Jon Anderson's Early Shortstop Tiers & Rankings for 2023 Fantasy Baseball

1 year ago by Jon Anderson

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2. Tier 2 - More Five Category Contributors

3. Tier 3 - Just Shy of Greatness

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Welcome back RotoBallers to my early 2023 fantasy baseball rankings and projections series! Today we are onto the shortstop position in my early positional ranks and tiers posts. Here is what we've done so far:

This may be the deepest position in the game this year. This was true last year, too, but the top couple of tiers have gotten even stronger here. Lots to like in this spot, so let's get to the names!

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Tier 1 - Philly Trea

Player	Team	Rank	Tier	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Trea Turner	PHI	1	1	629	102	22	70	31	.291

At the end of the year, Trea Turner won't be the #1 shortstop in fantasy, probably. There are just too many other guys that have a legitimate shot at that crown. The reason for me putting him in Tier 1 all by himself is the consistency of fantasy greatness we have seen from him since 2018. Here's a quick look at the numbers from him:

Year	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
2018	103	19	73	43	.271
2019	96	19	57	35	.298
2020	46	12	41	12	.335
2021	107	28	77	32	.328
2022	101	21	100	27	.298

If you would have picked Trea with the #1 overall pick each of these years, you wouldn't have been disappointed a single time. You just can't say that for any other player we'll talk about (probably during this entire series), so that earns Trea the top spot.

Tier 2 - More Five Category Contributors

Player	Team	Rank	Tier	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Fernando Tatis Jr.	SD	2	2	425	76	33	75	20	.272
Francisco Lindor	NYM	3	2	625	76	23	80	16	.243
Bobby Witt Jr.	KC	4	2	665	85	21	72	30	.246

These three could all top Trea pretty easily. We would probably rank Tatis above Turner if he weren't set to miss the first few weeks of the season - plus there are some health questions with him at this point. He's perfectly fine to be aggressive on in drafts given how elite he's been for fantasy production when on the field.

I'm a little bit lower on Witt, who has been going in the first round sometimes. I think I'll be letting everybody else chase that - but you can't argue that he's not a legitimate 30/30 threat this year. Lindor goes in above him just because of the counting stats here. He's good at everything and the Mets are going to score a ton of runs this year.

Tier 3 - Just Shy of Greatness

Player	Team	Rank	Tier	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Corey Seager	TEX	5	3	641	93	29	79	3	.287
Bo Bichette	TOR	6	3	616	96	24	82	22	.291
Tim Anderson	CWS	7	3	599	83	15	57	24	.297
Xander Bogaerts	SD	8	3	670	85	19	99	8	.279

I'm banking on the shift thing really helping Seager, as we have assumed it will here. Giving him a batting average above .280 makes him awful appealing given his R/HR/RBI ability in that Rangers lineup.

There's a discount on Bichette this year after his (mini) sophomore slump. He's still a 20-20 projection here with a good batting average, so you could certainly bubble him up into the second tier or even the first if you believe his rookie year was more truthful than his second year. Tim Anderson and Xander Bogaerts are really cheap in drafts after their disappointing 2022 seasons, but I'm in on both - I don't see a way they disappoint very much if they're healthy, and they both play in good lineups.

Tier 4

Player	Team	Rank	Tier	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Oneil Cruz	PIT	9	4	554	79	21	54	23	.224
Carlos Correa	MIN	10	4	659	92	25	78	1	.276
Dansby Swanson	CHC	11	4	636	88	24	75	16	.276

We have an elite upside here with Cruz, as he could be an easy 35-25 player, but the batting average with the awful K% and the Pirates lineup hold down our expectations for him in 2023. Correa and Swanson were just fine last year, but they both lack a lot of that fantasy 5x5 upside. They are fine consolation prizes if you miss out on all of the eight shortstops - as we said, this is a deep position.

Tier 5

Player	Team	Rank	Tier	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Tommy Edman	STL	12	5	631	93	11	64	38	.263
Willy Adames	MIL	13	5	657	94	32	80	8	.251
Wander Franco	TB	14	5	613	85	15	72	11	.290
Jeremy Pena	HOU	15	5	568	67	21	66	14	.251
Javier Baez	DET	16	5	587	68	22	57	17	.243

And now we hit a bit of a cliff. We have more "specialists" at this point. Edman gets most of his value from runs and steals, Adames from homers and RBI, Franco from batting average, etc.

If there's a "breakout" after this point, it could very well be Pena. He had a good rookie year but it wasn't fantastic for fantasy purposes. He's in a great lineup and has all kinds of talent, so he's a nice upside pick later on in the draft. I also really like the Javier Baez bounce-back here, I think this projection is reasonable and it makes him probably a Tier 4 guy, but his history of going on absolutely awful streaks will always downgrade him for me from what the projection is saying.

Tier 6

Player	Team	Rank	Tier	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Thairo Estrada	SF	17	6	567	71	12	49	20	.258
Amed Rosario	CLE	18	6	605	78	12	67	18	.284
Nico Hoerner	CHC	19	6	607	82	9	57	28	.287
C.J. Abrams	WAS	20	6	572	61	5	52	26	.249
Vaughn Grissom	ATL	21	6	433	63	13	55	16	.275
Christopher Morel	CHC	22	6	487	54	16	54	15	.232
Luis Garcia	WAS	23	6	501	50	16	49	3	.253

More specialists here. You can find a lot of steals at this point, but you're hard-pressed for power. The breakout candidates here are Morel (lower the strikeouts) and Garcia (raise the launch angle and steal some more bases). I wouldn't want to start any of these guys as my primary SS, but we're still in the territory where you're okay with a middle infielder starter from this group.

Tier 7

Player	Team	Rank	Tier	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Luis Urias	MIL	24	7	567	64	20	63	4	.235
Luis Rengifo	LAA	25	7	445	51	10	47	10	.255
Jon Berti	MIA	26	7	362	41	7	40	32	.227
Brendan Donovan	STL	27	7	547	65	8	72	10	.277
Ha-Seong Kim	SD	28	7	511	66	10	45	12	.217
Adalberto Mondesi	KC	29	7	396	51	13	57	40	.246

And now we're on to guys you probably don't want to rely on for much of anything. Adalberto Mondesi is of course his own special case. I've limited him to almost half of a season of PAs and the projections still spit out a huge steals year. I'm not sure if he'll do that even if he is healthy, but he has not shown that ability to stay on the field - so let's not count on that to change now.

I like Donovan fine since I think he'll be in the lineup almost every day with his defensive versatility, and he can rack up the base hits, which will bring runs and some steals with it.

Tier 8

Player	Team	Rank	Tier	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Jorge Mateo	BAL	30	8	318	38	6	34	23	.221
Ezequiel Tovar	COL	31	8	504	65	13	57	20	.225
Ramon Urias	BAL	32	8	510	56	16	55	3	.258
Bryston Stott	PHI	33	8	463	54	8	51	13	.250
David Fletcher	LAA	34	8	360	33	0	33	8	.255
Enrique Hernandez	BOS	35	8	552	58	12	57	1	.226
Rodolfo Castro	PIT	36	8	423	43	11	42	7	.220

There is a lot of playing time concern here, and there's no real power at this point anymore. You can find steals upside (Mateo, Tovar) and some "take a shot on young talent" upside (Tovar, Stott, Castro) - but chances are none of these guys are 5x5 contributors next season.

And that's the shortstop position baby! 36 shortstops ranked, let me know what you think!

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