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.

2. Dansby Swanson, Chicago Cubs

Similar to Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson has become one of the most underrated players in baseball because so much of his value is derived from defense and baserunning. Swanson's 2024 season was frustrating to watch as a fan. He struggled mightily before the All-Star break and struck out at a 28 percent clip against righties (with only a .653 OPS). He still produced a 97th percentile rating in fielding run value and 94th in baserunning value and still chipped in 45 extra-base hits. Also similarly to his double-play partner Hoerner, Swanson was playing at less than 100 percent with a banged-up knee and a core injury at different parts of the year.

When he's at his best, Swanson provides above-average slugging and on-base skills alongside elite defense and baserunning. Getting his power production from the right side alongside Seiya Suzuki will be incredibly important in balancing out a lefty-heavy order. If Dansby can push toward a .775+ OPS season, it probably means the Cubs make the playoffs.

3. Masyn Wynn, St. Louis Cardinals

Masyn Wynn's a pretty interesting player archetype: he maintained a low strikeout rate (especially for a rookie) of 17 percent but doesn't walk much, has some slug (52 XBH) but doesn't make a ton of great contact and provides good fielding (elite arm strength) and baserunning. Baseball Reference had him at an eye-popping 4.9 bWAR in his rookie season, although Fangraphs had him a little lower and StatCast shows some oddities in his advanced metrics.

Regardless of how deep you read into his rookie season stat line, the 22-year-old Cardinal is going to be a really good player for a long time. Wynn is already extremely close to a Swanson level of production and will have a similarly high floor in value because of great defense. He's made a ton of strides offensively in the last two years to add slug and could still have substantial upside at the plate.

4. Joey Ortiz, Milwaukee Brewers

Joey Ortiz was a key part of the Brewers' return for Corbin Burnes last year (it's wild how deep the Orioles system is; Ortiz was ranked 15th in their organization in 2022). He's generally been regarded as a sure thing with the glove but was a bit of a late bloomer at the plate, breaking out in 2022 with Baltimore's Triple-A squad. The former New Mexico State Lobo is kind of similar to Wynn with his strong bat-to-ball skills and good defense with developing slug abilities. Ortiz doesn't have the cannon for an arm Wynn does but does offer a more disciplined approach at the plate.

Ortiz and Brice Turang make for a pretty salient double-play combination for the Cubs' upstairs neighbors. If they both make a jump in 2025, the Brew Crew's lineup is going to be able to weather the loss of Wily Adames a little more comfortably than Cubs fans were hoping.

5. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Pittsburgh Pirates

Isiah Kiner-Falefa has carved out a pretty nice career for himself, racking up 13.5 WAR through his age-29 season. He's above-average to good defensively, carries a low strikeout rate, and is solid on the basepaths. That being said, trotting Kiner-Falefa out at shortstop every day isn't exactly going to get Pirates fans' hearts racing. He doesn't provide much power (career .351 slugging percentage) and seemingly doesn't believe in taking walks (just 29 last year). He's still a valuable MLB player, but not nearly on par with the proven production or upside of the four shortstops above him.