – Status for Opening Day is up in the air. Dansby Swanson (hernia surgery) – Expected to be ready for Opening Day. Javier Baez (hip surgery) – Expected to be ready for Opening Day. Ha-Seong Kim (shoulder surgery) – Expected back in May. | | The biggest one to watch here is Neto. If not for the surgery, he probably would have been a top-100 pick, and he might have been a top-75 pick. I think the surgery probably saved us from a bad collective decision, because there isn't a ton in his underlying data to suggest his 20-30 season in 2024 was repeatable. If he falls to around 200 in drafts, Neto could still be a good value, but shoulder injuries are notoriously tough to come back from, and there's a chance this just ends up being a lost season for Neto. | | Consensus rankings | | For breakdowns of each of the top 12 and more, head here. | | Bobby Witt, Royals Gunnar Henderson, OriolesElly De La Cruz, Reds Mookie Betts, Dodgers Francisco Lindor, Mets (The First-Rounders Tier) Trea Turner, Phillies (The Elite Tier)Corey Seager, Rangers (The Near-Elite Tier) Oneil Cruz, PiratesC.J. Abrams , NationalsWilly Adames, GiantsBo Bichette, Blue Jays Matt McLain, Reds (The Next-Best Things Tier) | | One Sleeper at Shortstop | | Carlos Correa, Twins | | Let's go with a seemingly boring old guy who might not actually be all that boring. Correa has had trouble staying healthy over the past few years, a problem that isn't likely to get better in his 30s, which is why he's being drafted around 250th overall these days. But when Correa was on the field last season, he was still a force, hitting .310/.388/.517, with a 25-homer, near-100-RBI-and-run pace. You can expect some time on the IL at this point in Correa's career, but he still looks like a must-start option when he's on the field, and you just don't get many of those around 250 in ADP. Take one when he's there. | | One Breakout at Shortstop | | Masyn Winn, Cardinals | | The key question for me with Winn is this: Why did he stop running when he got to the leadoff spot? In 42 starts anywhere but the leadoff spot, Winn stole seven bases on 10 attempts, a 25-steal-per-150-game pace; in 102 starts as the leadoff hitter, Winn stole just four on six attempts, a paltry six-steal pace. Otherwise, the move to the leadoff spot was great for Winn, who put up a 20-homer, 102-run pace, with a .247 batting average I would expect him to improve on – his xBA for the season was .256, and I think there's room for him to push close to .280 with his contact skills and speed. But if he's not going to be even a double-digit steals guy, the ceiling looks a lot lower. Seeing as Winn stole 43 bases in 119 games in 2022 and was in the 87th percentile in sprint speed last year, I'm betting there's a lot more untapped potential here. He's a perfect MI target with top-12 upside. | | One Bust at Shortstop | | Willy Adames, Giants | | Contract-year effects are weird and hard to parse, but there's a lot about Adames' 2024 season that looks pretty flukey. Less so the career-high 32 homers – just one more than his previous best – than the 112 RBI, which came in part thanks to an MLB-record-tying 13 three-run homers, something he isn't likely to repeat. And then there's the career-high 21 steals – 13 more than his previous best! – despite declining sprint speed. And then there's the move from Milwaukee to San Francisco as a free agent to consider. Only one team had more steals than the Brewers last season, while only one team had fewer than the Giants, so a repeat of those 21 steals seems especially hard to buy into. And, while American Family Field isn't a significantly better hitter's park for right-handed hitters than Oracle, it is a much better park for right-handed power, ranking seventh in HR park factor over the past three seasons, compared to Oracle, which ranks 28th. There were already a lot of reasons to think Adames wasn't going to replicate his 2024 campaign, and he landed in just about the worst spot to do so. | | | | | | | | NFL Flag 50 | | CBS Sports HQ | The NFL and its partners are committed to the growth of flag football both nationally and globally. Now is the time to get involved! Click to learn more.
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