Top 25 Fantasy Shortstops for 2021 – Week 7

With April in the rear view mirror and June fast approaching, we are starting to see a lot less wild movement in the Top 25 Fantasy Shortstop rankings.

Two weeks ago, five new players entered the rankings – Alex Bregman, Brandon Crawford, Paul DeJong, Freddy Galvis, and Kiké Hernandez. While all five players obviously produced on the field to be ranked, they were helped by the continued freefall of Francisco Lindor and the cold bats of Eugenio Suarez and Donovan Solano and injuries to Jean Segura and Ketel Marte.

Now in Week 7, the top shortstops have, for the most part, moved to the top of the rankings while the middle tier players are settling into their spot in the rankings. Of course, not all the stars are performing as expected and players you probably thought were never going to valuable in fantasy baseball are doing their best to get off the free agent wire.

If you are wondering about Lindor and where he is ranked, don’t waste your time. He is still missing in action this season, hitting .195 with two home runs and seven RBI. I guess if there is a bright spot, both of his home runs and five of his seven RBI have come over the last two weeks. If you can buy low on him, you might as well do it because he has to turn it around at some point, right?

Enough small talk, let’s get on with the rankings.

TIER 1

The players listed here in Tier 1 can all make a case for being the top shortstop outside of Chris Taylor. I’m pretty happy with him ranked fifth, but can’t make an argument for why he should be ranked first. But when it comes to Xander Bogaerts, Bo Bichette, Trea Turner, and Marcus Semien, each can make a strong case as to why they should be the top-ranked shortstop at this point.

Bogaerts and Bichette each entered Saturday’s games ranked second among shortstops in RBI with 23 and home runs with eight. Bichette, Turner, and Semien are tied for first in steals with seven while Bichette and Taylor lead this position group in runs scored with 31. Taylor’s slash line of .287-.423-.487 compares well with the other players in this group or is even better, but his four homers and 14 RBI are what leave him ranked fifth.

Bogaerts overtakes Bichette as the top shortstop thanks to a two-week stretch in which he slashed .375-.464-.688 with 11 runs scored, four dingers, 10 RBI, and a stolen base. Bichette scored 12 times and swiped four bases while slashing .291-.339-.400, but hit only one home run while driving in eight. Turner, meanwhile, is having an outstanding season after a slow start. He ranks third in slugging percentage at .551 and his nine homers lead all shortstops while also hitting .312 with an OBP of .351.

While I have Bogaerts and Bichette ahead of Turner, I would not be surprised to see him become the top shortstop soon and stay there. Turner’s slash line will likely be better than Bichette’s, especially in average and OBP, while his speed is what will separate him from Bogaerts.

Semien moves into the top 5 finally after a steady climb up the rankings. While he is still not hitting for a great average at .265, he is slugging .463 to go with 21 runs scored, eight homers, 20 RBI, and seven steals. Over the last two weeks, he has been on fire for the Blue Jays with a slash line of .365-.411-.635 while scoring 10 runs, hitting three homers, and driving in 10.

TIER 2

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Isiah Kiner-Falefa this season, but I know I wasn’t expecting 17 RBI and seven stolen bases right now. I actually had Kiner-Falefa a couple of years ago on my team, mostly because he was catcher eligible in addition to being able to play second base, third base, and short. The season he is having now is what I wish I got then. Now settled in at shortstop, Kiner-Falefa is hitting .284-.333-.439 with five homers to go along with those 17 RBI and seven steals. The last two weeks have seen him slash .362-.436-.596 with two dingers and eight RBI.

Fernando Tatis Jr. and Javier Baez dropped from Tier 1 into Two 2 for different reasons. Tatis has just been cold at the plate, hitting .194 the past two weeks and driving in only three runs. Baez dropped due mostly to the play of Semien and his jump into the Top 5. Baez leads all shortstops with 25 RBI to go along with eight homers and six steals. Those numbers are good enough to be in Tier 1. Holding him back with a .252 average and a .285 OBP. But if you want to argue Baez should be ranked ahead of Taylor, I can see why. Baez has the better power numbers while Taylor gets on base more and has scored 13 more runs (31 to 18) than Baez. For now, I’m still going with Taylor in Tier 1 – but he may not be there in another two weeks.

TIER 3

The San Francisco Giants are surprising a lot of baseball fans with their play on the field. Helping lead the charge is the resurgence of Brandon Crawford. Since hitting 21 homers in 2015 and slugging .462, Crawford has struggled to come close to matching those numbers since. His high-water mark in homers since then is 14 in 2017 and 2018 while his slugging dropped from that .462 mark to .350 in 2019 before bouncing up to .465 last year.

Crawford is currently hitting only .235, but he is slugging .500 with eight homers and 19 RBI, with the homers matching his output from last season. The question is how long can he keep this up? His current average exit velocity of 88.5 is right in line with his career average, as is his hard hit percentage (39.7 compared to a career mark of 40.1). The biggest difference for Crawford is a fly ball percentage of 32.9 percent, compared to his career average of 21.8. Meanwhile, his line drive percentage of 20.5 percent is five points below his career average.

Obviously more fly balls can lead to more homers, but Oracle Park is not the best park to be a fly ball hitter. If you are a Crawford owner, be happy with the production you are getting now. My guess is it likely will change as the season progresses.

TIER 4

Since getting off to a torrid start, Corey Seager has struggled at the plate for the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the end of April, Seager had four home runs with 17 RBI while slugging .451. But May has not been kind as he has yet to hit a homer and has only five RBI. While he is hitting .295 compared to a .255 mark at the end of April, he is slugging only .364. For the season, his overall numbers of 19 runs scored, four homers and 21 RBI looks nice, but with his struggles at the plate right now, he lands in Tier 3.

Having an even harder time at the plate in May is Carlos Correa. The future free agent is not making a strong case for himself to get paid like Francisco Lindor or Fernando Tatis Jr. as his slash line is .246-.299-.401. Those are not the type of numbers that lead to giant pay days, especially coming off a 2020 season in which his slash line was .264-.326-.383 with only five homers and 25 RBI in 58 games. Correa looked great in April, hitting four homers with 13 RBI while slashing .303-.352-.495, but in May that slash line is .133-.235-.200 with one homer and three RBI.

I completely expect Seager to turn things around. He may not be a Tier 1 player this season, but certainly a Tier 2 player. Correa, however, looks like a player trying too hard to produce and show why turned down a 5-year, $125 million contract before the start of the season. His talent level is too good to remain in Tier 3, but I’m not as quick to say without a doubt that he will move back to Tier 2 any time soon.

TIER 5

Two players move into the Top 25 in Niko Goodrum and Nico Hoerner. Goodrum has had an impressive two week run, slashing .333-.447-.436 with five RBI and five steals. For the season he now has a .413 slugging percentage to go with six steals and 17 runs scored.

Hoerner has been on the injured list the last 10 days, but when he has been on the field for the Cubs, he has produced, hitting .389 with a .556 slugging percentage. In 12 games played, he collected seven RBI, a pace of 95 RBI. I’m pretty high on Hoerner and now that he is up with the Cubs, I expect him to move up the rankings as the season progresses.

Two weeks ago I was praising the play of Joey Wendle. Now he is barely remaining in the Top 25 after a two week stretch of play in which he slashed .167-.286-.222 with zero RBI. For the season his numbers look good with five homers and 16 RBI to go with 22 runs scored and a slash line of .270-..325-.435. Every player has a tough stretch, and I expect Wendle to turn things around soon.

DROPPED OUT

Kike Hernandez was tough to remove from the rankings. Over the past two weeks he hit .308 with a .471 OBP and slugging percentage of .615. But that is only over the course of four games before landing on the IL. While Wendle hasn’t posted great numbers the past two weeks, at least he has been on the field. Didi Gregorius has also struggled the last two weeks with a .190-.244-.381 slash line, though he did have eight RBI and two home runs. But Wendle is having the better overall season and thus maintains his ranking in the Top 25.