The Dynasty Guru Annual Ranking Season is upon us!  Up next, the shortstops!  The rankings presented here are the composite rankings of all the writers at The Dynasty Guru, and after healthy debate and only a little name-calling, we are ready to share them with you. The comments below each tier are the work of the writer cited at the end of the section.  Don’t forget to check out Chris and Drew’s analysis of each position on the Join the Ranks podcast.

31 – 40

With a grouping that starts with Anthony Volpe, I think we’re in for a wild ride as I break down our mid-range dynasty shortstops.  Playing nearly a full season, Volpe almost nailed the glorious 20/20 goal posts that we fantasy folks desire. But if there was ever a harmful 19 homers and 18 stolen bases, it would likely be Volpe’s 2025 season. His slash of .212/.272/.391 hurt in any format and translated to an 83 wRC+. That slash has never been good during his 3 full seasons in the majors and there are no signs of ill luck to go along with the trend. He’ll start the year off on the IL and in the best case he’ll dominate the minors in his rehab. If that’s the scenario, my advice is to sell while you can get value.

Emil Morales and Kaelen Culpepper are next on the list, two prospects at different points in their development. Morales has performed admirably thus far through Single-A Ontario. His counting stats look shiny but may be covering up come contact concerns underneath. That, plus the always loaded parent org, makes me shy to target him currently. Culpepper, on the other hand, is someone I think is primed to excel over the course of the next year. His first full pro season was outstanding and shows he’ll be a 5-category contributor in the major leagues. I don’t know if he’ll have a ton of HR power, but a 15/15 shortstop who hits for a high average and takes walks is always great to roster.

Marcelo Mayer is a sneaky value this low, in my humble opinion. We’re not expecting MVP numbers from him, and Mayer may be a better real-life baseball player than fantasy. But the Red Sox roster moves seem like they will hand him the keys to third base going forward, for better or worse. Positional flexibility helps his value as well. In a best case scenario, I see 20 homers with maybe 10 steals, and about league average AVG and OBP.

Oh my, I don’t think anyone knows what to make of Jordan Lawlar anymore. And that unfortunately includes the Arizona Diamondbacks. The book here is pretty well known, so I won’t rehash it. The advice I can give is, don’t sell now unless you’re in an absolute roster crunch. Keep your fingers crossed for health, and if he performs well (even in Triple-A) then look to move. Or keep injecting hopium, we all need that occasionally.

I’m going gloss over the next two vets here, Xander Bogaerts and Carlos Correa. If you’re in a startup, I’d recommend the same. Maybe at the end of your draft, but don’t look for any sort of upswing in their stat contributions.

And I’ll wrap up with 3 prospects (though one won’t qualify for long) in Caleb Bonemer, Eli Willits, and Carson Williams. Bonemer admittedly was mostly off my radar at this time last year. The only reason he was on my radar? The invariable Bob Kelly and his deep cut Batman memes. You can ask him if you’re curious, and follow him for more of that type of fun. A surprisingly strong ’25 put Bonemer on everyone’s radar for dynasty and he’ll be a testament to White Sox scouting and development if he can reach the all-category contributions he flexed in the low minors.

Willits is a well-known FYPD player who excelled in his professional debut last summer. The strong hit tool lays the framework for the potential #1 fantasy FYPD pick in some circles. Willits is definitely worth drafting, though he isn’t my #1 FYPD pick this year. I’m not fully confident in his fantasy relevance if he doesn’t get to the power we hope.

Speaking of hope for fantasy relevance, before power you also need to be able to hit the baseball. And that’s the main thing Carson Williams has struggled with so far in his professional career. He struck out 41% of the time in his 32 game MLB sample last year and that won’t cut it long term. I won’t even go into his other contact rates because there wasn’t much hope from that. Where I gain my faith in Williams for fantasy is that he’s a worker and he’s in a great organization. I don’t want to count on him as my starting SS, and I want long term back up options on my roster. But I’m not giving up yet. His fantasy ceiling is too high, even if it’s too unlikely.

(Chris Knock)

41 – 50

Two prospects stick out in the 41-50 The Dynasty Guru shortstop rankings. Neither are likely to stick at shortstop but for opposite physical stature reasons:

First is Mets prospect Jett Williams at 41 in the TDG rankings. Williams was promoted to Triple-A Syracuse in August of 2025 and split his time between shortstop (16 games), second base (12 games), and center field (8 games). His size (5 ‘7) probably projects more to second base though that is cloudy with the Mets offseason acquisition of Marcus Semien. It was promising that his strikeout rate only raised a fraction after his promotion to Triple-A, from 22.8% to 23.3%. His batting average in Triple-A Syracuse was a poor .209, but that is with a .223 BABIP that for a player with his speed is going to regress positively in a big way. [Ed. Note: written prior to his trade to the Brewers.]

Next is Ethan Holliday at 47 in the TDG rankings, the 4th overall pick in the 2025 draft by Colorado. He only played 18 professional games in 2025 after being drafted out of high school and 17 of those games were at shortstop. Like Williams he is expected to move off shortstop eventually, but unlike Williams, Holliday is a hulking 6’4. His pro debut was very uneven, but he was 18 years old and the sample size was small with only 84 plate appearances. There were strikeout issues in Single-A Fresno with a 39.3% rate, but his walk rate was acceptable at 14.3%. The power is there, and so are the swing and miss concerns, but he is worth an upside play in your first year player draft.

For a veteran sleeper, Otto Lopez at 48 in the TDG rankings should be close to free in most drafts or cheap to acquire in a trade while providing valuable fantasy stats. Do not mistake this for insinuating that Lopez is a good hitter. However, what he can do is provide an average that won’t sink a fantasy manager and get on base barely enough (thanks to a 13.8% strikeout rate) to accumulate over 20 steals. Lopez is not such a strong defender that the Marlins will stick with him during a prolonged slump, though the two threats to his position (Javier Sanoja and Maximo Acosta) have issues of their own.

(AG Switzer)