2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: Shortstop Tiers 1.0, updated for the Francisco Lindor injury

Though long regarded as a weak position, shortstop has added so much talent over the years that it may actually be one of the deepest now, as Scott White's tiers show.

By Scott White

Feb 9, 2019 at 12:05 am ET • 1 min read

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Tiers, for the uninitiated, are an alternate form of rankings that groups players by expected level of production. While it's true every player is expected to produce less than the player ranked ahead of him, there are points in the rankings where the drop-off in expected production is more significant. And at those points, a new tier begins.

The goal is to give you a clear depiction of the distribution of talent at each position so that, in the heat of a draft, you can determine at a glance which position is the ideal one to target. Naturally, the one closest to dropping into the next tier is the one you'll regret having passed up a round later.

Below are the shortstop tiers for 2019. They depict a startling amount of depth, particularly on the high end, at a historically weak position.

The Elite: Francisco Lindor, Alex Bregman, Manny Machado, Trea Turner, Trevor Story, Javier Baez^
The Near-Elite: Adalberto Mondesi^, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa, Corey Seager
The Next-Best Things: Jean Segura, Gleyber Torres, Jose Peraza^, Jurickson Profar†
The Fallback Options: Elvis Andrus
The Last Resorts: Paul DeJong, Chris Taylor, Garrett Hampson, Tim Anderson^
The Deep-Leaguers: Eduardo Escobar, Andrelton Simmons, Marwin Gonzalez, Ketel Marte, Marcus Semien, Asdrubal Cabrera, Willy Adames, Amed Rosario, Didi Gregorius, Jorge Polanco
The Leftovers: Enrique Hernandez, Lourdes Gurriel, Aledmys Diaz, Dansby Swanson, Brandon Crawford, Orlando Arcia, Fernando Tatis, Brendan Rodgers, J.P. Crawford, Troy Tulowitzki