Top Ten Shortstops of All-Time

A Blog By Dean

Jan 06, 2025

A few weeks ago, I began to lay out the goals for The Skippers View 2025. I wrote 120 articles in 2024; my original goal was 75. But in the middle of the year, I decided to increase it.

From January 1st- January 5th, 2024, we had 600 website clicks

From January 1st to January 5th, 2025, we have 5,411 and counting. (Dan and I are posting this evening.)

The team we have right now is full of bright, young, up-and-coming stars. They are pumping out blogs and tweets like nothing I have seen. Legitimately, we are right there if you look at the number of posts from people collaborating with us and compare it to other baseball media. The numbers are going to continue to come as well.

So, I am setting my blog goal at 175 and challenging everyone with us to reach the stars.

I will text Brett to see what his goal for this year is.

I know how Brett thinks. I will text him in a few minutes and ask him about his blog goals for the year. He will give me a weak number. I will counter with, “That’s it?” he will fall directly into the trap and put a higher number. He is going to call me an authoritarian for pushing people.

Well, you want to know who else was an authoritarian? Michael Jordan. Please watch the clip below.

2025 is going to be our year. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way.

Here are my Top 10 All-Time Shortstop rankings.

10. Joe Cronin

Key Stats: .301 AVG, 170 HR, 1,003 RBI, .857 OPS, 2,285 H
bWAR: 64.7
WAR7: 43.6
JAWS: 54.2
Accolades: 7× All-Star, 1x MVP
Why: I struggled with #10 and changed it I believe five times. Honestly, if I wasn’t exhausted, I would probably change it again (This is the last part of the blog I am writing.) Crap, you know what. I am changing it. Babe Ruth was robbed in 1930 of MVP.

Real #10. Luke Appling

Key Stats: .310 AVG, 45 HR, 1,116 RBI, .798 OPS, 2,749 H
bWAR: 77.6
WAR7: 47.7
JAWS: 62.7
Accolades: 7× All-Star, 2× AL Batting Champion (1936, 1943)
Why: I still don’t feel great about this, but I feel a little better. Appling is Top 10 in WAR (7th), WAR7 (8th), and JAWS (7th.) He’s got two batting titles and went and fought in WWII after losing the MVP to Spud Chandler in 1943. He lost almost two seasons to the WAR and would have easily reached 3,000 hits without that. Alright, I feel a little better. How do you feel?

9. Barry Larkin

Key Stats: .295 AVG, 198 HR, 960 RBI, .815 OPS, 2,340 H
bWAR: 70.5
WAR7: 43.3
JAWS: 56.9
Accolades: 12× All-Star, 9× Silver Slugger, 3× Gold Glove, NL MVP (1995), World Series Champion (1990)
Why: Larkin is similar to Jeter in that he can not match up with the dead ball era and early-century players. I decided to put Vaughn and Davis in between Larkin and Jeter. I think you can interchange them as much as you want; it would not make a major difference. I would throw Larkin’s MVP in the “weak category'.” He did not lead the league in any category, but he did a little bit of everything and won the Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove that same year.
If you want to swap him out for a Joe Cronin, you aren’t going to hear me argue.

8. Arky Vaughan

Key Stats: .318 AVG, 96 HR, 926 RBI, .859 OPS, 2,103 H
bWAR: 72.7
WAR7: 52.8
JAWS: 62.8
Accolades: 9× All-Star, NL Batting Champion (1935)
Why: Vaughan is another player who did not get into the HOF until well after his death. His bWAR number of 77.9 might be what stands out to you. However, for me, it is the fact that at the age of 31, he hated his manager so much that he threw his jersey at him and retired to his farm. That is badass.

7. George Davis

Key Stats: .295 AVG, 73 HR, 1,440 RBI, .792 OPS, 2,665 H
bWAR: 84.7
WAR7: 47.4
JAWS: 66.1
Accolades: Hall of Fame Inductee (1998), 2× World Series Champion
Why: Look, every list is going to have a Deadball era/pre-1900 player on it. I want to honor baseball history as much as possible. Davis is 4th in WAR, 10th in WAR7, and 5th in JAWS. Will from Overdue Sports is going to say Mookie Betts should be here for the five games he played at SS, but I love the history of this game. Players like this are underappreciated, so I am giving them their due.

6. Derek Jeter

Key Stats: .310 AVG, 260 HR, 1,311 RBI, .817 OPS, 3,465 H
bWAR: 71.3
WAR7: 42.4
JAWS: 56.9
Accolades: 14× All-Star, 5× Gold Glove, 5× Silver Slugger, 5× World Series Champion, World Series MVP (2000)
Why: If you are going off strictly numbers, Jeter would probably fall outside the Top 10. However, he is a winner. So, his great numbers combined with the winning puts him here at #5.
He is definitely the worst defender on this list, but I respect the fact that he said “F*** off” to A-Rod when he wanted his position. He is one of the few on this list to have only played SS his entire career.

5. Robin Yount

Key Stats: .285 AVG, 251 HR, 1,406 RBI, .772 OPS, 3,142 H
bWAR: 77.3
WAR7: 46.5
JAWS: 61.9
Accolades: 2× AL MVP (1982, 1989), 3× All-Star, 3× Silver Slugger
Why: Yount is another player who you could argue should not be on this list due to the number of games he played in the outfield, but he still played the majority of his career at SS. His first MVP was in 1982. He was the best player in the league and accumulated a league-leading 10.6 bWAR. He would follow that up with a second MVP seven years later at the age of 33. Yount never really fell off, and his final seasons were still productive, although nowhere near his peak. What actually hurts Yount in this “analytical age” more than anything is how early he was called up into the bigs. Yount was called up to the bigs at 18 years old. He was productive from 18-23 but never made an All-Star game and was consistently below 100 OPS+. So, the nerds will look at his 115 OPS+ today and say it is weak. Sure, but that is why we also have to look at WAR7 and JAWS. He ranks 6th in WAR, 7th in WAR7, and 6th in JAWS. George Davis was the guy consistently in front of him in all three categories. I opted to go with the more modern player.

4. Ernie Banks

Key Stats: .274 AVG, 512 HR, 1,636 RBI, .830 OPS, 2,583 H
bWAR: 67.7
WAR7: 47.8
JAWS: 57.8
Accolades: 2× NL MVP (1958, 1959), 14× All-Star, Gold Glove (1960)
Why: “500 home runs, CLEAN. He is on the list,”- My Dad.

3. Ozzie Smith

Key Stats: .262 AVG, 28 HR, 793 RBI, .666 OPS, 2,460 H
bWAR: 76.9
WAR7: 44.2
JAWS: 60.6
Accolades: 15× All-Star, 13× Gold Glove, Silver Slugger (1987), World Series Champion (1982)
Why: Probably my most controversial selection is having Ozzie Smith this high.
He is widely, and frankly undisputably, considered the greatest defensive shortstop in MLB history. He has 13 Gold Gloves and an insane 44.2 dWAR while playing every game of his career at shortstop. My favorite stat while researching The Wizard of Oz was his 1987 season. He hit a whopping ZERO home runs that year, but he still accumulated 6.4 bWAR and finished second in MVP voting.

2. Cal Ripken Jr.

Key Stats: .276 AVG, 431 HR, 1,695 RBI, .788 OPS, 3,184 H
bWAR: 95.9
WAR7: 56.2
JAWS: 76.1
Accolades: 2× AL MVP (1983, 1991), 19× All-Star, 8× Silver Slugger, 2× Gold Glove, 1983 World Series Champion, Iron Man Record (2,632 consecutive games played)
Why: Cal Ripken Jr. revolutionized the shortstop position by bringing power and durability to a traditionally defensive role. Known as the “Iron Man,” Ripken’s consecutive games streak (2,632) is one of baseball’s most iconic records. His offensive production was elite, with over 3,000 hits and 431 home runs, and he had the 3rd best dWAR amongst SS.
People want to see A-Rod here. I don’t rank cheaters.

1. Honus Wagner

Key Stats: .328 AVG, 101 HR, 1,733 RBI, .858 OPS, 3,420 H
bWAR: 130.8
WAR7: 66.6
JAWS: 98.7
Accolades: 8× Batting Champion, 1909 World Series Champion, Hall of Fame Inaugural Class (1936)
Why: Honus Wagner isn’t just the greatest shortstop of all time — he’s one of the greatest baseball players. Amongst SS with 5,000 PA or more, he leads in WAR, WAR7, JAWS, WAR/162, oWAR, WAA, SB, doubles, triples, AVG, and OPS+.

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