Like many seasons, several key positions can make or break your fantasy teams. For me, shortstop is the premier fantasy position. With five players going in the first round in 2025, securing the position has become a focal point in all formats. Even more so in roto, where you can obtain top-of-the-line five-category contributions from the elite players at the position. If 2025 taught us anything about shortstop, it’s that the position is as strong as ever. Even as the 30-somethings start to fall off, the next generation is on the horizon with a massive influx of young talent. Let’s take a look back at the year that was in 2025.
10 Shortstop Takeaways from 2025
Appreciate Mr. Smile
This year was an odd season for the Mets. They entered 2025 as a World Series contender following the addition of prized free-agent Juan Soto, but ended it playing golf after missing the Wild Card following a disappointing collapse. Lost in the chaos in Queens was yet another incredible season from our guy, Francisco Lindor. ‘Mr. Smile’ played in 160 games, slashing .267/.346/.466 with 31 homers, 31 steals, and 183 combined runs and RBIs. Lindor finished atop the shortstop position according to the Razzball Player Rater, outperforming all four SS taken ahead (Witt, Elly, Gunnar, Betts) of him in drafts. This season is the third consecutive with Lindor finishing at, or flirting with (33/29 last season), a 30-30 campaign for Lindor, who provides unmatched consistency at the position. Also, with 160 games played, Lindor is giving us the volume we all crave and expect from a first-round pick.
As great as Lindor has been, I’d consider selling in dynasty, and here’s why. Lindor is entering his age-32 season, and while he’s still performing at a high level, his metrics are showing very slight signs of decline, with skills he can’t maintain forever. His average EV has dipped each of the past three seasons, along with drops in barrel and hard-hit rates. Lindor’s sprint speed has also drastically fallen since 2023, and he now ranks in the 48th percentile. That ranking may mean nothing (see Naylor, Josh), but it’s noteworthy. The main reason I’m selling Lindor is to capitalize on its peak value. A 31-year-old just finished first at his position, something that doesn’t happen often. If you can get an offer for a replacement shortstop, plus a few other pieces that help address different needs, it’s OK to move Frankie. For additional context, consider the Dynasty values of Mookie Betts and Corey Seager now versus entering the 2025 season. You don’t want to get stuck when the wheels start to fall off, especially in dynasty.
Rolling Downhill
Speaking of Betts, let’s look at Mookie. First and foremost, we cannot account for the actual effects of the illness that hampered him early in 2025. And while Betts had a solid season on the surface, his skills continue to trend downward as he enters his age-33 season, and that trend began in 2024, not 2025. The Dodgers’ star finished with a .258 average, posting 20 homers and eight steals in 150 games. His counting stats remained helpful with 95 runs scored and 82 RBIs, but a far cry from what you’re anticipating from Betts playing on that team, hitting at his position in the order, and based on his draft cost. Under the surface is a 4.4% barrel and 35.8% hard-hit rate, with a .148 ISO, all ranking as the worst of his career after he set career lows in those categories in 2024. Somehow, Mookie fell into 20 homers, but this may be the last time we see it, as the quality of contact metrics tapers off.
On a positive note, Betts rarely strikes out (10.3%) and has nearly identical walk rates, so in OBP and points leagues, his profile is much more valuable. He’s also better than a .258 hitter, so I’d anticipate a bounce back from an average standpoint next season. For many dynasty formats, Betts’ value is continuing to dip. He was once a no-doubt Top 10 player, and entering 2026, I’m guessing he’s on the outside looking in at the Top 75. If you can get a Top 45-50-ish value on Betts in your leagues, I’d take that deal running away. Otherwise, you’re likely stuck with a depreciating asset as he continues to roll downhill.
Bo is Back
After a horrific 2024 season, Bo Bichette is back, and I’m here for it. The 27-year-old bounced back, finishing with a .311 average, 18 homers and 94 RBIs, albeit with just 78 runs (more on that soon). Everything looked like vintage Bichette. His contact rates were outstanding, his batted ball data were terrific, all of his expected stats supported his success, and as a result, he restored much of his lost value in dynasty.
The run total is notable, slightly lowering his floor, but also typical of the modern Toronto offense. George Springer led the team with 106 runs this season, the first time a Jays player has achieved 100+ runs since the 2021 season. Of course, that was the season where they played most of their games in Dunedin and Buffalo, and all of the Jays’ hitters padded their stats. But with Bichette, your ideal production is a .290+ average, 20-ish homers, and 175-ish runs/RBIs, with RBIs carrying most of that weight. Bo is firmly back in the mix among top shortstops; a consensus Top 10 at the position and Top 100 overall in all formats. If you bought low on Bo, well done! If you sold low on Bo, that was a mistake.
Bo Bichette: RBI Machine! pic.twitter.com/gIzGhQZIeE
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 28, 2025
Young and Volatile?
Since his arrival in the Majors, the knock on Elly de la Cruz as a fantasy asset is how volatile the profile was. Pre-2025, it was all about the swing-and-miss and how detrimental his plate discipline could be. But what wasn’t on your radar was a power outage. That’s precisely what happened with EDLC this summer. Entering play on June 24th, Elly already had 18 homers and was on pace to obliterate his career-best of 25, which he posted in 2024. From June 24th until September 15th, a span of 71 games, he had one homer. ONE. In that same span, ten players had at least 20 homers, while notable sluggers Ke’Bryan Hayes, Chase Meidroth, and Luis Arraez all had at least three homers. Wild stuff, right?
Elly will be fine. The power outage was just one of those streaks that guys get in, but I’d bet the farm that he never has that happen again. Even with the slump, Elly still finished with 22 homers and hit .264 on the season, improving his batting average for the second straight season. Even more encouraging are the underlying numbers related to his contact skills. His strikeout rate dipped below 30% for the first time in his career, and it wasn’t just barely. Elly struck out just 25.9% of the time, primarily due to a 3% gain in contact rates across the board while also keeping his chase in check. Not to mention, he did all of it while being more aggressive at the plate, seeing his overall swing rate jump by nearly 3%. If he maintains the improvements as we approach 2026, Elly is suddenly not as unpredictable as we all thought. The upside of his combination of power, speed, and improved contact could propel the 23-year-old to the #1 overall player in dynasty in time.
Houston, we don’t have a problem.
In case you haven’t noticed, Jeremy Peña is pretty good and has become a very underrated piece in fantasy. This season, he posted a career-best 135 wRC+ by batting .304 with 17 homers, 30 doubles, 20 steals, and 130 combined runs and RBIs. Nothing in the profile is overly sexy or alluring, but Pena provides a nice floor and consistency as a mid-tier starting shortstop or high-end MI. His offensive metrics ticked up a bit in 2025, including a bump in barrel and hard-hit rates, plus a significant increase in walk rate (2.6%). That seems like a tiny increment, but when Pena walked just 3.8% of the time in 2023, that’s a 68% improvement compared to the previous year. The improvement gained him 55 points in OBP and helped contribute to his 138-point gain in OPS. Pena is never going to be a Top 10 guy at his position, but his cost is also an accurate representation of that.
Here is what we know about Pena as a fantasy asset: he runs well, plays elite defense, makes tremendous in-zone contact, and has a swing that is built well for his home ballpark. Let’s start with the obvious question here: What does elite defense mean? Nothing for your fantasy teams, but the volume that Pena provides allows for his stats to accumulate. In a ‘down’ year in 2025, he still played in 125 games due to an oblique injury. In three previous seasons, Pena played in 136, 150, and 157 games, respectively. He’s always on the field, so he’s always in the lineup. When a player isn’t blessed with the highest combination of skills, every slight advantage helps.
I’m also becoming intrigued by his batted-ball profile, and he has more in the tank than we’ve seen. If you look at his data, some things stand out. First, his pull air rate is steadily climbing and reached a career-best 21.1% this season. He’s also cut back on his groundball rate, which sat at 47.9% in 2025, his lowest since 2022, a season that he had his most excellent power output (22). Pena is also lifting the ball better than ever, posting a career-high 8.9-degree LA this past season. When you factor all of those gains, plus the aforementioned gains in HH% and Brl%, suddenly, Pena is trending towards a 20+ homer bat. If Pena is a perennial 20/20 threat while also hitting for excellent batting average, you could do much worse for a SS or MI. If Pena is available in your Dynasty leagues, he’s a guy you should be able to acquire for a lower cost with the potential for a great ROI.
Jeremy Peña is having a career year in 2025, and these adjustments are a huge reason why he has been so successful:
A Thread🧵 pic.twitter.com/O4mcp7jhYY
— Running From The OPS (@OPS_BASEBALL) September 6, 2025
Some Winns are losses.
There was a ton of pre-season love for Masyn Winn ahead of 2025, but it ended in disappointment. After proclaiming he wanted to steal 30+ bases, the Winn hype train was off the rails during draft season, causing him to get drafted above guys like Dansby Swanson, Maikel Garcia, Zach Neto, and Trevor Story, among others. Winn responded with a pedestrian performance, batting .253 with just nine homers and steals, a far cry from his goal entering the season. Ultimately, we found out Winn had a torn meniscus that will require surgery this offseason. Although the exact timing of the injury is unknown, the first mention of it was in late July during a postgame interview. If so, Winn still had three steals in August, the highest in any month, so clearly the speed was not impacted.
At the dish, there isn’t much thump in the bat. All of his quality of contact data points are well below league-average, laying waste to a 21.1% pull-air rate, a 60.8% overall air rate, and a 16-degree launch angle, which would typically result in big home run production for most players. Winn, like Pena, is a tremendous defender, possibly the best in baseball at the shortstop position. Assuming health, he should play 150+ games per season, giving hope that he’ll accumulate enough stats to remain fantasy viable. Even still, the best possible outcome is far from the high-end dynasty asset that he was once valued as. For me, Winn’s ceiling is very reminiscent of Pena’s floor, minus the potential for a high batting average.
Surprising Snake
Of all the breakouts in 2025, none was greater than the emergence of Geraldo Perdomo of the Diamondbacks. The 25-year-old Dominican-born shortstop was a league-winner, finishing with a .290/.389/.462 slash line, mashing 20 homers with 27 steals, 100 RBI, and 98 runs scored, while playing in 161 games. His 2025 offensive explosion was comparable to the combined output of his first three seasons as a pro. Perdomo has always excelled in his plate discipline and bat-to-ball skills, but there haven’t been any signs of power. His strikeout rate is routinely below 20%, with very little chase or swing-and-miss and double-digit walk rates. Perdomo also makes elite contact, posting an overall rate approaching 90% and an in-zone rate around 94%. But where did the power come from? The simple answer is, I don’t know. Nothing in his contact profile suggests that a surge like this is repeatable. His average EV, max EV, hard-hit rate, barrel rate, etc., are all well below the league-average. Perdomo had 20 homers on 33 barrels, so basically, almost every time he had a barrel, the ball left the yard. Entering this season, Perdomo had 14 career homers on 20 career barrels.
But what does this mean long term? That’s a good question. Based on the underlying data, I do not expect a repeat of 2025 for Perdomo and am valuing him accordingly in dynasty. If anything in the underlying profile gave me a bit of hope, I’d be more generous than I already am (#242 overall). The plate and contact skills are very good, but everything else is mediocre or sub-optimal. To be honest, he wasn’t on my radar before this year, and I’m not alone in that. According to Fantrax, Perdomo had a dynasty roster rate of 6% entering 2025, meaning he gained 94% ownership (currently 100%) in one season. For context, a certain Rays shortstop who no longer plays in the Majors is rostered in 17% of leagues right now. There are even low-level prospects with roster rates around 6%, including players in the open universe that aren’t currently with an MLB organization. It’s awesome that Perdomo had such an incredible, league-winning season in 2025, but if someone in your league thinks it’s going to happen again, make the deal and don’t think twice about it.
Boredom in Baltimore
Gunnar Henderson was the 7th player (3RD SS) off the board in the 2025 drafts, but finished as the #8 shortstop and 66th overall following a meh season. In his defense, Henderson went down in Spring Training after suffering an intercostal injury. He missed the first week of 2025, returning on April 4th and playing in 154 games. Those 154 games were underwhelming for Gunnar. The Orioles struggled as a club for most of the season, and Henderson fell victim to the team’s woes. In the end, he finished with a .274 average, 17 homers, and 30 steals. The injury likely lingered beyond April, as Henderson had career-worst marks in many areas, including HR, Brl% (8.5), HH% (49.2), ISO (.165), SLG (.438), OPS (.787), and wRC+ (120). He also had career lows in runs scored and RBIs.
It’s hard to fault Gunnar for an injury or for playing on a bad team. Even in a down year, he still had 17 homers and 30 steals with a good batting average and decent counting stats. For me, Henderson is still a borderline Top 10 overall dynasty asset, and if someone in your league has a significantly different view of Gunnar, now is the time to swoop in and get a tremendous value.
Rookie Influx
Several rookies made their impact in 2025, most notably Jacob Wilson of the A’s and Colson Montgomery of the White Sox. Wilson was highly impressive, batting .311 with 13 homers and five steals in 125 games. The most remarkable part was a 7.5% strikeout rate. While it’s still a far cry from Luis Arraez’s 3.1%, a first-year player striking out 39 times in 486 at-bats is remarkable. Wilson was one of three players with an overall and in-zone contact rate of over 90%, joining Arraez and Steven Kwan. There was a lot of talk early on about his power, especially after Wilson popped four homers in May. First, consider the home ballpark. Aside from Coors Field, Sutter Health Park, the A’s temporary home, ranked eighth in HR (2nd overall) park factor in 2025. Second, Wilson outperformed his xHR by nearly four homers and had just three of his 13 that were gone in all 30 ballparks. While the bat-to-ball skills are in elite territory, his quality of contact is incredibly poor. His bat speed, average EV, max EV, barrel, and hard-hit rates are all in the 6th percentile, or worse. Ironically, he’s in the same realm as Luis Arraez, which is fitting since that’s what Wilson is. I like the player in real life, and he’s a guy who can bolster your batting average in a world where it’s tough to find. But, if you’re high on Wilson as a long-term fantasy-viable shortstop, it’s time to look a little deeper.
Montgomery’s 2025 season was shocking. After struggling mightily in each of the last two MiLB seasons, including 2025, Montgomery was an unexpected call-up when he debuted on July 4th. It was a certainty that Montgomery would get his shot in the Majors at some point in the future. After all, he has been the team’s top prospect for several seasons and the shortstop of the future. But rarely does a guy with a 79 wRC+ and 33% K-rate in the Minors get a bump before they’ve earned it and/or stabilized their performance. Upon arrival, Montgomery was as advertised. He posted a .239 average with 21 homers and a near-30% strikeout rate. The swing-and-miss portion of his game is a legitimate concern, but it came with good power and production (43 R, 55 RBI) in less than 300 at-bats. Offensively, his long-term outlook is the Trevor Story starter pack without the speed element.
COLSON 👏 MONTGOMERY 👏 pic.twitter.com/8sC45dedJR
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) September 27, 2025
The Future Is Near
As well as the 2025 class performed, the shortstops that should arrive in 2026 have the potential to reshape the position for the next 10-15 years. This group is headlined by Konnor Griffin, the #1 overall prospect in baseball and a guy I’ve got inside my Top 40 overall in dynasty before he even plays in the Majors. Griffin climbed three levels in 2025, finishing at Double-A, and dominated at every stop. In total, he played 122 games, slashing .333/.415/.527 with 21 homers, 23 doubles, 117 runs, 94 RBI, and 65 steals. Among players with over 350 PAs, Griffin’s 165 wRC+ was second in the Minors behind the player that is next on my list. Griffin possesses every tool in the shed, most notably 70-grade speed with 60+ grades on raw power, in-game power, and an improving hit tool. While Griffin is 19 years old, there’s a clear path for him to join the Pirates MLB team by mid-season 2026. Given his skill set, Griffin should be a first-round fantasy asset for many years to come.
Just behind Griffin in the prospect hierarchy is Kevin McGonigle from the Tigers’ organization. The 21-year-old missed the latter part of 2024 following a broken hamate bone but bounced back and looked really impressive. McGonigle had a dynamic season in his own right, leading all of the Minor Leagues with a 182 wRC+. He slashed .305/.408/.583 with 19 homers, 31 doubles, and ten steals in just 88 games, but did miss time with an ankle injury early on. His skill set is not as dynamic as Griffin’s, but his combination of hit tool, improving power, and OBP skills gives him a very high floor in fantasy. It is worth noting that the Tigers assigned McGonigle to play in the Arizona Fall League this year. His inclusion is a clear sign that a) they wanted him to get more at-bats, but also b) that he’s on their radar as a potential 2026 Opening Day option. The Tigers need stability at the shortstop position and could use a second baseman as well if Gleyber Torres does not re-sign. McGonigle should be on the roster from day one in 2026, but at the very least, he will be up early on. He only played 46 games at Double-A last season. McGonigle’s long-term outlook looks like peak Xander Bogaerts, which was .280 with 15-25 HR, good counting stats, and double-digit steals.
The final and most underappreciated piece is the Cardinals’ top prospect, JJ Wetherholt. The #7 overall pick in 2024 was highly impressive this season and finished by playing 47 games at Triple-A Memphis. Across 109 games (AA/AAA), Wetherholt had a .306/.421/.510 slash with 17 homers, 28 doubles, and 23 steals. His profile combines the strengths of Griffin and McGonigle, featuring an above-average hit tool with mid-tier power and potentially high-impact speed. I’d all but guarantee that Wetherholt is on the Opening Day roster for the Cardinals next season, especially if they move on from Nolan Arenado and/or Nolan Gorman. Wetherholt will most certainly play 2B, though, as Masyn Winn has a firm hold on the SS position. I’ve got all three players as Top 60 Dynasty assets with Griffin leading the way, followed by Wetherholt, and then McGonigle.
