As we move into the dog days of summer, we called upon the resident gurus to take up pens and pencils, keyboards and abacuses and put together our annual mid-year positional rankings. The rankings in the table below are the composite rankings of our staff, and for each position a couple of us will profile some risers, fallers, and names to know.

Riser – Jeremy Peña, Houston Astros (Preseason rank:24, Current rank: 11)

Heading into the 2025 season, Jeremy Peña fell into the category of players who were solid major leaguers, but who never quite lived up to their full potential. Peña’s breakout rookie season in 2022 was getting further in the rearview mirror, and while he was coming off a strong 2024 season, there was a sense in the fantasy baseball community that we “knew who he was,” which explains why he was SS #24 on our rankings. But 2025 has proven to be a different story for the Astros shortstop, as Jeremy Peña has found a new gear and sustained it for the 84 games he has played. He has hit for an astonishing .322 average, while getting on base at a .377 clip and slugging .485, good for a wRC+ of 142 (to put that number into context, his previous career high in wRC+, in 2022, was 102). The best part is that there are concrete changes that we can point to that show that this isn’t just a matter of having some good breaks go his way. Over the last 3 seasons, Peña has steadily increased his hard hit rate; from 35.5% in 2023, to 38.8% in 2024, and to 41.2% so far in 2025. He has also increased his walk rate this year to 5.6% from 3.8% last year while dropping his strikeout rate from an already strong 17.1% to just 15.9%. All of this has vaulted Jeremy Peña just outside our top 10 at the position, and continues to solidify him as a 5-category contributor at a premium position.

Faller – Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers, (Preseason rank: 5, Current rank: 16)

I’ve got to be honest; it’s weird to see Mookie Betts so far down this list. Mookie has been as consistent a presence as any at the top of MLB rankings and leaderboards for the past decade, but after the past two seasons it’s more than fair to wonder if Mookie’s best years are behind him. If you look at the big picture, Mookie has seen a significant decrease in production in the past two years; he saw his barrel rate fall from 12.1% in 2023, to just 6% in 2024, and 5.1% in 2025 and his hard hit rate has fallen similarly, from 48.1% to 39.3%, and this year it sits at just 32.7%. But there may be some other factors other than father time catching up to the perennial all-star that are worth considering.

To start, Betts missed nearly two months in 2024 with a fractured hand, an injury that notoriously saps the power and hard hitting ability of players upon their return. From the beginning of the season until June 16th, 2024 Betts looked like his usual self: he hit .307, with a .407 OBP and .493 slugging percentage. His wRC+ in that span was 151, 12 points higher than his career average of 139. After the injury, Betts’s wRC+ dropped to a more mortal 118 over the final month and a half of the season. This isn’t the end of the tale however, as the 2025 season had an inauspicious start for the 32 year old as well. He contracted a stomach virus in late March that caused him to miss several weeks and lose 15 lbs just as the season was getting underway, and he acknowledged in an interview that this season was going to be an uphill climb.

So all this to say Mookie may no longer be the perennial all-star we’ve grown accustomed to over the past decade, but a healthy Mookie in 2026 may show us all that he’s still got something left in the tank.

Player to watch – Ezequiel Tovar, Colorado Rockies (Preseason rank:20, Current rank: 25)

What should we make of Ezequiel Tovar’s 2025 season thus far? Well, I’m not sure we know yet. In our pre-season rankings, Tovar seemed like a player primed to shoot up the list. After leading the league in extra base hits in 2024 as a 22-year-old, I was eager to see how he could build on his performance 2025. Tovar has had two separate IL stints this season; one for a hip injury in April that cost him a month of the season, and then an oblique injury in early June that cost him another six-weeks. So I think the main reason Tovar is where he is on our list is because we just haven’t gotten to see him much this year. The good news though, is that what we have seen has been VERY encouraging.

One reason why Tovar led the league in XBH in 2024 is because he also led the league in swing percentage, swinging at a whopping 62.3% of pitches he saw. While Tovar was able to channel much of that aggressiveness productively, it did expose him to a 28.8% strikeout rate, while only walking 3.3% of the time. Tovar has continued his aggressive approach so far in 2025, swinging at 60.9% of pitches seen, but he has managed to cut his strikeout rate all the way to 21.9%, while bumping up his walk rate to 5.2%. That’s a big deal! And he’s done this while also managing to improve his hard hit rate year-over-year from 39.8% to 46%. If Tovar can stay healthy through the rest of the season, he’ll have two months to show if these changes are real, and Tovar will remind us all that he’s one of the bright young shortstops in this league.

(David Gofman)

Riser: Zach Neto, Los Angeles Angels (Preseason rank:13, Current rank: 6)

During our preseason ranking debates, I needed to be talked into Neto, I had him pegged as an average at best shortstop. To be honest, I have trouble trusting the Angels’ development and Neto had only hit five home runs in each of his two minor league seasons and nine in his rookie year before popping off for 23 round trippers in 2024. I was late to the party, but now I believe that what we’re seeing is real, a shortstop who over the past three years has increased his contact rate and his hard-hit rate. He’s aggressive in the zone which is fine given his contact rates, but will suppress his walk rates and his OBP. He doesn’t project to develop elite power, but 25HR/30SB production should keep him in the back half of the top ten shortstop lists for the foreseeable future. 

Faller: Anthony Volpe, New York Yankees (Preseason rank:12, Current rank: 20)

Looking back at our preseason ranking sheet, with only a couple of exceptions we had all ranked Volpe in the 10 to 15 range.  Our midyear ranking sheet shows more variance with several rankers having him fall out of the top twenty. It’s easier to explain his current ranking than it would be to justify that preseason ranking. When he was drafted, scouts loved the combination of his hit tool and power potential, but three years into his major league career, those potentials are not being fulfilled. Although he may be on the way to surpassing the 21 home runs he hit as a rookie (17 at this writing), the low walk rates, contact rates and batting average will suppress his value in OBP leagues. There are some signs that indicate that there may be some hope for the future, the .253 BABIP should come up which will raise his BA and OBP, his hard hit and barrel rates are the highest of his career, and he’s on track to steal twenty bases. You shouldn’t give up all hope that he’ll be a top fifteen shortstop again, but I’ll need to see the results before I move him back up my personal rankings. 

And a quick note, I think Anthony Volpe deserves to be dropping in our rankings, but let me also say that he does not deserve all the grief he appears to be receiving in his home stadium.

Player to watch  JJ Wetherholt, St. Louis Cardinals  (Preseason rank: 29, Current rank: 18)

There are a lot of players to watch on the shortstop list, which is nothing new. Also not new is my regard for JJ Wetherholt. I had him ranked third on my FYPD rankings last year, considerably higher than the TDG consensus ranking (ninth). While it was aggressive (or foolish) to rank him above Nick Kurtz, I am still projecting big things for JJ. Even though his 2024 debut at Single-A Palm Beach after the draft wasn’t overly impressive, he started this year in Double-A Springfield where he hit well enough (.300/.425/.466 slash line) to earn a promotion to Triple-A Memphis. In 73 plate appearances since his promotion, he has hit even better (.344/.425/.754), all while walking more than he strikes out. Masyn Winn probably has the shortstop job in St. Louis locked down, but Wetherholt has played 18 games at second base which from a fantasy perspective would be a very exciting position eligibility. Either way, good hitters are going to find their way into the lineup and there’s no doubt that JJ Wetherholt is a very good hitter.    

(Drew Klein)