Top 5 MLB Free Agent Shortstops For 2025

Image credit: Willy Adames (Photo by Tom DiPace)

October baseball is in the air, meaning the offseason isn’t far behind. We’re identifying the top MLB free agents teams could target this winter by taking a data-driven approach to this year’s crop of players. We will release new position groups in the coming days.

Below, you can find our breakdown of the top 10 free agent first basemen and designated hitters in the 2025 class, including three-year season averages in several key metrics.

Our list leverages work from MLB Trade Rumors for the list of free agents, as well as FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus and Baseball Reference for player win values above baseline, Baseball Savant and Baseball Prospectus for defensive data and FanGraphs for all other data. We encourage our readers and subscribers to consider subscribing to FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus, as well.

SEE THE LIST

1. Willy Adames

Adames will be on the right side of 30 as he enters free agency is the most complete shortstop option available by a wide margin. I’m only presenting three years of data above, which would suggest that Willy’s defense is on the decline. However, his glove this year was about five runs better than in 2020-21 according to Baseball Savant. Baseball Prospectus has it as about five runs worse compared to 2020-21. The more granular fielding metrics available on Baseball Savant, such as his arm strength and sprint speed, point to a player with the same level of athletic ability. He should be able to play a competent shortstop for a few more years, at least.

With the bat, Adames shows the importance of hitting the ball in the air. He has about average raw power, as measured by his 90th percentile exit velocity and average exit velocities (both slightly below average this year) and his max exit velocity (plus), but he hits a lot of home runs because of his 20-degree average launch angle. This is the template for a player like Arjun Nimmala in the Blue Jays system, whose underlying data is similar.

If we dig deeper, he’s posting above average launch angles against all pitch types, with the optimized swing sacrificing zone contact and regular contact. He’s aggressive in the zone against all pitch types, with about average chase, pointing to strong swing decisions. This is the recipe for hitting 30 homers with average raw power: be aggressive swinging at hittable pitches, and hit them in the air.

All said, Adames is clearly in a tier by himself in this free agent class.

2. Ha-Seong Kim

Kim maximizes his tools and is an excellent example of how a player can provide tremendous value by playing a good shortstop and being above league average in production. His low batting average is more a function of an extremely passive approach, which gets him more walks at the cost of more strikeouts. His raw contact ability is tremendous and well above-average against all pitch types except for four-seamers, against which he’s slightly above average. He doesn’t hit the ball very hard, and given his success to date, this appears to be an approach that works well for him.

He may opt to stay in San Diego, but he looks like an excellent fit for almost any contending team, especially considering his defensive versatility. His arm strength, range and sprint speed were all 74th percentile or better, so he projects to maintain the athletic ability to be a valuable shortstop for many years to come.

3. Miguel Rojas

Age is just a number.

Despite declining foot speed and arm strength, Rojas used his veteran savvy to produce an incredible season for the Dodgers. Rojas is the polar opposite of a “Statcast standout”, as his arm strength is poor (42nd percentile), his sprint speed is terrible (15th percentile) and his exit velocity metrics are as close to the bottom of the scale as you can get. It’s rather remarkable how good of a defender he’s been despite the metrics that would suggest he can’t play shortstop anymore.

Rojas’ future projection hinges upon how much you believe in his BABIP, which was terrible in 2022 and 2023, but outside of those two seasons, has been at least .295 since 2019. His wRC+ number make his 2022-23 seasons look particularly woeful, but his DRC+, per Baseball Prospectus, going back to 2019 is 93, 112, 90, 87, 84 and 102, which points to a stable set of skills.

Rojas outperforms his tools, but sometimes tools aren’t everything. He won’t get the big dollars due to his age and toolset, but he’ll be a valuable player with a very high floor for whichever team signs him.

4. Paul DeJong

Launch angles, launch angles, launch angles.

Players who average around 20 degrees of launch angle on their batted balls will often hit at least 20 home runs or more even with average exit velocities. This all comes at a cost, however. DeJong is very aggressive and has a lot of swing-and-miss in his game, which makes him mostly an all-or-nothing type of player. He won’t accrue much value by getting on base or advancing runners with singles. This limits his value a lot, as we can see in his three-year win totals.

Ultimately, this ranking is more a reflection of the available pool of shortstops than a ringing endorsement of DeJong’s baseball skills.

5. Kevin Newman

Newman and DeJong were born two days apart, but they couldn’t be more different in how they provide value.

With Newman, he’s either going to get a single, or he’s not going to provide much value. A five-home run season would be about the maximum you can expect from him. Teams that value home runs more than strikeout avoidance will probably prefer DeJong, but these two will likely produce similar value in extremely different ways.

At the end of the day, for teams with a hole at shortstop needing to be filled through free agency, there are likely only three players that project to be average or better.