Top 25 Fantasy Shortstops for 2021 – Week 9

When ranking players every two weeks, you have to treat those rankings a lot like the stock market. Players are going to have hot streaks, and if you are lucky enough, you get them into the lineup and ride the wave. Of course, just like the stock market, players also suffer slumps and can devastate your lineup if they are a key part of your team.

But a good fantasy owner knows, or is lucky enough, to catch the players when his stock is going up and have enough depth to overcome a player whose stock is falling. Some players see their value drop because of injury or illness, such as Fernando Tatis Jr. A true clue chip stock, owners were obviously not going to get rid of him when his value fell. They just waited for Tatis to get healthy and watch his value rise. Right now, it is through the roof.

Players who are not Tatis are tougher to judge. Joey Wendle has taken fantasy owners on a rollercoaster ride this season. A great hot streak to start the season before turning ice cold only to turn it around at the plate. Did you catch the Wild Wendle Ride at the right time, or did you ride it too long, got off and now are wondering whether to get back on?

Let’s find out with this week’s rankings of the Top 25 Fantasy Shortstops.

TIER 1

The only reason Fernando Tatis Jr. wasn’t the top-ranked shortstop all season was due to his shoulder injury and getting COVID. Without him in the lineup, it was impossible for him to help your fantasy team. Well, he is certainly helping fantasy owners now. On Saturday he launched a three-run, 448-foot homer with two outs in the top of the ninth to tie the game against the Astros. Oh, and that homer was hit at 115 mph. For the season, Tatis is now hitting .298-.377-.702 with 15 home runs, 36 RBI, 36 runs scored and 12 steals. And that is in only 36 of San Diego’s 53 games.

The rest of Tier 1 is pretty much the same with only minor movement among the players. Bo Bichette has cooled off a bit to drop from second to fifth while Marcus Semien jumped Trea Turner for now. Obviously, if you can trade for any of these players, you should do so. If you play in a dynasty league and find an owner foolish enough to trade you Tatis, jump on that offer and make the deal. Tatis is only 22 and, in my opinion, can make a strong claim as the best player in baseball.

TIER 2

Four new players appear in Tier 2 this week, with Chris Taylor dropping down while Brandon Crawford, Manny Machado, and Jake Cronenworth move into this grouping. So with Tatis, Machado, and Cronenworth, the Padres have three shortstop-eligible players ranked in my Top 10.

Machado isn’t hitting for a high average, but the Padres are paying him to drive in runs and that is something Machado is doing very well with 31 this season to go along with his six homers and six steals. Meanwhile, Cronenworth continues to prove me wrong. While he had an excellent rookie season in 2020, he was a 26-year-old rookie. That is old for a rookie and there was obviously a reason he wasn’t in the show earlier in his career.

But Cronenworth is proving that what he did last season was not a fluke. While hitting behind Machado and in front of Tatis in the Padres lineup probably helps anyone’s production, he has been doing his job in the three-hole with a slash line of .288-.355-.429 entering Saturday’s game against Houston. He now has 36 runs scored to go with his five homers and 18 RBI in 53 games. Cronenworth has been nothing but consistent, to say the least. Last season in 54 games he slashed .288-.354-.477 with four home runs, 20 RBI, three steals, and 26 runs scored.

I will be the first to admit that I underestimated Cronenworth. If you are like me and were late to the game with him but can add him to your team, do so. Somehow he is owned in only 87 percent of Yahoo leagues.

TIER 3

Two weeks ago I was talking about the freefall of Joey Wendle thanks in large part to a horrific stretch of baseball. I guess he read that wonderful article and decided to shut me up. All he has done the last two weeks is slash .405-.468-.810, score 11 runs, and smash three homers while driving in nine. For the season he is now at .303-.363-.535 with 33 runs scored, six homers, and 25 RBI. Wendle is owned in only 80 percent of Yahoo leagues and 93 percent of ESPN leagues (ESPN players must be smarter than the current bunch playing in Yahoo, I guess). If you can grab him, go and do it.

Another player I was worried about was Carlos Correa. He was seldom driving the ball and collected mostly singles to right field the first half of May. But after starting the month hitting .133-.235-.200 with one homer and three RBI, Correa has turned it around at the plate. In the last two weeks, he has slugged four homers and driven in 12 while slashing .357-.460-.643. For the season he is now hitting .277 with eight homers and 26 RBI.

TIER 4

If you have been following the season with me, you know who much I love Gavin Lux and how high I was on Gleyber Torres at the start of the season. Well, I still have my man-crush on Lux and we are finally starting to see Torres hit like I expected him to.

Lux now qualifies at shortstop thanks to the Corey Seager injury. For the season, his stats don’t jump off the page. In fact, they are kind of ugly with a slash line of .246-.297-.366 with three homes and 23 RBI. But since returning to the lineup, he has been a key part of the Dodgers’ offense. In the last two weeks, he’s hitting .273-.360-455 with two homers and 11 RBI. Getting consistent playing time, Lux is showing why he was one of the top prospects in baseball. He is owned by only 69 percent of players in Yahoo and 71 percent in ESPN. If he is available in your league, grab him.

Meanwhile, Torres has been on fire for the last two weeks. He has only one home run, but he has driven in eight to go with a .382-.432-.500 slash line. When looking deep into his numbers, his improvement is a mixed bag as his exit velocity is actually 3.8 percent lower than last year’s and his hard-hit percentage has dropped 3.6 percent. However, his barrel percentage is up 1.2 points and his sweet spot percentage is higher as well.

So what does that tell me? It tells me Torres is still someone to be wary of. But I just can’t give up on him and I think this recent hot streak is not going to be a blip. He will struggle again at times, but I like what I am seeing from him.

TIER 5

There are more than a few players who have left fantasy owners pulling out their hair. One of those is Dansby Swanson. When you are the top pick in the draft like Swanson was in 2015, lofty expectations are placed on you. Swanson finally started to match those expectations last year before cratering at the start of this season. At the end of April, Swanson his hitting .189-.267-.316 and had only two homers and seven RBI.

But Swanson has been a completely different player in May, slashing .291-.323-.581. He has slugged six homers and driven in 13. Swanson is currently at career highs in home run percentage (4.0), hard-hit percentage (45.6), and ISO (.204) while his exit velocity of 89.9 ranks second-highest in his career. Owned by only 79 percent of Yahoo players and 83 percent of ESPN players, there is a chance to snag Swanson off the waiver wire. If you’re in a league in which he is owned, perhaps that owner is not paying attention to Swanson’s current resurgence.

DROPPED OUT

I was going to rank Nico Hoerner in my Top 25, but then he landed himself on the IL with a hamstring injury. I still like him, but hamstring injuries could last a while, meaning it may not be a quick recovery for Hoerner.

As for Garrett Hampson, it may be time to say goodbye to him for a while. After a great start to the season, Hanson has been heading in the wrong direction. Over the last month, he is slashing .202-.283-.393 and is even worse the last two weeks at .136-.208-.295. He does have 15 RBI and 10 steals for the season, so if you need speed he can still help you there. However, that may only be when the Rockies are playing at Coors Field. When playing in Denver, Hampson is hitting .273-.343-.500 with eight steals and nine RBI. But away from home, he falls to .188-.250-.350 with only two steals. If you have outfield depth, play Hampson at home but sit him when the Rockies hit the road.