Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to look at the state of baseball. As part of our 2026 MLB season preview, ESPN’s Buster Olney surveyed those around the industry to help him rank the top 10 players at every position as part of his annual positional ranking series.

Today, we rank the best of the best at shortstop.

The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2026 season, not who might be best in five years or over their career. We will roll out a position per day over the next two weeks. Here’s the rest of the schedule: starting pitchers (Feb. 16), relief pitchers (Feb. 17), catchers (Feb. 18), first basemen (Feb. 19), second basemen (Feb. 20), third basement (Monday), corner outfielders (Wednesday), center fielders (Thursday), designated hitters (Friday).

Cal Ripken Jr. seemed to break the mold for what shortstops could do offensively, hitting home runs and winning two MVP Awards while playing Gold Glove-caliber defense. Later, the trio of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra was referred to as the Holy Trinity of Shortstops because they were outliers in how good they were offensively.

Those stars paved the way for this era, in which players at this position are more likely than not to excel as hitters. In the NFL, it’s really hard to win without a good quarterback, and in MLB, few teams are satisfied with good-fielding, light-hitting shortstops anymore. Consider those who just missed out on the top 10 list below: Jacob Wilson, who flirted with a batting title; Dansby Swanson, a metronome of production; Willy Adames, who signed a $182 million contract with San Francisco just last winter; Andres Gimenez, who helped Toronto reach the World Series; and Masyn Winn, who might be the big leagues’ second-best defensive shortstop.

This position is loaded in this golden age of shortstops, who are producing more offense than at any time in history. ESPN’s Paul Hembekides dug up these numbers: In 2024, shortstops accounted for 20.4% of position-player fWAR — the highest rate in history. Look at the increasing share of offense generated by shortstops over the last half-century:

1975: 6.0%
1985: 8.5%
1995: 7.8%
2005: 13.1%
2015: 10.6%
2025: 18.4%

Teams are more focused than ever on drafting and developing and/or acquiring high-end shortstops. Look at some of the players currently in the prospect pipeline: Pittsburgh’s Konnor Griffin, Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle, Seattle’s Colt Emerson, George Lombard Jr. of the Yankees and Leo De Vries of the Athletics. Last year, New York’s Anthony Volpe hit 19 homers; this year, he’s playing for his job. Nick Allen did a great imitation of Mark Belanger for Atlanta last year — he played really good defense but didn’t hit much — and the Braves still traded for one shortstop candidate, Mauricio Dubon, and signed another, Ha-seong Kim. They simply could not live with Allen’s 55 OPS+; they went to find another quarterback.

Shortstops are better than ever. Here are the top 10 in 2026.

Top 10 shortstops

1. Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals

He checks every box — elite defense, the kind of hitter who can anchor a lineup, power and lots of speed. After a 9.4 WAR season in 2024, he generated 7.1 last season, which was third most in the American League and would’ve been enough to lead National League position players. Witt led the majors in hits (184) and doubles (47) in 2025. He also had the best defensive metrics of any shortstop and swiped 38 bases in 47 attempts.

And Witt’s drive to improve is relentless. J.J. Picollo, the head of baseball operations for the Royals, wrote in a text, “[Witt] is so easy to deal with because he takes such good care of himself that we have little-to-no concern. More of what we discuss with him is how we can keep him fresh and strong throughout the season.

“Some of the finer points of base stealing are things that are always being discussed, but he is clearly a very good baserunner.”

He is clearly very good at everything.

2. Geraldo Perdomo, Arizona Diamondbacks

Shohei Ohtani has an enormous advantage in the annual NL MVP conversation because of his two-way skills, but if you were to draw up a list of if-not-Shohei candidates, Perdomo would be in the mix. He led all NL position players in WAR last season with 7.0, excelling offensively and defensively and posting an adjusted OPS of 139. The Diamondbacks have loved his progression as a leader as well.

Perdomo’s main area of growth in 2025, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo wrote in a text, “was from the offensive side. Balanced out his [left-right] splits. Maintained great plate discipline while improving his slug.”

“The sky is the limit with him because of his aptitude and willingness to keep learning. He has a massive understanding of what the game inside the game looks like, and thinks like a manager.”

3. Gunnar Henderson, Baltimore Orioles

His start mirrored Baltimore’s rough first month to the 2025 season, but in the end, Henderson followed up his monster 2024 performance with a 5.3 WAR season, hitting 17 homers and swiping 30 bases. He is likely to benefit from the upgrades made in the Baltimore lineup — most notably, Pete Alonso. As is the case with shortstops, his performance last year could sometimes be a barometer for how the O’s fared.

In Baltimore’s wins, Henderson’s triple-slash line: .331/.417/.559

In losses, his slash line: .226/.287/.338

4. Francisco Lindor, New York Mets

One of the most important questions for the 2026 Mets is how quickly Lindor can bounce back from his hamate surgery and regain strength in his hand — because they will need his run production. We should take at face value his optimism about being ready for Opening Day, since what his managers and coaches have learned about Lindor during the course of his career is that he posts as well as anyone in the game, playing through discomfort or nagging injuries. He has missed just 15 games in the past four seasons, during which his offense was remarkably consistent:

2022: 125 OPS+
2023: 121 OPS+
2024: 137 OPS+
2025: 129 OPS+

5. Corey Seager, Texas Rangers

Seager is very different from Lindor in that he tends to miss a lot of games — he was out for 60 last year, and he has reached 135 games on the season only once in the past eight years. But when he plays, he is a difference-maker: He generated 6.2 WAR in 102 games last season and has averaged a 139 OPS+ over the past eight. The Rangers might bear more injury worry than just about any other franchise, with Seager, Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom some of their core players — so they don’t have a lot of margin for error. They desperately need Seager to stay in the lineup.

6. Trea Turner, Philadelphia Phillies

Last year, Phillies manager Rob Thomson asked Turner to focus more on getting on base and less on power — and that worked very well. His 5.2 WAR was the second-best figure of his career, and he reached base with hits and walks 222 times, winning the NL batting title along the way. Philadelphia has gotten value for dollars with Turner; in his three years with the team, he has scored 284 runs and owns a .287/.337/.461 slash line.

7. Jeremy Peña, Houston Astros

With Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa slowing down, and with Yordan Alvarez seemingly fighting injuries all the time, Peña has become the bedrock of this team out of necessity — and he continues to grow in that role. He had the best season of his career in 2025, hitting .304/.363/.477 while continuing to play well defensively. The Astros are quickly nearing a crossroads with the 28-year-old, who will be eligible for free agency following the 2027 season. Houston owner Jim Crane has made it clear he’s not interested in contracts beyond six years in length, and with Peña growing into a star, it might take more than that to retain him.

8. Mookie Betts, Los Angeles Dodgers

He willed himself to becoming an above-average defensive shortstop last year, leading all shortstops in defensive runs saved (17), and added another chapter to his Hall of Fame career. Betts, 33, should be a unanimous selection when his name appears on the ballot, but he has miles to go before that happens. Betts has already accumulated 75.2 WAR, which ranks 50th all time, and this year, he’s likely to climb over guys on the WAR leaderboard who’ve already made speeches in Cooperstown — Paul Molitor, Ozzie Smith, Robin Yount, Brooks Robinson and Joe DiMaggio are all within range. (Plus hit king Pete Rose, who finished with 79.6 WAR.)

9. Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds

Last year, he stole 37 bases, clubbed 22 homers and scored 102 runs… and yet there continues to be a feeling that he has more to offer, that the best is yet to come from the dynamic 24-year-old. But that mostly needs to come from his defense — he really struggled down the stretch in 2025 and led the majors in errors for the second consecutive year. A ranking this high is still based on potential, because there are other more reliable shortstops — like Swanson, or Winn — but De La Cruz is still young, with an important year of development ahead.

10. Willy Adames, San Francisco Giants

His batting average hovered in the low .200s for a lot of last season, and the Giants’ investment in him did not pay off in the standings. But Adames finished with 30 homers and an OPS+ of 111, and his second half offered promise of better play ahead — he hit 18 of his homers after the All-Star break and had an .828 OPS.

Honorable mentions

Dansby Swanson, Chicago Cubs: He wasn’t the hitter that Wilson was last year, he doesn’t steal bases like De La Cruz, and he doesn’t have the power of Zach Neto. But Swanson stays on the field — he has missed a total of 33 games in the past five years — and hits enough to be dangerous, with 24 homers, 20 stolen bases and 84 runs scored for 4.5 WAR last year.

Jacob Wilson, Athletics: His hitting style is unusual, with the pre-swing movement he has, but the results are there — in his age-23 season in 2025, he batted .311/.355/.444, collecting 151 hits in 126 games and prompting the A’s to invest a seven-year contract in him.

Zach Neto, Los Angeles Angels: With the franchise struggling, the Angels have pushed their top prospects to the big leagues, and with Neto, it’s worked out — he’s generated 10.2 WAR over the past two seasons. He had 26 homers and 26 steals in just 128 games last year.

Trevor Story, Boston Red Sox: He had his best offensive season in Boston, playing in 157 games and hitting 26 homers. But some rival evaluators felt his throwing was a bit off at the end of the 2025 season.

Andres Gimenez, Toronto Blue Jays: He was hurt for a lot of last year, but when Bo Bichette got hurt last September and Gimenez had to move from second base to shortstop, Toronto’s infield defense got a whole lot better.

Masyn Winn, St. Louis Cardinals: This is a big year for Winn, as he defines his place in the game; for now, he’s defense first, ranking second among all shortstops last season in FanGraphs’ overall defense metric. His OPS+ was 104 in 2024 and dropped to 90 last year, but he’s still just 23 years old.

Colson Montgomery, Chicago White Sox: He got everyone’s attention last year with 21 homers in his first 71 games in the big leagues, for an OPS+ of 130. Montgomery strikes out a ton, with 83 last year, and his history suggests that’s probably going to be part of his game, along with the high-impact damage he does at the plate.

CJ Abrams, Washington Nationals: Some context for Washington’s willingness to discuss him in possible deals over the winter — metrics indicate he was a below-average defender and is average in getting on base (.315 last season), with some power and excellent skills in running the bases. The timing of his ascension might not match that of the Washington rebuild.

A commanding batting effort from Mitchell Santner and Cole McConchie propelled New Zealand to a competitive 168-run total against Sri Lanka in the Super Eight clash of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 at R Premadasa Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Batting first, New Zealand scored 168-7 in their allotted 20 overs, getting off to a steady start as openers Tim Seifert and Finn Allen looked positive from the outset, finding boundaries early in their 30-run partnership.

However, Maheesh Theekshana provided the breakthrough by dismissing Allen, who scored 23 off 13 deliveries, including three fours and a six. The wicket ended the opening stand and shifted momentum towards the hosts.

New Zealand suffered another blow in the following over when Dushmantha Chameera removed Seifert for eight off nine balls, which featured a single boundary. The visitors were reduced to 34-2 in 4.2 overs.

Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra then attempted to rebuild the innings, rotating the strike effectively and accelerating the scoring to take the total past 50.

Chameera struck again to claim his second wicket, dismissing Phillips for 18 off 18 balls, an innings that included one four. At 75-3 in 9.3 overs, New Zealand were once again under pressure.

The situation worsened when Ravindra, who had looked well set, fell to Theekshana for a brisk 32 off 21 deliveries, laced with three fours and a six.

Theekshana struck again in the same over to remove Mark Chapman for a second-ball duck, leaving New Zealand struggling at 84-5 after 11.4 overs.

Sri Lanka’s spinners continued to tighten their grip as Dunith Wellalage dismissed Daryl Mitchell for a modest three off seven balls, deepening the visitors’ troubles.

Cole McConchie and captain Mitchell Santner then attempted to stabilise the innings.

The pair guided the total beyond the 100-run mark in the 17th over and brought up a valuable half-century partnership in the closing stages, providing some late impetus after a middle-order collapse.

Santner and McConchie eased the pressure and accelerated in the closing overs, attacking the bowlers to pile on runs and guide New Zealand past the 150-run mark in the 19th over.

The Blackcaps concluded their innings with Santner dismissed on the final delivery for 47 off 26 balls, comprising two fours and four sixes, while McConchie notched up 31 off 23 deliveries, hitting three boundaries and two sixes.

Editor’s note: On Tuesday, Norwegian minnows Bodo/Glimt pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Champions League history by eliminating last season’s finalists, Inter Milan. But the roots of that success can be traced back to their Europea League run last season. This story first ran in May 2025, before Bodo/Glimt faced Tottenham Hotspur in the semifinal.

Bodo/Glimt, European football’s biggest underdogs, meditate before training, huddle around for a chat when they concede a goal and decide amongst the squad who should be captain for each game. Their core principle is that they won’t ever talk about winning or look at a league table. There is not a single clichéd comment uttered about needing to pick up three points.

Those techniques are just a small part of explaining why a tiny team from Norway, so far north they’re in the Arctic Circle, are facing Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday in the UEFA Europa League semifinals, just a couple of games from lifting a European trophy and winning a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League.

Nobody in the town of Bodo needs to be told that this is a David vs. Goliath story. They know that you could fit the entire town’s population (42,831) into the Spurs’ stadium and still have 22,000 empty seats, and that their annual transfer budget is the same as a Spurs player could expect to earn in a season. They know they’re still not quite on the map of European football, that their opponents this season will all check to see where they are travelling to: they’ll scan their finger north, then further north, until they find a place that is a 16-hour drive from Oslo where daily sunlight lasts for just 56 minutes in December and nearly 24 hours in July.

And yet, nobody at Bodo/Glimt is surprised to have gotten this far. Maybe this is not really an underdog story at all. Bodo/Glimt won their first Norwegian league title in 2020. They’ve now won it in four of the past five seasons. In that time they’ve made it to the knockout rounds of European football and taken down some huge clubs including AS Roma, Celtic and Besiktas.

This season, they beat FC Porto in the league phase before running Manchester United close. In their last game, the quarterfinals, they knocked out Lazio across two legs, the first of which was played amid deep Arctic snow. The idea of adding Tottenham to that list of victims, then, seems manageable, even if it remains a little unlikely.

There are a number of reasons why the club has reached the final four. It has a lot to do with a golden generation of players coming through their youth ranks, such as Jens Hauge and Patrick Berg, who graduated to the first team just before their first title win in 2020. It is partly because of the icy conditions that any travelling European side meets, as well as being confronted by an acclimated squad made up almost entirely of players who come from northern Norway, many from Bodo itself. It is also due to an attractive style of play instilled by a coaching staff spearheaded by manager Kjetil Knutsen, now linked with jobs in the Premier League.

But any story about Bodo/Glimt’s emergence usually begins in 2017, with relegation to the Norwegian second division, and the arrival of a Norwegian fighter pilot named Bjørn Mannsverk.

It was eight years ago that Mannsverk arrived at the club, having recently given up active tours of duty that included missions over Afghanistan and Libya. A colleague in his squadron had spoken to someone at Bodo/Glimt and wondered if he could help. It was in the months after they had been relegated, and the club’s front office was adamant that their players were good enough, but that it was a mental collapse at the end of the season that had cost them. So they invited Mannsverk, a man who had little interest in football, and asked if he would work with the players. He agreed.

“Bjørn has brainwashed us now for six years now,” Ørjan Berg, who once played for the club and now works in its youth department, told ESPN. His son, Patrick, is the club’s official captain.

Mannsverk would only work with the club on two conditions: players would have to see him voluntarily — he would not speak to anyone that was told to see him — and he would not be their agent. “I said I won’t go out and push decisions on the players in favor of the club [like signing a new contract or adopting a style in training],” Mannsverk told ESPN. “I will be there for the player.”

Mannsverk, who was not being paid and later said it was more like a “hobby” at first, also had a question for the bosses. “What if a player tells me they do not want to play football anymore?” he asked. “What if they want to leave the club? I will support them in those decisions. Are you ready for that risk?”

It’s a big danger for a club to take on a man they do not even pay. Yet, they jumped on board, sensing it might help. It did not take long before that fear became a reality.

One of the first players through Mannsverk’s door was midfielder Ulrik Saltnes. “A super clever player,” Mannsverk said. “Great in training, s—-y in matches.” Saltnes was struggling with stomach issues during matches that would cause diarrhea. It limited him to being able to play just half a game at a time and once ruled him out of training for a week. Club medical staff performed any tests they could and found nothing. Saltnes was sure it must be a mental issue. Maybe Mannsverk could help, he thought.

“He said, I’m so tired of failing when it comes to playing games, and I’m so tired of being in pain,” Mannsverk said, adding that Saltnes revealed he planned to quit football in the coming months and begin his university studies.

“I said, ‘Okay, that’s good,'” Mannsverk said. “We started to discuss: ‘Why do you love football? This is your dream, but now you are leaving?'”

Saltnes spoke about the mental pressure he puts himself under.

“When you put your ambition too high or you limit your time to fix it, then it’s going to be hard,” Mannsverk said. “If the only solution when you failed is to use more force [pressure], that will not be sustainable. I think that was the situation with Ulrik, [he] has been doing that for so many years. So yes, his skills went up, but the stress was too high. His body was sending signals for years. Then it was telling him\, ‘You’re not going to play.’

“I said, ‘Okay, but since you’re leaving, why don’t you just enjoy the last few months, go with the flow, don’t give a damn and just have fun?'”

Saltnes thought that was a great idea, but then he counteracted; that sounded like being on autopilot. He wasn’t performing when at maximum intensity, so how could this help him? “Can you get less playing time than you have today?” Mannsverk said. “No. And will they fire you? Nope. So there is no risk.”

Saltnes couldn’t argue with that. He agreed to try it. “He managed not to give a damn, to take away all the pressure, and then it just kicked off his performances,” he said. “I think it was 1½ months later the stomach pain was more or less gone. It is almost a miracle, but it is just telling me how much the mental pressure over time can do to you.”

To say it continued to work out well would be an understatement. Just look at that snowy Europa League quarterfinal first leg against Lazio earlier this month. Bodo/Glimt ended as 2-0 winners. Saltnes scored both goals.

Mannsverk, with the full support of the coaches and boardroom, had other ideas, too. He suggested players meditate, wearing their kits, every morning before training.

“You see all the time when I go into organizations that there might be a stigma and some resistance, but I think the way we do it is hardcore performance,” Mannsverk said. “It’s not wishy-washy. It’s not being naked and having a lot of smoke and so on. It is hardcore performance. [As fighter pilots] we do it in our flight suits, we sit down in the chairs that we normally use and we meditate.”

After holding 30-minute meetings with a number of the players, he held group meetings with all of them. They were open-air talks, a safe place to share thoughts and ideas, to be brutally honest with each other about their performances. Those thoughts are then presented by players to their coaches. As Mannsverk puts it: “That creates friction.”

The biggest part of the club’s philosophy now is not to view everything through the prism of a scoreboard — league tables, points and cup runs no longer define their success. Instead, they focus solely on “process,” on what they can control. Anyone who has played or watched football knows that the better team doesn’t always win; the scoreline only adds needless pressure.

It sounds simple, but it takes club-wide commitment and open-mindedness to achieve. The topic of conversation then is always about their performance. What can they improve? It has led to some interesting places.

For example, the idea to huddle after each goal came from a talk Mannsverk had with the players. It was noted that their communication on the pitch was limited compared to the full team talks before matches and at halftime. “It’s a shame there isn’t a timeout clock like in handball,” Mannsverk told them, drawing giggles from among the players.

Then in a subsequent game, during a halt in play, one player noted how each time a goal is scored the match stops for a brief time. Why don’t they speak then? That led to what they call “The Ring,” where they come together to talk quickly about what went wrong and how to fix it.

“It is one way of caring for each other, to stand together, to say, ‘Hey, s— happens, let’s focus,'” Mannsverk said. Around 18 months later, before a European match, another player noted that their performance often drops for a few minutes after they score a goal. Why not do “The Ring” when they score, too?

Those meetings and techniques have had a relaxing effect on the team and brought confidence that they can execute manager Knutsen’s attacking style of play built on high-pressing and high-risk passes.

“I don’t think it would be possible to play like that without Bjørn and the mental work we do,” Saltnes told the New York Times in 2020. “No, I don’t think that would end very well at all.”

The outcome has been multiple league titles and, this season, their deepest run in Europe ever. According to Ørjan Berg: “I think that today’s team is playing the best football ever played in Norway.”

Bodo/Glimt may refuse to dream of Europa League glory inside of the club, but no one seems to have told their fans. The club’s stadium seats little more than 8,000 supporters, meaning the majority of the town will miss out on attending next Thursday’s semifinal second leg.

“Every person you meet, if you go outside, if the person is 2 years old or 102 years old, everything is about Tottenham and 99% is about tickets for the match,” Runar Berg, Ørjan’s brother, who also played for the club before retiring and working in the marketing department, told ESPN.

Fans will be worrying about whether the team can stand up to the test of Ange Postecoglou’s team. Their task is made tougher by a number of suspensions: midfielders Patrick Berg and Hakon Evjen are suspended for the first leg, while striker Andreas Helmersen is out for the whole tie. Starting winger Ole Blomberg and first-choice center back Odin Bjørtuft are also doubtful.

Still, those fears are not a hot topic inside the club. “We have more players,” Mannsverk said. It is an almost inspiringly misplaced confidence to have in a single team.

Mannsverk’s work has not gone unnoticed. Other clubs have approached Bodo/Glimt to ask about the secret to their success. Mannsverk, who prefers the title “culture builder” rather than “mental coach,” has been offered jobs at other teams.

“I tell them, ‘No I can’t. I’m with Bodo,'” he says. “They sometimes say, ‘Okay, do you have another fighter pilot or a military guy?’ It’s like, OK, you didn’t get it. That’s why we are not afraid of sharing what we do because we know it’s so hard to actually do it.”