Lindor Is Best Shortstop In Baseball Despite What Shredder Says

MLB apparently needs to start over with “The Shredder” because it really fails all of the time. Case-in-point, The Shredder ranked Francisco Lindor as the ninth best shortstop in the game. As usual, it would prove to be wrong, very wrong.

In the 2022 season, Lindor was the best shortstop in all of baseball. It really wasn’t up for debate at all.

Lindor lead the Majors with a 6.8 fWAR. That ranked him ahead of Trea Turner, Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts, and Corey Seager. Notably, those four players were ranked ahead of Lindor entering the 2022 season, and based on the rankings heading into the 2023 season, they were again ranked ahead of Lindor.

In terms of bWAR, Lindor would finish tied for third with Correa just behind Swanson, who was ranked lower than Lindor, and Bogaerts. Again, players who have not been as good as Lindor were ranked higher.

We would see Lindor would have the second highest OAA. He rated fifth in wRC+.. Notably, none of the players who rated higher in OAA rated higher in wRC+ and vice versa. This makes Lindor the best combination of defense and hitting from the shortstop position .Again, this is not opinion, it is based upon hard factual data.

Really, it has been this way over Lindor’s entire career. Since his first full season in 2016, Lindor has amassed a 38.0 fWAR, which is the best in the majors over that time span. His 32.6 bWAR trails only Correa by 2.2 WAR.

Over that time frame, Lindor has a 118 OAA at shortstop, which is again the best overall at the position. His wRC+ ranks as the sixth best among shortstops. Again, Lindor is the best all-around threat from the shortstop position in the majors. It has been that way since 2016, and it has continued to be that way his entire career.

Looking forward, Lindor is still 29 and in the prime of his career. He has been the best, and he promises to continue to be the best. On that point, only Correa is ahead of him in bWAR, and the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets were very concerned about his ability to play shortstop or be a star in the not too distant future.

For some reason, people have had a hard time accepting Lindor’s greatness. To be fair, we have seen that be the case with Mets fans the past two seasons. Make no mistake, Lindor has been the best shortstop in the game his entire career, and he’s still in the prime of his career. Overall, Lindor is the best shortstop in the game, and in reality, he’s a future Hall of Famer.

We can’t force people to accept that now, but in the end who really cares? The Mets have Lindor, and they are a World Series contender largely because they have him. Let people rank him where they want while Lindor plays better than whoever they want to pretend is better.