Best All-Time Shortstops in MLB History

Continuing our series on MLB History, today we look at the Best All-Time Shortstops in the history of baseball.

We looked at the top 15 right-handed pitchers, the top 10 catchers and the top 25 first basemen in baseball history. Now it’s time to look at the Best All-Time Shortstops in baseball history. There are villains and heroes among this group of players, guys whose character was admired and others whose integrity was questioned.

Shortstop is one of the most difficult positions to play. The best player in Little League is usually the shortstop. The shortstop is the one who can hit and field and run and throw. In youth ball, you can find the shortstop batting third in the lineup and, when not playing shortstop, you’ll find this player on the pitcher’s mound.

There have been plenty of offense-first shortstops in the major leagues, along with plenty of glove-first shortstops. Different periods of time have produced different types of shortstops. The 1970s was filled with weak-hitting shortstops with good gloves. They often batted second in the lineup and were masters of the sacrifice bunt and stole plenty of bases.

The trend shifted a bit in the mid-1980s and, especially, into the 1990s when the Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, and Derek Jeter trio dominated the position. Even today, there are plenty of good-hitting shortstops in MLB lineups.

There are so many, in fact, that it will be difficult to choose which of Manny Machado, Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Andrelton Simmons or even Jean Segura will represent the AL in this year’s All-Star Game.

As with any all-time greats list, there will be disagreement. Some readers will wonder why so-and-so didn’t even make the top 25. That’s understandable. As explained in the top 25 catchers post, there was a method to the madness in creating this list.

Two versions of Wins Above Replacement (WAR) were used, those from Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference, along with Wins Above Average (WAA). Wins Above Average gives a little more credit to very good seasons. Jay Jaffe’s JAWS list was also part of the discussion.

In the end, 25 men made the cut and their careers span more than a century of baseball. Let’s look at the 25 greatest shortstops in the history of the game.