Now that we’ve recapped the top 20 catchers, top 20 1st basemen and top 20 2nd basemen, we’re starting to see clarity on depth of positions, and shortstops are robust, and they will metaphorically eat. Mookie Betts was a top three 2nd baseman, here he’s scrapping the bottom of the top 10. That’s stacked. So, here’s the final ranking from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. The Player Rater allows me to be impartial while looking at how I ranked them in the preseason. Anyway, here’s the top 20 shortstops for 2024 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
1. Bobby Witt Jr. – With one eye, I’m looking at Bobby Witt Jr.’s prospect grade where it says he’s got a 40-grade Hit Tool. With my other eye, I’m looking at his MLB-leading average when literally no one is hitting for average anymore. My two eyes are now crossing to commiserate and are laughing together. My God, my eyes are laughing. You’ve managed to make my eyes laugh. Good job. In all seriousness, I thought Witt would struggle to hit .240 last year, and now it appears as if I was drinking two forties. Lot is made of guys like Kris Bryant cashing in and never doing anything, but how about props to Witt for signing a ten-year deal thru 2034 and having his best season? There were a lot of seasons when he would’ve been the top hitter on the Player Rater. Unfortch, 30/30/.330 wouldn’t do it this year. For what it’s Cronenworth, I ranked Witt third overall this year, and he ended up third overall. Too bad I ranked in the number one and two slot [redacted]. Preseason Rank #1, 2024 Projections: 103/34/107/.280/47 in 606 ABs, Final Numbers: 125/32/109/.332/31 in 636 ABs
2. Elly De La Cruz – His name is Elly, and I took the biggest L of this past preseason by not believing him. He is Elly and I am L’ey. I’m always looking to get better and learn from past mistakes, and I’m choosing to take away from my Elly mistake that even Jesus made the mistake of not doing anything on Sunday when he could’ve put in a little more work and fixed obliques so they’d never get injured. Gotta grind, Jesus! Nah, okay, my takeaway on my Elly L’ey was to concede that strikeouts might not be good if high, but Hard Contact can fix a lot. Also: Speed kills some average concerns. I don’t know how well this profile is going to age, but we’ll cross that bridge in five years, if it’s even still an issue. The great thing about being such a weapon as Elly is: Well, look at his walks and Ks, 8.2 to 9.9 BB% and 33.7 down to 31.3%. When opposing pitchers fear you, they pitch you more carefully and you take more walks and can be more selective, which ups his steals. It’s all positive, especially if that trend continues. Preseason Rank #11, 2024 Projections: 68/20/72/.219/50 in 514 ABs, Final Numbers:
3. Gunnar Henderson – I’ve never heard anyone call him Gunny, but I am also 100% sure people call him Gunny. More sure about that than my wedding anniversary date. That Gunny went 40/20/.280-ish and is barely in the top 10 overall on the Player Rater goes to something I was talking about in the All-Star Break top 100. Top hitters? To misquote Chappell Roan, they’re phenomenalnalnalnalnalnal. It’s the middle-to-late hitters where you’re like Fred Willard saying wha’ happened? As for Gunny, I can’t believe I didn’t make it a thing all season about how he was hitting leadoff, when he’s clearly a three-hole hitter. Also, his walks and Ks went in the right direction, which is a learning of mine from many years ago: Great hitters get greater. Preseason Rank #7, 2024 Projections: 106/26/71/.257/11 in 571 ABs, Final Numbers: 118/37/92/.281/21 in 630 ABs
4. Francisco Lindor – Had him ranked 17th overall in the preseason, which I believe was higher than anyone. (Well, except for Grimace’s preseason rankings.) Think a lot of people are gonna look back in a few years and be like, “I can’t believe I didn’t trust Lindor to go 30/30 after he basically went 30/30 year after year after year.” Lindor seems to get a lot of overreactions (a Mets fan thing?) like he is not a consistent producer, when, in fact, he’s one of the most consistent. Preseason Rank #4, 2024 Projections: 94/27/101/.258/30 in 591 ABs, Final Numbers: 107/33/91/.273/29 in 618 ABs
5. Willy Adames – Oh, if it’s not clear, as bad as the 2nd or 1st basemen were, shortstops are insane. Willy Adames is higher ranked than the 1st 2nd baseman (Ketel) overall, and only Vlad Jr. is higher out of the 1st basemen. Adames is ranked this low, and he went 30/20/.250. Average is a little low for this comp, but that’s what we used to love getting from perennial top 20 overall guy Paul Goldschmidt. Would ya believe, Dong Adames? No, actually, I don’t think I do believe. His steals jumping up from five the previous year is standing out, and his power is screaming either a crash in homers or average. Preseason Rank #17, 2024 Projections: 75/32/89/.226/6 in 572 ABs, Final Numbers: 93/32/112/.251/21 in 610 ABs
6. Jackson Merrill – Only one completely out of nowhere for me, and as mentioned many times this year, he was my very 1st week Buy, writing a whole post about him right after the Padres’ opened the season in Korea. Merrill being a rookie and a neutral .290 hitter is a fire emoji that is the blue flame that is extremely hot. That he’ll be 21 after next season starts? Can you make that fire emoji hotter? That he has neutral 25 homer power and 15-steal speed? Is Jackson Merrill who we thought Wyatt Langford was gonna be? Yes, yes he is. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 77/24/90/.292/16 in 554 ABs
7. Trea Turner – Considering he missed roughly six weeks with a hammy and still finished the year this high in the shortstops shows how good he was when playing. Treat Urner gets a biscuit. Well done. Has age finally caught up to him? Still a solid BABIP and steals (for two-thirds of a season), so I think we keep Urner off the glue farm for now, but his ADP will be interesting next year. I could see him falling into the 30’s and being interested. Preseason Rank #3, 2024 Projections: 101/22/81/.273/28 in 621 ABs, Final Numbers: 88/21/62/.295/19 in 505 ABs
8. Zach Neto – Kinda love doing these recaps because I can go back and look at what I thought in the preseason and why in this case I ranked Neto 31st for shortstops. With that said, our Steamer projections were right to love Neto. Here’s what I said, “I like Neto, but no one likes him as much as Steamer! Wow, his projections are great. (Roughly 22/12/.250 in 150 games.) Super intrigued, but getting him to 20+ homers feels incredibly optimistic.” And that’s me quoting me! Clearly, I was not optimistic enough. Preseason Rank #31, 2024 Projections: 61/16/67/.256/12 in 471 ABs, Final Numbers: 70/23/77/.249/30 in 542 ABs
9. Ezequiel Tovar – I’m gonna make a New Year’s resolution to never look again at prospect grades for guys who have been in the majors for more than one year but Ezequiel is a 40 grade power? C’mon, man! A 60 grade hit tool? C’mon! Think we should give props to Tovar for not only having a solid season but also — presumably — ignoring everything Bud Black and the Rockies must be telling him. One thing that must be true: Rockies players who succeed? Ignore everything they’re told. Preseason Rank #32, 2024 Projections: 72/14/75/.251/12 in 579 ABs, Final Numbers: 83/26/78/.269/6 in 655 ABs
10. Mookie Betts – Already went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2024 fantasy baseball.
11. Oneil Cruz – What’s wild about Oneil getting OF eligibility this year is that actually helps him more than shortstop. In most leagues, you need more outfielders than shortstops and shortstops are way more stacked than OF. Looking back at my love for Oneil over Elly and it looks like I was right to love Oneil, just wrong to comp him to and hate Elly. What I see with Oneil is similar to Elly in their contact too. 35% K% to 30% and 7.8% BB% to 8.5%. My worries will be do those regress, but I honestly don’t think there’s any way of knowing. Sure, some people will tell you he will or won’t, but I think it’s unknowable. Preseason Rank #10, 2024 Projections: 82/25/64/.248/25 in 547 ABs, Final Numbers: 72/21/76/.259/22 in 599 ABs
12. CJ Abrams – He was caught stealing so much. On the basepaths, then for wage theft for showing up to the games with three hours of sleep! [screams at clouds, shakes fist] If he would’ve been caught a bit less, he would’ve basically had the exact same season as the previous year, so don’t really see this year as a setback in his career, unless the Nats are bought by MGM. Preseason Rank #8, 2024 Projections: 90/18/59/.251/52 in 585 ABs, Final Numbers: 79/20/65/.246/31 in 541 ABs
13. Corey Seager – Reminded of the person who was badgering me all preseason that I had Seager ranked too low. The funny thing is I never know which player someone is going to get a bee in their bonnet about, and they’re definitely wearing a bonnet. It’s usually very surprising to me too. I thought I had Seager ranked fairly considering he has zero speed. A 30-homer, 1-steal, .285 hitter is really that good? No, not really for fantasy. They’re fine. Preseason Rank #5, 2024 Projections: 96/33/109/.310/3 in 533 ABs, Final Numbers: 68/30/74/.278/1 in 475 ABs
14. Brice Turang – Already went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2024 fantasy baseball.
15. Jeremy Pena – Good guy to look at with the point made in Seager’s blurb kept in mind. Is Pena anywhere close to Seager in power or average? Not really, but 20-steal speed is a huge bump in value vs. zero. Preseason Rank #18, 2024 Projections: 73/15/77/.267/15 in 566 ABs, Final Numbers: 78/15/70/.266/20 in 602 ABs
16. Anthony Volpe – Was about to say his season was a tale of two halves, but I totally misremembered what he did. His 1st half numbers are almost identical to his 2nd half. Of course, the 1st half was in almost twice as many ABs, but I could’ve sworn he was better in the 1st half. Overall, the numbers aren’t really impressive and he did not take the step forward from the rookie year. Or did he?! Damn, Mr. Reversal, I knew you were gonna say that. His Ks went way down and hitting .243 is way better than .209. If he can now combine his rookie power with his sophomore average, he might get there. And he’s still young. Preseason Rank #14, 2024 Projections: 71/25/69/.237/27 in 551 ABs, Final Numbers: 90/12/60/.243/28 in 637 ABs
17. Nico Hoerner – Already went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2024 fantasy baseball.
18. Dansby Swanson – If you would’ve told me in the preseason Swanson would get a lot more steals than my projections, I would’ve said, “Giddy up!” But that horse really stalled on power. So, going into this year, it looked like the .240-ish average was a fluke, but this year illustrates a larger issue. He makes very bleh contact. One funny thing I noticed in his numbers, in 2018, as a 24-year-old, he was top 20 in sprint speed and stole 10 bags. Now he’s around the 200th fastest and he nearly doubles those speed numbers. Rickey Henderson would’ve stolen 200 bags in today’s game. Preseason Rank #15, 2024 Projections: 81/25/85/.254/12 in 545 ABs, Final Numbers: 82/16/66/.242/19 in 534 ABs
19. Ceddanne Rafaela – Echoing what I said in the Pena and Seager blurbs. Is Ceddanne blowing off the roof with 30+ homer power? Or Elly speed? No, but 15-ish/20-ish in the everyday lineup lifts a lot of fantasy value. The promising thing here is Ceddanne gets better at picking spots to steal? He might challenge Duran next year for star of the Red Sox. Or Roman Anthony? Or Kristian Campbell? Or–ugh, I like the young Sawx a lot. We’ll get into them in a couple weekswit my rookie outlook posts. Preseason Rank #28, 2024 Projections: 49/13/44/.254/19 in 367 ABs, Final Numbers:
20. Masyn Winn – Refreshed my Memory Cocktail on what I said in the preseason, and it went a little something like this, “Most important takeaways from this post: (Winn) has speed, makes contact and burgeoning power. The final big one: The playing time. I don’t know. My guess is he’s the starting shortstop from the jump, but the Cards would need to move on from someone, likely Edman. People will overlook Winn because of a bad month of hitting his rookie year, but you shouldn’t.” And that’s me quoting me! Yet, he didn’t really do much of anything. 15/11/.267? My yawn’s going to the Yawn Store to get more yawns. He was mostly benefitted by hitting leadoff basically the whole year. Because of that glove, he plays, which kinda reminds me of Ezequiel. Call him Amish Winn. Preseason Rank #29, 2024 Projections: 41/8/45/.258/18 in 388 ABs, Final Numbers: 85/15/57/.267/11 in 587 ABs
