For the past few years, shortstop has been pretty much the undisputed strongest position in Fantasy. It might not always be the deepest, but generally speaking, the high end of shortstop has been much stronger than the rest of the positions. But that may be changing heading into 2027.
Long-time stalwarts like Trea Turner, Mookie Betts, and Corey Seager look like they have aged out of being difference makers for Fantasy, and a younger supposed superstar in Gunnar Henderson sure doesn't look like one anymore. Trevor Story may have completely collapsed, Geraldo Perdomo's 2025 breakout looks like a fluke, and even Zach Neto has been a relative disappointment after a step forward in 2025. The position isn't weak, but it definitely took some hits in 2027, and the step forward CJ Abrams took, plus the emergence of Kevin McGonigle, isn't nearly enough to offset what we've lost.
Want something a bit more concrete to grab on to? Well, coming into the season, there were six shortstops inside the top 50 in ADP, 12 inside the top 100, and two more inside the top 110; heading into the final weekend of the season, five shortstops are inside the top 50 overall and only nine will be in the top 100. That includes Ezequiel Duran, who has more value thanks to his all-over-the-field eligibility, and Otto Lopez, who you probably used at second base at least as often as you used at shortstop.
The position hasn't collapsed, but it definitely isn't as strong as it looked coming into the season. There's plenty of high-end talent here, and the next crop of prospects will only make it stronger – let's not forget about Konnor Griffin, who will surely be drafted among the elite at the position in 2027 – but right now we're in a bit of a transitional phase for the position. Here are the main culprits making it tough to figure out: I'm starting to wonder if Henderson is even worth all the fuss.
He certainly was in 2024, when he was the No. 6 player in Fantasy, and seeing as he was just 23 at the end of that season, it felt reasonable to give him the benefit of the doubt. But if you remember, that was a pretty front-loaded season for Henderson, and he really hasn't played like a first-round caliber player in about two and a half years at this point: One of these things is not like the other … Henderson has been so bad this season that you have to wonder if he's been playing through some kind of injury. His plate discipline remains largely unchanged from the previous few seasons, but he has lost nearly three mph off his average exit velocity from 2025 and has put up an expected wOBA of just .318, by far the worst of his career.
Toss in the career-worst spring speed and the drop from 30 steals to just 10, and the thesis that he's been limited by injuries looks pretty strong. But even assuming there's some regression coming, he hasn't played like a first-round caliber hitter since that first half of 2024, and at some point, we've gotta stop giving him the benefit of the doubt for that. He was a fringe top-50 player in 2025, and even if he returns to that level of production, that would still require a significant discount on his price from the past two seasons.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
