Fantasy Baseball Today - Early 2026 Shortstop Rankings! Is Mookie Betts Cooked? (10/31 Fantasy Baseball podcast)
Episode Date: October 31, 2025Happy Halloween! Let's talk shortstop rankings. What happened with Elly De La Cruz? Does Gunnar Henderson bounce back? Is Mookie Betts cooked? Are we buying Geraldo Perdomo's breakout? Subscribe to... our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Discussion (0)
Shortstop, probably the best position right now.
Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express,
and if you're watching this on YouTube or anywhere,
you're probably wondering why are they dressed like that?
It's Halloween.
Happy Halloween.
I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers.
Fantasy Booseball today.
Let's take a way too early look at shortstop rankings for next season.
And up top, no surprise, Bobby Witt Jr., Ellie Dela Cruz,
and Francisco Lindor are your top three, Chris.
Witt and Lindor, two of the most consistent players in fantasy.
When you look at L.E.D. LaCruz, the steals came way down this season from 67 to 37.
Turns out he was playing with a quad injury for most of the year.
Do you expect him to bounce back to a degree in 2026?
I'm not even sure bounce back is the right word because he took a big step forward
in the first half of the 2025 season.
And now, look, sometimes guys just get hot for a couple of months.
It's entirely possible that's what it was.
But given the talent level of the player we're talking about, given the trajectory that he's on, I was kind of buying.
Like he cut the strikeout rate in the first half to below 25%.
He'd never been anywhere close to that as a major leaguer.
He was hitting for a lot more power.
I think it was 25 homers before the all-star break.
He was on pace for a huge season.
And then last three months of the season, everything kind of moves in the wrong direction.
I think he only had 12 steals in the second half, only six home runs.
He just was not the same guy.
I think he just wasn't healthy.
And for a player who relies as much on athleticism as Ellie De La Cruz, that's always going to hold him back more than anyone else.
So, yeah, I guess there's some risk of some carryover, maybe some risk that he's more not susceptible to injuries, but maybe injuries will hinder him more than other guys if he has to play through it.
But he didn't miss a single game last season, despite dealing with that quad injury.
And despite, you know, he had a death in the family that was very difficult for him.
So I just think there's a lot of explanations for why Ellie De La Cruz's season went wrong.
And there are so many ways for things to go right for him.
I don't think we're going to see the 60 steals again or pushing to 50 to 70.
Even 50 might be asking too much from Ellie de la Cruz.
But there's legit 30 home or 50.
40 steel upside here.
And if the plate discipline games that he showed in the first half before the injury
are real, you know, he might hit 280 too.
So I think if you can get L.A.
Cruz like anywhere after the top six, you should be happy about that.
Four, five, and six in your shortstop rankings, you have Gunner Henderson, Trey Turner,
and Mookie Betts.
Gunner Henderson downseason dealt with that intercostal strain right before the season started
during spring training.
So I have a hunch that he just kind of battled through that all season long.
And Mookie Betts also kind of similarly had an illness right before the season lost 20 pounds
and kind of feels like that derailed his season as well.
Do you expect both of these guys to kind of get back on track, Chris?
Or Mookie Betts with the age, is he kind of getting close to that cliff now at this point?
So we'll take Gunner Henderson first because I think it's all about where you set your expectations.
If you, I think the first half of the 2024 season where he had 28 homers and was like neck and neck with Aaron Judge for AL MVP and I think for the AL Home Run lead at that time, had a like 950 OPS or something in the first half.
He was awesome.
In 218 games since then, he has 26 homers and a 990 or 791 OPS.
So if you're expecting Gunner Henderson to be one of the, I don't know, a handful of best hitters in baseball,
a thousand OPS.
I'm probably out on that.
I don't think that's really a realistic or fair thing to expect from him.
But that overall, 2024 season, when he had, I think, 37 homers, hit 280-ish, I think that's
the, there's a ceiling there that's really, really enticing.
And look, the floor is he was still, what, 20 homers, 30 steals just about last season.
I expect the power to be better.
I expect the batting average to be better.
I expect the lineup to be better.
Gunner Henderson, great late first, early second round pick.
And any dip you get on him, I think is worth buying.
Betts, it's harder to be quite as optimistic given the age.
But I do think, look, losing 15 pounds after the season started, which is the timing of that for him, that's going to be tough on anyone.
And I think with Moogie Betts, you're betting on the elite bat control, which is still there, the ability to hit the ball to the pull.
side in the air a lot. Great lineup. Future first ballot hall famer. I think it all points to a bounce
back season. That being said, I'm never expecting 30 homers again for mooky bets. I think that's asking
too much. But 280 batting average, 20 homers, 20 steals, a bunch of runs in RBI, great points
league option. I think that's all perfectly reasonable for mokey bets. All right, let's take a quick break.
We'll be back right after this. Welcome back in the FBT Express taking an early look at shortstop
rankings for next season. Chris, 7, 8, and 9. You have Geraldo Pardomo, Corey Seeger,
and C.J. Abrams. Perdomo, the biggest breakout in fantasy this past season. The expected
stats by it. When I dug in, I didn't really see much to back up with what Heraldo Pardombo just
did. Very interested to see where the ADP winds up. What are your thoughts here on Heraldo
Perdomo? This is an intentionally unfair and lofty comparison, but there's a little bit of
Buki Betts in there.
Like phenomenal bat control and plate discipline.
I think he walked more than he struck out.
Strike out where he was like 12% this year.
Pulls the ball in the air a ton,
which is going to help him maximize what is frankly below average raw power.
Although this season,
there were signs that Herald Podomo was starting to tap into a little more power.
His average exit velocity was up about a mile per hour.
And the other thing was from 2021 to 2025,
he had seven batted balls that traveled at least 400 feet.
So that's three full seasons and a partial one, I believe.
2025, just July, August, and September,
he had seven batted balls that traveled at least 400 feet.
So tapping into a little more power there, I'm mostly by it.
It's going to come down to price.
Nobody's going to pay full sticker value for what Geraldo Prudomo did last year.
But if it's, you know, he settles in around.
50th and 80p, that might be tough to swallow.
70th, I'll draft him a few times.
If he gets pushed down to like the 100th range,
I'm going to draft a lot of role to Podomo.
All right, and 10 through 12, you have Zach Netto, Trevor Story, and Bo Bichette.
Zach Netto is legit.
He looks like a stud in fantasy, you know, back to back 25, 25, 25 seasons, I believe.
Story and Bichette, they stayed healthy, huge bounceback seasons for both of
them, do you buy it for both Story and Bichette?
I buy it a lot more for Bichette. I think story is very, very risky.
We don't know where he's going to play. It sounds like he's going to opt in for the final two
seasons of his contract with the Red Sox, but it's not a guarantee. That's a big question mark.
He has that injury history since joining the Red Sox. He's missed so much time.
The skill set feels a little iffy, although I will say, I kept waiting for the bottom
to drop out in 2025. And outside of a really bad May,
he was like an 800 OPS bat or better the entire season.
It was like one terrible May and then everything else was awesome.
So I mostly buy it for Story and Beset,
but Story it feels like you're kind of dancing on a nice edge there with his skill set.
I will say, I think six through 13,
Jeremy Pena's number 13 of my rankings.
I think Mookie bets to Jeremy Pena should all be drafted between like the 40th and 80th pick.
and I don't really have a strong take on it.
Like it feels super fungible.
If you like Boba Chet more or C.J. Abrams more or Corey Segar more,
I think you can make the case,
maybe depending on what league you're in or what league depth.
I think those seven guys or eight guys,
whatever it is,
are really, really close to each other.
And you can't really go wrong.
Shortstop's awesome.
At least for the first 15 to 17 players,
It gets dicey after that, but a lot of really great players here.
All right, for more extensive fantasy baseball coverage,
listen to our full-lane podcast Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or anywhere else podcasts are found.
Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
We'll be back again next week.
Happy Halloween.
Enjoy.
Make sure to stay safe.
We'll see you then.
Bye-bye.