As the regular season winds down, MLBTR is taking a position-by-position look at the 2026-27 free agent market. Next up are the shortstops. Free agency is always a tough place to go shopping for a shortstop, but that\u2019s extra-true this season, where the best options are rebound candidates and utilitymen.<\/p>\n
Player ages are for the 2027 season, and names within each tier are listed alphabetically, not \u201cranked.\u201d Only players who appeared in MLB (or on major league 60-day injured lists) this year are included.<\/p>\n
Previous entries in this series: Catcher<\/a>, First Base<\/a>, Second Base<\/a>, Third Base<\/a>.<\/p>\n Top Names<\/p>\n J.P. Crawford<\/a> (32)<\/p>\n Once upon a time, Crawford rated as a plus defensive shortstop, but we\u2019re a long way removed from 2020-21. The 31-year-old veteran\u2019s glovework has deteriorated considerably. He\u2019s played 706 innings at shortstop and graded out at -12 Defensive Runs Saved and -13 Outs Above Average. Crawford has made five throwing errors in his 706 innings this season \u2014 way above his typical pace for errant throws. That could be attributable to separate IL stints for shoulder, wrist and hand injuries this year. It\u2019s tougher to blame what Statcast considers to be bottom-of-the-scale range on that trio of arm\/hand issues, though.<\/p>\n At the plate, Crawford is a low-average, high-OBP hitter. He\u2019s walked in 11.6% of his career plate appearances and has logged an 11.3% walk rate or better in each of the past five years. He\u2019s at 13.3% this season. He\u2019s not going to do a lot of damage against southpaws, but he walks a ton versus righties and lefties alike, so he doesn\u2019t really need a platoon partner. Crawford is batting .218\/.334\/.344 on the season. His average is being dragged down a bit by a .251 BABIP, though some of the discrepancy between that mark and the career .296 mark he carried into the season can be explained by an uncharacteristic uptick in pop-ups. Entering the season, 11% of Crawford\u2019s career fly-balls had been harmless infield flies. This year, that number is 17.5%. His 20 infield pop-ups are the second-most in his career, despite considerable time on the injured list this season.<\/p>\n Crawford is likely past his prime, though an age-32 renaissance in a better hitter\u2019s environment than T-Mobile Park wouldn\u2019t be a total shock. He\u2019ll draw some extra interest for his off-field traits, too. Crawford is revered as a clubhouse leader in Seattle. Teammates are never shy to sing his praises. Crawford went out of his way to approach the Mariners this season about moving to third base as a means of clearing a path for shortstop-of-the-future Colt Emerson<\/a> to get acclimated at shortstop in the majors. That may not seem like a big deal, but there are stories every year about veterans not wanting to move off their positions. Crawford not only being willing to do so but volunteering for it exemplifies the type of teammate he\u2019s been in Seattle.<\/p>\n Mauricio Dub\u00f3n<\/a> (32)<\/p>\n Dub\u00f3n probably fits better in the \u201cutility players\u201d section below, but he\u2019s played well on both sides of the ball this winter and the options for any team seeking shortstop help are minimal. Dub\u00f3n is hitting .276\/.321\/.395 with career-highs in plate appearances (612), homers (11), doubles (28), triples (3) and stolen bases (10). He doesn\u2019t hit the ball hard (86.4 mph average exit velocity, 29.2% hard-hit rate) but puts it in play\u00a0a lot; Dub\u00f3n\u2019s 11.9% strikeout rate is the 10th-lowest among all qualified big league hitters. It\u2019s good that he has such strong bat-to-ball skills, as Dub\u00f3n is a free swinger who has never walked much and probably isn\u2019t going to change at this point.<\/p>\n Admittedly, Dub\u00f3n has never been a full-time shortstop, but there\u2019s no real reason to think he couldn\u2019t handle the job for a year or two. He\u2019s not likely to command more than a two-year deal anyhow. He could capably serve as a one-year or even partial-season stopgap at shortstop for a team looking to bridge its way to a top prospect\u2019s promotion, or he could take over shortstop duties outright for a club looking to scale back on its strikeouts. Of course, there will be more teams that target Dub\u00f3n with an eye toward him reprising his jack-of-all-trades utility role. It\u2019s one he\u2019s handled quite well.<\/p>\n Utility Players<\/p>\n Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a> (32)<\/p>\n There are some similarities between Kiner-Falefa and Dub\u00f3n, but the latter has better contact and on-base skills. Kiner-Falefa\u2019s strikeout rate hovers between 15-17%, which is well shy of the roughly 22% league average, but he typically doesn\u2019t walk much. This year\u2019s 9.8% walk rate is easily a career-best but comes in a tiny sample of 173 plate appearances. Is it an outlier or the beginning of a trend? Kiner-Falefa\u2019s plate discipline history suggest the former. His 31.2% chase rate on pitches outside the zone and 47.5% swing rate are right in line with the respective 30.8% and 47.3% marks he posted in 2024-25, when he walked at just a 3.5% clip between Pittsburgh and Toronto.<\/p>\n From a defensive standpoint, IKF can handle shortstop, second base and third base more than capably. He has limited experience in the outfield. He dabbled with catching earlier in his career, and while he\u2019s not going to return there on a regular basis at any point, he makes a fine emergency catcher. Kiner-Falefa is hitting just .242\/.318\/.314 in this year\u2019s 173 turns at the plate. He should get a big league deal, but it\u2019ll probably be a one-year pact with a lesser guarantee than the $6MM he got from Boston.<\/p>\n Edmundo Sosa<\/a> (31)<\/p>\n Sosa has had an odd season, posting awful numbers in May and July, roughly league-average numbers in April and June, and then finishing the season on a blistering hot streak in August and September. Such is life for a versatile utilityman who typically tallies 250 to 300 plate appearances per season and thus is prone to some bizarre small-sample streaks in either direction. In the aggregate, his 2026 offense (.247\/.285\/.417) is below average but not egregiously so. It\u2019s also not far off the combined .261\/.301\/.438 pace he set from 2023-25 in Philly.<\/p>\n The righty-hitting Sosa is very good against lefties, poor against righties and can play all over the field. He has plus defensive marks at second base, shortstop and third base in his career and has held his own in limited left field work, too. The Phils have used him as an emergency option in center, though he has just three innings there during his time with the team.<\/p>\n Rebound Candidate<\/p>\n Ha-Seong Kim<\/a> (31)<\/p>\n Kim has seemingly never recovered from the shoulder surgery he required late in 2024. He signed a two-year, $29MM deal with the Rays in the 2024-25 offseason, which allowed him to opt out following the season. Kim\u2019s return took longer than expected, and he hit poorly with Tampa Bay. The Braves scooped him up off waivers in August 2025, and he caught fire for a few weeks before cooling off for the final few games. Atlanta clearly was intrigued by his upside; the Braves re-signed him to a $20MM deal after Kim turned down a $16MM player option.<\/p>\n It\u2019s proven to be a disastrous decision. Kim has been one of the least productive players in baseball this year, hitting .113\/.203\/.121 in 139 trips to the plate. By measure of wRC+ (-4), he\u2019s been 104% worse than average at the plate. That\u2019s the third-worst single-season wRC+ mark of any player (min. 130 plate appearances) in the past decade, leading only 2023 Cam Gallagher<\/a> and 2018 Trayce Thompson<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a shocking fall for Kim, who at one point looked like a potential nine-figure shortstop. He\u2019s never been a\u00a0great hitter, but from 2022-24 he batted .250\/.336\/.385 in a total of 1678 plate appearances. That was 6% better than average, and Kim paired that solid-but-unspectacular work at the plate with plus defense at three infield positions (shortstop included) and high-end baserunning. There\u2019s nowhere to go but up from here, and he\u2019s still only 30 years old (31 in a few weeks). A club could sign him to a cheap one-year deal or even a minor league contract and hope for a rebound as he further distances himself from that 2024 shoulder procedure.<\/p>\n Is the Class Thin Enough\u2026?<\/p>\n Jazz Chisholm Jr.<\/a> (29)<\/p>\n I\u2019m not going to pretend this is a good idea or particularly likely, but when the market presents next to no options, teams might think outside the box. Chisholm hasn\u2019t played shortstop since 2021. He didn\u2019t grade well there early in his big league tenure, though that amounted to all of 330 innings. The Marlins had Chisholm split time between the two middle infield spots in 2021-22 before moving him to center field in 2023. By 2024, he was back at second base. The Yankees put him at third base for a while but he\u2019s been back at second since July of 2025.<\/p>\n Chisholm has typically graded as a solid or better defender at second base. This year\u2019s -6 showing in Defensive Runs Saved is his lone negative mark in that regard, and Statcast (13 OAA) thinks he\u2019s actually been quite good. He\u2019s not coming off his best season offensively but could still pop 20 homers and swipe 40 bags. He\u2019s one of the most talented players in this year\u2019s class, but he\u2019s missed time due to injury and hasn\u2019t been as strong overall at the plate as in recent seasons.<\/p>\n The strong likelihood is that Chisholm will sign somewhere to play second base, but we\u2019ve seen stranger things happen. No one expected a team to sign Luis Arraez<\/a> to play second base last winter \u2014 and certainly no one expected Arraez to post high-end defense in his age-29 return to second base after spending several seasons as a first baseman\/designated hitter. This would be a larger risk \u2014 the kind a team might take if Chisholm were open to a one-year or opt-out-laden deal to bet on himself and return to the market next winter. We\u2019ll probably look back at the fact that this was even written and say, \u201cRemember when MLBTR got really weird and riffed on Chisholm as a shortstop option \u2026 in 2026-27?!\u201d But in the tiny event that this actually happens\u00a0and somehow works out, I reserve the right to call myself prescient and completely disregard the fact that this scenario was presented in overwhelmingly skeptical fashion.<\/p>\n Depth Options<\/p>\n Orlando Arcia<\/a> (32), Paul DeJong<\/a> (33), Kyle Farmer<\/a> (35), Nick Madrigal<\/a> (30), Jorge Mateo<\/a> (32), Brendan Rodgers<\/a> (30), Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas<\/a> (33)<\/p>\n Option Decisions<\/p>\n