MLB's 2024 Season Is Turning into the Year of the Shortstop

That the 2024 MLB season was going to be an uncommonly good one for shortstops might as well have been determined in March.

Specifically on March 8, when the Los Angeles Dodgers decided that Mookie Betts, a Gold Glove-winning right fielder and natural second baseman, would be moving to shortstop.

"The conversation was cool," Betts said at the time. "We're all on the same page here. We don't care what happens. We just want to win. We don't care how we really get there."

The shortstop position was already loaded, accounting for 23 percent of all hitters who crossed the All-Star threshold of 4.0 fWAR in 2023. And now here came Betts, an MVP winner and two-time World Series champion with more fWAR than anyone over the previous eight years.

Even if no definitive conclusions can be drawn about what end this start will lead to—it's not quite Memorial Day, after all—it's safe to at least observe this season is shaping up to be more than just an uncommonly good one for shortstops.

It could even be the best season the position has ever had.

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Just Look at These Numbers!

There are nine offensive positions, but they are not making equal contributions to their collective hitting value in 2024.

At the bottom are primary first basemen, who have produced only 5.2 fWAR. At the top are primary shortstops, who've produced 34.3 fWAR. That's out of 176.6 total fWAR for hitters, amounting to a 19.4 percent share.

Here's what makes that number significant beyond just the confines of 2024: It's the second-highest fWAR share that shortstops have achieved since MLB's modern era began in 1900.

In the top spot is the 1904 season, which might as well have happened on an alien planet.

That was 70 years before the introduction of the designated hitter, after all. There were also only 16 teams in MLB, and thus a max of 16 everyday shortstops. Of the bunch, only Nap Lajoie and Honus Wagner were among that season's top hitters. The position as a whole had a 101 wRC+, putting it only one percent above average.

Meanwhile in 2024, primary shortstops have a 103 wRC+. Only two percent better, perhaps, but still good enough to make it their all-time best mark.

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Look at All These Fun Paces!

As much as this obviously indicates a whole bunch of good offensive seasons are happening all at once, more exciting is how many of them could potentially make history.

Start with Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson, whose 16 home runs through 48 games put him on pace for a final tally of 54.

That's within spitting distance of Alex Rodriguez's shortstop-record 57 homers from 2002. Even if Henderson only gets above 50, he'll join A-Rod as the only two shortstops to do so.

How about Elly De La Cruz? With 31 stolen bases in 50 games, the Cincinnati Reds star is making an effort to cross the 100-steal threshold. Maury Wills is the only shortstop who's ever done that, and his record of 104 steals may not be totally out of De La Cruz's reach.

Meanwhile for the Kansas City Royals, Bobby Witt Jr.'s 46 runs scored put him on pace for 146. To date, only Rodriguez and Woody English have ever scored over 140 runs as primary shortstops.

Speaking of English, his 1930 season is the only case of a shortstop collecting over 200 hits and 100 walks in a season. Already with 66 hits and 35 walks, Betts is pushing to join him.

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What if Both MVPs are Shortstops?

Four once-in-a-lifetime achievements happening in the same year? That would be pretty cool. But not as cool as a never-in-a-lifetime thing happening in the same year.

A shortstop has been named MVP only 16 times. That's 21 fewer times than the leading position (first base) and ahead of only two other positions. One is unsurprisingly relief pitchers with four, and the other is ***designated hitter*** with two.

[Side note: Shohei Ohtani also pitched in the years he won his MVPs, so I assure you that the asterisk overload there is necessary.]

There's also never been an instance in which the two MVP winners for a season were both shortstops. Which is odd, as two MVPs sharing a position is more common than you might think. If you count "outfield" as a single position—look, just go with me on this one—it's happened 22 times.

Well, maybe this will finally change in 2024.

Per MLB.com's latest poll and the odds at DraftKings, Betts is the favorite to win the National League MVP over Ohtani. Which tracks. The two are neck-and-neck in fWAR, with Betts holding the lead for rWAR.

As for the American League MVP, Juan Soto only added to his case as the favorite by smashing two more home runs on Wednesday. He now has 13 to go with a .409 OBP, not to mention a general reputation as savior of the New York Yankees.

However, both Henderson and Witt are either right there with Soto or ahead of him in the fWAR and rWAR races. As they're also leading teams that would be playoff bound if the season ended today, both should be considered serious threats to Soto's MVP candidacy.

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What If the Year of the Shortstop Hasn't Peaked Yet?

Even after all this, it's notable how many talented shortstops we haven't talked about yet.

It would be a dereliction of duty if I didn't point to the breakout years that CJ Abrams, Anthony Volpe and Masyn Winn are having. Each is firmly in above average offensive territory, and Volpe (plus-4) and Winn (plus-7) are also in the black for Defensive Runs Saved.

There's also the Houston Astros' ALCS and World Series MVP from 2022, Jeremy Peña. He's shaken off a rough 2023 to bat .326 with an AL-leading 63 hits. Willy Adames is likewise bouncing back from a down year for the Milwaukee Brewers, while Ha-Seong Kim and Ezequiel Tovar continue to be two of the more underappreciated players in the NL West.

And while there are good reasons I'm only now mentioning brand-name shortstops Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, Trea Turner, Dansby Swanson, J.P. Crawford, Bo Bichette and Oneil Cruz, these reasons aren't necessarily made to last.

Though each was a top-five shortstop by fWAR between 2015 and 2023, Seager, Correa and Lindor haven't made much of a dent on 2024. But Seager and Correa, at least, are coming around. They had a combined 93 wRC+ in April. They're now at 147 for May.

Bichette is also heating up with a .380 average in his last 13 games. So is Cruz, whose bat has made some awfully loud noises as he's hit .283 over his last 15 contests.

With a 145 wRC+ through 33 games, Turner had been picking up where he left off in 2023 before he strained his hamstring. He should be back off the injured list soon, whereas Swanson and Crawford (who both got MVP votes in 2023) are fresh off the IL.

Ultimately, making sure everyone worth mentioning indeed gets mentioned isn't just the fair thing to do. The point is also to emphasize that, if anything, the numbers shortstops are producing might undersell how much talent is at the position.

There's an ideal scenario in which the guys who are hot stay hot, while the guys who aren't yet hot eventually get hot. Unlikely, perhaps, but at that point we won't be merely talking about an all-time year for shortstops. We'll be talking about an all-time year for any position, ever.

It won't last forever, of course, but whatever decline happens in 2025 might not be that severe. Out of all the players whose names can be found above, only Betts, Seager, Lindor, Turner and Swanson are north of 30 years old.

So if there is a shortstop revolution happening, understand that it's in its prime.

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Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.