Rest-Of-Season Shortstop Rankings (September Update)

With the MLB regular season winding down, we begin to close in on the final stretch of your fantasy baseball championship run. We've collected some of the brightest baseball minds here at Rotoballer to deliver you our rest-of-season rankings analysis to help you secure your league title. Now that fantasy football is nearly in full swing, take advantage of distracted managers in your league by staying active on the waiver wire and staying on top of trending hitters.

Today we'll analyze the dynamic talents that hold down the shortstop position. Youth continues to dominate this position with the bulk of the stars sitting at age-26 or younger. We find several five-category contributors at this position as well as some of the top basepath burners in the major leagues. Positional eligibility also overlaps a lot of these players, making them even more valuable.

The shortstop is the nucleus of the team in the major leagues, and having a skillful one in fantasy has the same effect for your fake squad. With a lot of players and data to comb over, let's get into the analysis.

Updated Shortstop Ranks - 5x5 Mixed Leagues (September)

In case you missed it, our very own "Big Pick Nick" Mariano was recently named the #1 overall most accurate industry expert ranker for the 2018 season. You can see his secret sauce below! 

Rankings Analysis - Top Tiers

Tier One

Trevor Story hasn't put up as magical of a season in 2019, but owners are undoubtedly satisfied with his results this year. Some of his projections for the rest of the season are a bit under his 2018 numbers, but his 29 homers, 75 RBI, and 19 stolen bases are all top-five figures at the position. Story has sacrificed a higher RBI total, thanks to a switch to the second spot in the order, but this has resulted in a career-high 97 runs as a consolation prize.

Tier Two

After playing a full 162-game slate a year ago, Trea Turner's 2019 season took a significant blow when he missed a month and a half with a broken finger. His 29 thefts this year would pace him for a career-high of 50 over a full season while he quietly sports his best slash line since his rookie debut (.298/.360/.488). Turner's 41.2% Hard Hit% and 90.0 MPH Exit Velocity are also new personal bests as he's arguably put up his best offensive season to date.

Xander Bogaerts continues to dominate in the batter's box this year as perhaps the most underrated shortstop in the league. He sits third in homers (30), second in runs (101), and first in RBI (100) while also leading the position in batting average (.309). The only thing restraining Bogaerts from being a top-three fantasy shortstop is the fact that he has only stolen four bases. He will fill up the remaining roto categories as good as anyone through the end of September as he looks to collect his third Silver Slugger.

Tier Three

Eduardo Escobar has taken his league-leading 48 doubles from a year ago and transformed them into more four-baggers in 2019. Not only has he set a new career-high with 31 long balls, but he's set new bests with 83 runs and 108 RBI with help from improved batted ball metrics. He's substantially increased his fly-ball rate and pull rate by nearly 5% and has yet to show signs of slowing up his home run tear. Escobar has unfortunately lagged in BA with a .221 mark in the second half, although his August 42.6% Hard Hit% is his highest of any month. It's possible these numbers even out over the final month putting him on an excellent path to continued production.

Jonathan Villar is on his way to iron man status with a perfect attendance record so far in 2019. His everyday at-bats have led him to an exclusive 20-homer, 32-steal season with Ronald Acuna Jr. serving as the only other member of this club. The switch-hitter is virtually the same batting as a righty (.275 BA) or a lefty (.280), and it makes no difference to him hitting at home (.277) or on the road (.280). Every day playing time allows Villar to contribute daily, and his even splits make it so you never have to worry about playing matchups.

Rankings Analysis - Middle Tiers

Tier Four

Bo Bichette got off to a torrid start in his MLB debut, but his play of late has made me a bit skittish. Over his first 28 games, the rookie hit a remarkable .341 with eight homers and 14 doubles as the club's primary leadoff hitter. Bichette has dialed his numbers back to a still respectable .274 BA over the past two-plus weeks, but his 30.2% K-rate and 1.6% walk rate are a cause for concern. As the book gets written on his free-swinging ways, the less likely he'll continue to get pitches to hit. We've already seen it happen with over a 17% decrease in first-pitch strikes, hinting the youngster may see some growing pains over the season's final four weeks.

Jean Segura has surprisingly posted better metrics this year than in his previous two seasons with the Mariners. Despite what appears to be an underwhelming 2019, his 23.8% line drive rate, 88.2 MPH Exit Velocity, and 33.4% Hard Hit% are all numbers slightly above or right on par with his career-marks with the M's. His .308 BABIP, however, sits nearly .030 points lower, giving him room for his .285 BA to approach the .300 mark before season's end. The Phillies don't run much, and that has hurt Segura's value the most, but he's still a reliable source for runs and a sturdy batting average as the two-hole hitter in that lineup.

Tier Five

In this tier of players, I'm a little more bearish on Didi Gregorius as our other experts due to his declining stats in 2019. His batting average has gone down every month so far with it bottoming out at a .233 mark in August. He's also seen his whiff-rate climb over 3% higher than in his 2018 campaign which has led to a 4% decline in both K-rate and walk rate and a career-low .257 BA. Gregorius' average isn't a significant drain by any means, but he's just another guy at this point especially with only one stolen base on the season. He'll undoubtedly improve on his 13 big flies, but he's not separating himself much from the rest of the players at the position.

Adalberto Mondesi is set to return as soon as this weekend, but his green light on the basepaths may not be as bountiful with his recovering shoulder. The Royals don't want the 24-year-old diving for balls, so his wheels could see a drawback with Mondesi turning to a feet-first slide on the basepaths. The 24-year-old will still post stellar run and RBI numbers the rest of the way, but be wary that he may not contribute at an elite pace anymore in the steal column.

Tier Six

Carlos Correa's return from the injured list is still unclear, but owners should hang on to the injury-plagued star unless he experiences a setback. He remains an enigma to see what a full season's worth of stats would look like if he could stay healthy as he's yet to play in over 110 games since his sophomore year. Correa's 162 game pace in 2019 is a staggering 43 HR, 126 RBI, 88 runs, and a .278 BA, salivating numbers for fantasy managers. He'll get planted right back in the heart of the Astros lineup upon activation, and you'll want a piece of that pie once it's fresh out of the oven.

Despite suffering a quad injury three weeks ago, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is the player I'm more bullish on in this tier. After a mid-April demotion due to some offensive woes and a case of the yips, the 25-year-old has slashed .295/.344/.591 with 19 homers and 48 runs in 66 games played since. His 11.0% Barrel-rate and 44.5% Hard Hit% are both superb numbers and a dramatic improvement from his slump in April. It appears that Pina Power Jr. has found his stroke at the big league level, and he will continue to rake when he returns from the IL in early September.

Rankings Analysis - Lower Tiers

Tiers Seven And Eight

Dansby Swanson is fresh off the IL this week and has returned to a middle of the lineup role with the Braves. He missed a month of action with a foot injury after putting up career-high numbers in 2019 with 17 bombs, 64 runs, and .260 BA in 102 games. Swanson was on a downward trend prior to landing on the shelf going 19 of 20 games without a home run with a season-low .242 BA in the month of July. It's hard to see the 25-year-old returning to his first-half form, especially after a lengthy absence, so don't feel the need to rush to the waiver wire to claim him.

In the wake of the injury to Jose Ramirez, Yu Chang has benefitted from his absence in the lineup. He's batted as high as sixth in the Indians lineup and is a humble 4-for-17 through his first handful of games. Chang should continue to handle starts all over the infield while finding some trickle-down fantasy value from the remaining offensive threats that surround him in the batting order. He's not a sexy prospect by any means, but the 24-year-old could provide some pop and a few counting stats that will help in AL-only leagues.

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