The 10 MLB players who generated the highest value to their teams at shortstop
In MLB, we’re pretty much obsessed with the concept of value. We apply a plethora of often exotic statistical approaches to measure it: batting average, slugging, home runs, WAR, OPS+, Defensive Runs Saved, Weighted Runs Created…the list goes on.
The one factor we generally overlook in all these assessments is the most meaningfully value-oriented of all of them: salary. What, precisely, was the player paid – relative to all other players tasked with doing what he was doing – and how much of that pay did he “earn?”
The rating system that follows corrects that oversight. Based on 2019 performance, it measures which players were the most “valuable” as judged by their on-field production relative to their peers at the position. And let it be noted here that we are limiting our focus to on-field value only. Some players, mega stars, are paid based largely on factors unrelated to on-field performance, their drawing power at the gate, their celebrity, their endorsement/promotional potential being among them. Those factors, while acknowledged as real, are not part of this discussion.
Since different positions require different skills, the standard for determining production will vary depending on position…although for position players there will always be an offensive component.
Today we’re looking at shortstop, perhaps the most defensive-oriented position on the field. Because offensive production is a significant responsibility at any position, 40 percent of the rating remains based on offensive WAR. But at shortstop, 20 percent of the rating is allocated each to fielding percentage, range per nine innings and innings played.
Since MLB’s salary structure tends to reward players based on their seniority rather than their actual on-field production, it may come as no surprise that although 10 of the 31 shortstops who qualify for assessment earned more than $10 million in 2019, only two of those 10 ranked among the position’s 10 best.
Unlike some other positions, however, shortstop appears to require at least some experience. Only one member of the top ten earned less than $1 million in 2019. Most were paid in the $3 million to $5 million range.
For reference purposes, here are the positional norms for those playing shortstop:
Salary: $4.924 million
WAR: 2.906
Fielding average: .973
Range per nine innings: 3.908
Innings played: 1,094.42