Justin Mason Shortstop Ranks: 11/4/21
2021 is over and we turn the page to 2022. Here are my current ranks for the shortstop position for 2021. I will post updates as things change with signings, injuries, or news in Major League Baseball.
See my other ranks here: C 1B 2B SS 3B OF SP RP
Justin Mason Shortstop Ranks: 11/4/21
| Rank | Player | Team | POS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fernando Tatis Jr. | SDP | SS/OF |
| 2 | Trea Turner | LAD | 2B/SS |
| 3 | Bo Bichette | TOR | SS |
| 4 | Tim Anderson | CHW | SS |
| 5 | Marcus Semien | FA | 2B/SS |
| 6 | Xander Bogaerts | BOS | SS |
| 7 | Trevor Story | FA | SS |
| 8 | Francisco Lindor | NYM | SS |
| 9 | Jorge Polanco | MIN | 2B/SS |
| 10 | Wander Franco | TBR | SS |
| 11 | Carlos Correa | FA | SS |
| 12 | Corey Seager | LAD | SS |
| 13 | Jazz Chisholm Jr. | MIA | 2B/SS |
| 14 | Javier Baez | NYM | 2B/SS |
| 15 | Jake Cronenworth | SDP | 1B/2B/SS |
| 16 | Willy Adames | MIL | SS |
| 17 | Oneil Cruz | PIT | SS |
| 18 | Dansby Swanson | ATL | SS |
| 19 | Gleyber Torres | NYY | SS |
| 20 | Amed Rosario | CLE | SS |
| 21 | Luis Urias | MIL | 2B/3B/SS |
| 22 | Brendan Rodgers | COL | 2B/SS |
| 23 | Brandon Crawford | SFG | SS |
| 24 | Miguel Rojas | MIA | SS |
| 25 | J.P. Crawford | SEA | SS |
| 26 | Chris Taylor | FA | 2B/SS/OF |
| 27 | Gio Urshela | NYY | 3B/SS |
| 28 | Gavin Lux | LAD | 2B/SS |
| 29 | Josh Rojas | ARI | 2B/SS/OF |
| 30 | Eugenio Suarez | CIN | 3B/SS |
| 31 | Bobby Witt Jr. | KCR | SS |
| 32 | Andres Gimenez | CLE | 2B/SS |
| 33 | Didi Gregorius | PHI | SS |
| 34 | Paul DeJong | STL | SS |
| 35 | Kyle Farmer | CIN | SS |
| 36 | Freddy Galvis | PHI | SS |
| 37 | Cole Tucker | PIT | 1B/2B/3B/SS/OF |
| 38 | Isiah Kiner-Falefa | TEX | SS |
| 39 | David Fletcher | LAA | 2B/SS |
| 40 | Nicky Lopez | KCR | SS |
| 41 | Jonathan Villar | FA | 3B/SS |
| 42 | Joey Wendle | TBR | 3B/SS |
| 43 | Elvis Andrus | OAK | SS |
| 44 | Jose Iglesias | BOS | SS |
| 45 | Ha-seong Kim | SDP | 2B/3B/SS |
| 46 | Tyler Wade | NYY | 3B/SS/OF |
| 47 | Taylor Walls | TBR | SS |
| 48 | Isaac Paredes | DET | 2B/3B/SS |
| 49 | Geraldo Perdomo | ARI | SS |
| 50 | Nick Ahmed | ARI | SS |
Ranks are meant for 5×5 Roto leagues.
Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.
What a deep, deep, deep position. Franco/Correa at 10/11 feels both absolutely absurd and perfectly correct. I could quibble with Semien (still don’t think his performance is repeatable; he was an average batter for 3 months of the season and ridiculously hot for 3 months of the season) and Anderson (LOVE him as a player, but I’d take Franco or Correa, personally, unless I really needed the SB boost) being above Franco/Correa… but I could also go the other way.
Agreed on the depth. I was ready to come up with plenty of arguments about how Brendan Rodgers is going to shoot up the list by spring training, but then I wasn’t really sure if he would even get past Willy Adames at #16. Can’t pick a bad one, it seems.
this is why i never pick a SS early in drafts
Links to previous ranks not working.
Cubs have zero SS in top 50. There are only 30 teams. Not looking good for my boys this year
Hoerner needs to be in the list. For sure he is better than Gimenez, at least.
I was wondering about why Hoerner (who has hit) is so much lower ranked than Cole Tucker (who has not hit). Is this just an SBs-are-rare thing?
Correa & Seager at 11 & 12 is silly.
Exclusion of Mondesi seems to be an oversight. Even if he is not regularly playing SS moving forward, he has SS eligibility in most leagues (10 games started in 2021).
Cruz being 14 spots above Witt seems odd.
Taylor as an afterthought in 12 team leagues does not reflect recent history or projections.
Lastly, I will overdraft Rodgers until he is no longer in Colorado.
JP Crawford above Chris Taylor is a bit of a huh?
career-highs:
JP Crawford : .273 9HR 6SB 54RBI 89R
C. Taylor: .288. 21HR 17SB 73RBI 92R
A career year from Crawford would be a disappointment from Taylor.
Heck, Taylor’s 20HR-13SB in 2021 almost equals Crawford’s career totals.
To me this looks like Justin might cautiously think that it will be a matter of playing time for Chris Taylor next year. Even if he had a better 2021 season than many of the names above him on the list, I suppose a repeat could be up in the air in 2022 if he doesn’t get the at bats. I would like to think they’d try to get his bat in the lineup as much as possible, though…
yeah I dunno, I tend to think a guy that plays nearly every position in the field and managed to get ~550+ ABs a year on the Dodgers can be counted for a decent number of ABs elsewhere.
Thanks for your early take on the rankings Justin. It would be useful to know what criteria you’re using for these ranks. 4×4 , 5×5, AVG or OBP? While rank order is useful I submit tiers are just as valuable, more so maybe, as the drop off from 4 to 10 is significant compared to 16 to 20. Also, 3B is shown as a link but not working/posted yet. Best.
Kinda expect to see Jose Barrero log more games at short for the Reds than either Farmer or Suarez, and he’s maybe just going to sneak into the Top 10 (OK, 15?) by the end of whenever the 2022 season gets played.
Yeah Barrero not appearing in the top 50 seems like an extremely aggressive take.
Wow I understand that he is only at 17 but that Cruz ranking still feels bullish. I guess it’s a floor/ceiling thing because he is up there ahead of a bunch of guys you know will get you at least replacement level, and how sure are we that Cruz will?
The cruz ranking here prompted me to go to his page for more research…
Steamer projects a 121 wRC+ next year… WHAT!? I’m so confused by this.
Just a brief list of the players who have WORSE offensive projections for ’22…
Christian Yelich
Eloy Jimenez
Marcus Semien
Nick Castellanos
Francisco Lindor
Joey Votto
Cody Bellinger
Kris Bryant
Austin Meadows
Nolan Arenado
I’m just so confused as to where this projection for Cruz is coming from.
Yeah, the Steamer projection looks out-of-whack. They actually have his projected K% significantly better than every single MiLB season pior, which makes no sense at all. Granted, it did improve a bit this past season over 2019, but that’s also from repeating AA (where he already played 35G in 2019). To project him to improve his K% yet again while jumping all the way to MLB level seems kinda nuts…
He seems much more likely to see his K% blow up in MLB if he actually exceeds 100G there like they project (at 110G)… and certainly, the Bucs’ homepark won’t do him any favors either…
Ramon Urias has missed out on both the 2B and SS rankings. I’d love to get a spot for him.
Also, I think that Urshela could rise up the board. He spent time this season recovering from elbow surgery and some nagging injuries (hamstring, shin, and hand). With SS, speculation on his projections feeling low after 2021, could make his name a sleeper to pick.
Lindor and Polanco are too high: Adames is too low. Who believes in Gleyber Torres anymore?
Edmundo Sosa doesn’t even make the list, huh? Yeah, he doesn’t have much fantasy value outside of batting average (or OBP if you play that way), but it’s still kind of insulting not to include him at all.
Lindor at #8 feels high, unfortunately for Mets fans. In steady, steep decline every year since his superb 2018 peak. Missed 20 games in 2019 and 35 games in 2021. He’s also on an abysmal team if the idea is keeping him on the field. Alderson’s FO, in the manner it has done with its players for a decade, sent him out in 88 of the team’s first 89 games and, no real surprise, Lindor then missed more than a month and ended up with his lowest games played total by far.
Story yikes