The Dynasty Guru Annual Ranking Season is upon us!  Up next, the shortsops!  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.

1 – 10

The clear first tier of this bunch starts off with Bobby Witt Jr., who continued to be everything that was promised and more. Like the other two in this tier, he took a slight step backwards in 2025, but this is more likely secondary to negative regression for Witt Jr. than anything else. He is still hitting the ball extremely hard, swinging hard, and making a lot of contact. He’s a surefire top 5 dynasty asset for the foreseeable future. Elly De La Cruz and Gunnar Henderson both took steps back. Both Elly (left quad strain) and Gunnar (shoulder) sustained injuries during the season that explain away much of their struggles. This feels especially true for Elly, who hit just 4 HRs after June. If anything, these injuries have made these guys available in leagues, which makes it worth checking in with their managers to see if you might be able to steal away a franchise cornerstone.

Speaking of cornerstones, Francisco Lindor, Trea Turner, and Corey Seager have been the foundation of the SS top 10 for awhile. As they break into their early thirties, it is only natural for the next wave of superstars to arise. Lindor had the best 2025, delivering a 31/31 season. What is interesting is Lindor has not slipped much in the bat speed or sprint speed categories. The question is what will his output look like when he begins to, as he already sits at the 31st and 48th percentiles, respectively. He has clearly shown he is able to produce despite these marks. I expect him to maintain close to 25/25 production for the next few seasons. Turner lost some HR output, but improved his approach by chasing the least he had since 2021 and stealing more bags than he had since 2019. The boost he is giving in AVG and OBP oftentimes goes underrated, especially if he continues to draw walks at a slightly elevated rate than he had before. His bat speed has decreased ~1mph since 2023, but he has maintained the elite sprint speed. His improved approach makes me more confident than I was a year ago that he may age gracefully enough to be a top producer at SS for at least a few more years. Seager’s underlying stats were as good as ever in 2025. To give actionable advice, I think he holds much more value in season-long leagues where it does not matter as much when in the season you get his 500 ABs from, but in those leagues with H2H playoffs, I am much more willing to move off him because you run a very serious risk of him not being around when it matters most.

I am among the highest rankers of Zach Neto of the TDG Gurus. One of the TDG members in the discord had slight concern about if his plate skills would allow him to continually produce like he did in 2025. While I typically lean heavily towards players with strong plate skills, especially prospects, it is hard to look away from how consistently Neto was barreling balls in 2025 (14%, 87th percentile). The plate skills are not prohibitive (compare his 30.1% chase rate to Michael Harris II’s 43.1%) and he seems a likely 25/25 candidate for the foreseeable future. Additionally, at 24 years old, the chase rate should decrease, and he may even be stronger than he showed in 2025 getting further removed from his shoulder surgery. I like the prospects of Neto holding his place in these rankings much more than I do for CJ Abrams. I don’t expect too much of a fall for Abrams. He is a good enough athlete to threaten 20/30 seasons annually, and will add strength as the years go. However, I don’t expect a full on explosion to occur. Presently he is boosted in these ranks (by myself included) due to age and projection, and until he can truly show he is a better hitter, he may lose some value as the next wave of elite SS prospects come up. One note on Abrams is he is a candidate for a move to 2B due to his porous SS defense, which may actually make him more valuable to fantasy rosters given the lack of upside at the 2B position.

Two SS prospects stand above the rest heading into 2026. While I listed Witt Jr., De La Cruz, and Henderson as franchise cornerstones, I truthfully would give Konnor Griffin that label too. Comparisons to Mike Trout are not unreasonable, and Griffin added 8 HRs and 15 SBs after this tweet for good measure. Personally, I am moving mountains to get Griffin from whatever manager is willing to move him, as guys like this don’t become available once they reach the big leagues. The fact that Kevin McGonigle is even challenging Griffin for number one prospect status speaks to how special a talent he is. I give the nod to Griffin, as McGonigle lacks the sky-high five-tool upside that Griffin brings. Still, McGonigle pairs an extremely advanced approach with more impact than you would expect from his frame (elite 90th percentile EVs). There were discussions about his bat speed among the TDG Gurus (which sat at 71mph in the AFL). From my perspective, if a guy is hitting the ball as consistently hard as McGonigle is and putting the ball over the fence (19 HRs in 2025), I can much more easily forgive having non-elite bat speed. Guys like Lindor and Mookie Betts have shown it is possible to be fantasy superstars with average bat speed. I find Freddie Freeman to be the perfect 90th percentile comp for McGonigle, where an elite OBP will be paired with ~25 HRs and ~10 steals annually. He may not reach the same spikes in HR totals as Freeman (who reached 38 in the trampoline ball era of 2019), but he may add 5-10 more steals than Freeman yearly, and provide this value at SS, or better yet 2B.

(Joe Juliette)