Where does the Cubs' Dansby Swanson rank among shortstops in the NL Central?

Chicago is officially in that weird spot between New Years and St. Patrick's Day where residents almost shut down: there's not much to do, you don't want to go outside and there are no local sports worth watching. The Bears imploded in a way only the Bears are capable of, the Hawks seem listless, and the Bulls seemed destined for either another play-in game or dumping most of their assets. To ward off that seasonal depression and sports lull, let's take a gander at the shortstops around the National League Central and dream of watching Dansby Swanson making backhand picks on warm summer nights at Wrigley.

• As a reminder, we're going around the entire division and ranking each team's players at every position. If you've missed any so far, the spots we've covered so far are below:
  
  Catcher
  First Base
  Second Base

1. Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds

Was there any other option? Fangraphs has the lanky Red pegged to be the sixth-most valuable shortstop in the league behind a quintet of absolute superstars: Bobby Witt, Gunnar Henderson, Mookie Betts, Francisco Lindor and Corey Seager. He's on the short list of position players that I'd pick to lead the division in WAR- the top three being him, William Contreras and Kyle Tucker.

If De La Cruz played in New York or LA, he'd be plastered all over ESPN and Fox. He's freakishly tall for a shortstop, hits absolute missiles and is comically fast and aggressive on the basepaths. If this was 1964, he'd also have already been given a cool nickname (maybe the Dominican Dart or the Cincinnati Comet). Alas, De La Cruz plays in Cincinnati in 2025.

Regardless, Cubs fans are lucky they get to watch this guy play. Elly only has one remaining hole in his game: he loves to swing the bat and has a penchant for striking out that rivals prime Chris Davis. He even struck out in a celebrity softball game recently. Defensively, StatCast loves him but Baseball Reference is a little cooler on him. Regardless, the young Reds infielder grades out as an above-average fielder and amongst the most valuable players on the basepaths. If he can cut down on his strikeouts, he's one of a handful of players in the league who could post 7.0 WAR.