I touched on it in my AL-Only Shortstop Rankings, but shortstop might just be the deepest position in fantasy baseball in 2019. It may not have as many big power bats as the outfield or corner infield, but the usable bats run deep at short in both leagues. As you’ll see in my 2019 NL-Only Shortstop Rankings below, speed runs deep in the senior circuit. I count at least seven players who could steal 20-plus bags. Trevor Story is the big power hitting shortstop in the NL, but there are plenty of other options potentially in the 15-to-20 home run range.
If you’re like us you can’t wait until spring to get the 2019 fantasy baseball season started? Well, you don’t have to. Leagues are already forming at Fantrax.com, so head on over and start or join a league today.
Drafting a Shortstop in 2019 NL-Only Leagues
I love the top tier, but I’m not sure I want to pay the price. Many NL-Only leagues use an auction and if you pay for Turner, Story, or Baez, you’re probably talking $30-plus bids; more if there’s keeper inflation. There are people who will disagree, but it’s very hard to compete in monoleagues with a Stars and Scrubs approach for your offense. It’s going to leave too many holes. In a mixed league you can fill those holes with lesser fulltime players and upgrade if you keep an eye on the waiver wire. In a monoleague, it’s just a flat out hole.
If I fill my middle infield slot a little further down the rankings I’ll take a shot on Orlando Arcia. He was terrible for the first part of 2018, but he came on in August and September. You need look no further than 2017 for the type of production he could put up.
More NL-Only Rankings: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
2019 NL-Only Shortstop Rankings
The following rankings are based solely on the projections displayed with each player using the traditional 5X5 scoring categories and a 20-game eligibility requirement.
| Rnk | Tier | Player | HR | R | RBI | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Trea Turner | 20 | 100 | 73 | 37 | .286 |
| 2 | 1 | Trevor Story | 35 | 92 | 101 | 19 | .276 |
| 3 | 1 | Manny Machado | 33 | 91 | 103 | 9 | .288 |
| 4 | 1 | Javier Baez | 26 | 92 | 96 | 15 | .267 |
| 5 | 2 | Jose Peraza | 12 | 84 | 61 | 27 | .281 |
| 6 | 2 | Jean Segura | 11 | 82 | 63 | 19 | .302 |
| 7 | 2 | Amed Rosario | 10 | 81 | 57 | 29 | .261 |
| 8 | 3 | Chris Taylor | 20 | 86 | 68 | 12 | .264 |
| 9 | 3 | Corey Seager | 19 | 77 | 70 | 1 | .275 |
| 10 | 3 | Paul DeJong | 22 | 79 | 82 | 2 | .251 |
| 11 | 3 | Eduardo Escobar | 21 | 79 | 83 | 3 | .262 |
| 12 | 3 | Garrett Hampson | 9 | 62 | 54 | 16 | .266 |
| 13 | 4 | Brandon Crawford | 15 | 64 | 75 | 5 | .257 |
| 14 | 4 | Fernando Tatis Jr. | 14 | 51 | 43 | 14 | .264 |
| 15 | 5 | Dansby Swanson | 13 | 58 | 55 | 12 | .246 |
| 16 | 5 | Orlando Arcia | 10 | 56 | 46 | 12 | .259 |
| 17 | 5 | Ketel Marte | 12 | 71 | 56 | 6 | .272 |
| 18 | 6 | Nick Ahmed | 11 | 54 | 49 | 4 | .238 |
| 19 | 6 | Enrique Hernandez | 13 | 45 | 36 | 2 | .254 |
| 20 | 6 | Addison Russell | 9 | 46 | 41 | 3 | .246 |
| 21 | 6 | J.T. Riddle | 10 | 39 | 50 | 2 | .243 |
| 22 | 6 | Scott Kingery | 8 | 40 | 37 | 7 | .254 |
| 23 | 6 | Miguel Rojas | 4 | 30 | 32 | 2 | .267 |
| 24 | 6 | Jose Iglesias | 3 | 28 | 25 | 6 | .263 |
| 25 | 6 | Hernan Perez | 8 | 31 | 27 | 8 | .254 |
More NL-Only Rankings: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
If you like these AL-Only Shortstop Rankings check out the rest of the 2019 FantraxHQ Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit. We’ll be adding more content from now right up until Opening Day!
Doug Anderson is an 11-year veteran of the Fantasy Sports industry. His work has appeared on RotoExperts.com, Yahoo.com, SI.com, and NFL.com, as well as in the pages of USA Today’s Fantasy Baseball Weekly and various other magazines. Doug has participated in both LABR and Tout Wars, the two preeminent expert fantasy baseball leagues in existence. Doug was formerly the Executive Editor at RotoExperts and is now Managing Editor here at FantraxHQ. You can follow him on Twitter @RotoDaddy.
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