Top 25 Fantasy Shortstops for 2021 – Week 11

Fantasy rankings are always an interesting exercise. How much do you weigh a slump at the plate? Should an injury penalize a player? The answer to that is the oh-so-great “it depends.”

Is the slump over the past week or two? If yes, then the player may drop down in the rankings a bit but he won’t disappear, especially if he is a proven veteran. If it is a month-long slump, then that player is obviously not one of the top 25 players at that time. I don’t think anyone could realistically rank Francisco Lindor as a Top 25 shortstop during the first month of the season.

Now that we are two-plus months into the season, I look at players on three levels when I consider trading for them or adding them from the waiver wire. The obvious level is what are his overall statistics. I then look at what they have done in the last 14 days and 30 days.

If I’m going to add a player to one of my dynasty teams, I want production, not just this year but for the next year or two. Thus, I’ll go even deeper into the weeds and look at their exit velocities, hard-hit percentage, and strikeout percentage and compare them to past seasons. If a player’s counting stats look nice but his overall numbers are trending down, I’m going to think twice before trading assets for him or picking up a free agent and thus have to drop one of my current players.

As for injuries, if a player is out for 10 days, I’m not going to drop him out of the rankings unless he was already near the bottom of the rankings. But if a player is out for a considerable amount of time, then that will affect where he is ranked. That is why Corey Seager is not ranked right now. In real life, he is still a top 25 shortstop. No MLB would drop Seager from their roster because he is hurt. But in fantasy baseball, Seager is not helping anyone. He has not produced for weeks and it will be weeks before he hits the field – so he is not a top 25 fantasy shortstop right now.

But there are plenty of players who are not injured and who are not slumping at the plate. Which players have moved up the rankings or entered the Top 25? Let’s find out.

Tier 1

Fernando Tatis Jr. is locked in as the top shortstop, and if not for injuries, he would have never left the top spot. Entering the weekend, all Tatis Jr. has done is slash .277-.358-.639, smash 17 homers, drive in 39 runs and steal 13 bases while scoring 41 runs. There is no question he is the top shortstop.

I still have Xander Bogaerts and Marcus Semien at second and third in my rankings. Bogaerts is slashing .324-.382-.547, with the slugging percentage ranking third among shortstops. Meanwhile, Semien is slugging .512, and while his production has been down the last two weeks, it not enough to move him out of the third spot.

The newcomer into the top tier is Brandon Crawford. Getting a second wind late in his career, Crawford has mashed the ball this season to the tune of 11 homers and 41 RBI entering the weekend, the most among all shortstops. Crawford is also slugging .558, ranking only behind Tatis Jr. in that category. Amazingly, only 74 percent of Yahoo players and 87 percent of ESPN players own Crawford. If he is available, grab him. After two months, it is doubtful this is just a “hot streak” we are seeing from the Giants shortstop.

Tier 2

With Brandon Crawford moving into Tier 1, one player had to slide out. Thus the reason we see Bo Bichette in Tier 2 right now. I could have placed Trea Turner here, but I kept Turner in Tier 1 as he has a better slash line than Bichette (.305-.352-.479 to .269-.318-.465), nearly matches him in homers and RBI while also stealing 13 bases. Those 13 steals tie him with Tatis Jr. for the most by a shortstop. Bichette is still a beast, but someone had to drop and he hasn’t down enough the last two weeks to jump over Turner.

One player making a big jump is Carlos Correa.  I had concerns about him a month ago and stated as much. At that time he was seldom pulling the ball with any power and mostly slapping singles to right field. Since that time, he has found his power stroke to all fields. In the last two weeks, he is slashing .356-.517-.711 with four homers and 11 RBI. Extend that to the last 30 days and his hitting .319-.448-.585 with six homers and 18 RBI with 22 runs scored.

Tier 3

Tim Anderson moves up one spot in this week’s rankings but he looks poised to become a top 10 shortstop. Over the past two weeks, he is hitting .333 with a .467 slugging percentage to go along with five steals and six RBI. For the season, his exit velocity of 89.8 is at a career-high level and his barrel percentage of 6.5 ranks second only to last year’s 10.1 rate. Meanwhile is hard-hit percentage is at 42.2, up 6.4% from last season.

After missing most of April and May, Ketel Marte is back in the rankings. He started the season on fire, slashing .462-.500-.846 with two home runs and five RBI. Since returning to the Arizona lineup, he is slashing .307-.354-440 with two home runs and nine RBI in 20 games. The bad news for ESPN owners is he does not qualify as a shortstop. But for you who play in Yahoo leagues, it is worth the effort to trade for Marte, though the window may have closed with him now back on the field.

Tier 4

This tier welcomes three previously unranked players in Jorge Polanco, Adalberto Mondesi, and Freddy Galvis. Polanco has found his power stroke for the Twins, smashing four homers over the past two weeks entering the weekend driving in eight runs, and slashing .288-.356-.596. For the year his average is still low at .242, but he is slugging .427 now. He’s rostered on only 50 percent of Yahoo teams and 68 percent of ESPN teams. A player with his power should be added to your roster right now.

If you have Adalberto Mondesi on your team, you can finally have a smile on your face when you look at your fantasy lineup because you no longer see that pesky “IL” listed next to his name. That injury is what kept him out of the rankings for the past month and a half. I obviously don’t have him listed as a Tier 1, 2, or 3 shortstop yet, but it is only a matter of time before he shoots up the rankings as he has already hit two homers and driven in five runs while slugging .720 during his brief time in the Royals’ lineup.

Another player you should consider adding is Freddy Galvis, who moves into the rankings at No. 20. He is found on only 24 percent of Yahoo rosters and 36 percent of ESPN rosters. At this point of the season, he should be on more rosters. He has a .464 slugging percentage and has nine homers and 23 RBI. There are tons of less productive shortstops currently rostered ahead of Galvis who shouldn’t be.

Tier 5

That right, after being a huge disappointment all season, owners of Francisco Lindor can finally rejoice. The Mets shortstop finally makes his return to my rankings after finally putting together a stretch at the plate that actually resembles real hitting. Entering the weekend Lindor was slashing .341-.400-.610 at the plate with two homers and four RBI. He then added his sixth home run of the season Saturday night.

After two months of disappointment, it appears Lindor may finally be turning the corner and becoming the threat at the plate everyone expected him to be. I’m cautiously optimistic at this point. Lots of players have a good two-week stretch before flaming out again. But most players, however, don’t have the pedigree Lindor does.

Dropped Out

With so many players entering the rankings this week, that meant a host of previously ranked players had to drop out. Gleyber Torres suffers the ax this week. While he slashed .304-.377-.413 the past two weeks, the power still has not shown up yet. He hit one homer over the past 14 days and for the season he has only three dingers in 197 at-bats as the weekend started.

Why is Corey Seager not ranked? Well, when you aren’t on the field producing any stats, it is hard to be one of the top 25 shortstops at this moment. Out with a fractured hand, Seager is just now taking ground balls again and is at least two weeks away from a rehab assignment. Until he returns to the field he will remain out of my rankings.

There are a few players who are hot at the plate right now that are worth watching. Jonathan Villar has slashed .310-.375-.517 the last two weeks and could have pushed Trevor Story out of the rankings. But I kept Story in the top 25 now that he is back in the lineup. But that could change over the next two weeks if Villar continues to hit as he has for much of the season while Story has not lived up to expectations.

I had high hopes for Willi Castro at the start of the season. But over the first month of the season, he was mostly MIA. But he has turned things around the past two weeks, slashing .333-.400-.545 with a homer and seven RBI. Looking at his performance over the last month, that slash line sits at .273-.333-.439, so he’s trending in the right direction. I was able to snatch him off the waiver wire in one of my dynasty leagues right after his previous owner dropped him. If he’s available, grab him.

Another player to watch is Nick Gordon of the Twins. In his short time up with the Twins, he has five steals in 10 games while hitting .355. I doubt he will continue to hit .355, but his speed is real and could be a great add right now.