Fantasy Baseball 2025: Shortstop Sleepers

When it comes to fantasy baseball, and fantasy sports in general, everyone is always trying to find the next potential star player who nobody else is aware of. It’s a fair goal. Fantasy managers will try to find value wherever they can. 

I will be providing as many draft tips as possible now that we’ve hit February, and getting started with sleepers is a phenomenal way to do so. My definition of ‘sleeper’ refers to players being taken outside the top 180 NFBC rankings. This means guys to focus on after the 15th round of a 12-team format.

Not many people know their names. That will soon change. 

Let’s take a look at these silent advantage shortstops!

You Won’t Get Jordan Lawlar This Cheap Again – #344

For those of you who have prospect fatigue, pump the brakes. 

Lawlar has been riddled with some unfortunate luck and playing time blockages throughout the past two seasons. Some of that still holds true heading into 2025, though I feel the Snakes will find a way to get him some at-bats.

Manager Torey Lovullo loves to see Geraldo Perdomo manning shortstop. And Arizona picked up their option on Eugenio Suárez, taking away any possibility of Lawlar posting up at the hot corner. Plus, he definitely won’t be taking away time from Ketel Marte at the keystone. So where will Lawlar play? 

The Arizona outfield does offer a possible pathway for him to be inserted into the lineup. With a weaker DH option in Pavin Smith, the Diamondbacks can afford to mix things up. I am curious to see how Arizona handles Lawlar come spring training. Hopefully, the outfield reps are aplenty. 

Enough about lineup construction, let’s talk talent. Lawlar has large amounts of it. He came back from injury for a brief PCL stint of 23 games in 2024, and he produced a .367/.439/.592 line with a 1.030 OPS. Well, I’m on board! 

I know the sample is small, but we’ve seen this from Lawlar at Triple-A before. His elite speed is something special, while his pull-heavy approach gives him the ability to drive balls up into the air and out of the ballpark. The skill set reminds me of a faster, younger Marcus Semien. 

Lawlar is indeed still a rookie, so it may take him a bit to catch on. But as the year goes on and the at-bats increase, I could see him shocking pitchers.

You’ll probably never get him this cheap in the future, so stash this young shortstop and run at the conclusion of your drafts. 

Carlos Correa Is a Steady, Middle-of-the-Order Bat – #246

“The injury bug often comes for Correa.” Oh yeah, I don’t really care.

One thing about Carlos; he’s not going to get cheated out of an at-bat. The balance, focus, and overall speed of his swing make for a beautiful thing to watch. He picks and chooses his pitches well. In his shortened 2024 of 86 contests, Correa struck out just 61 times compared to taking 40 walks. 

But even though it helps, patience doesn’t make you an elite fantasy contributor. Production is the name of the game.

In the three seasons before last, Correa averaged 22 homers. He is your steady middle-of-the-lineup presence, most likely producing a .280 average with solid counting stats and some power mixed in. Almost all of his offensive Statcast metrics reach the 70th percentile or higher.

Forget the injuries, this Twins team is hungry to prove itself after an ugly 2024 ending. Correa will be leading the way.

Trevor Story Still Offers Plenty of Value – #243

Story is one of the players who fantasy managers are scoffing at this draft season. Because…why?

Remember what I said about injuries? It doesn’t matter to me. Health isn’t predictable. The only thing I care about on draft day is value, and Story offers plenty of it.

In fact, Story and Correa are very similar. Both are strong defensive captains in their respective infields who won’t be in the lineup 162 games out of the year. Yet, when they are present, it can really help the offense.

You might ask how either of them could be a sleeper? Well, I’ll let the consensus answer that. The better question is how these guys dropped to around an ADP of 250. It tells me that fantasy managers are…sleeping.

The truth is that Story was definitely helped by his Colorado environment. I don’t care. He still plays in a very hitter-friendly park. Plus he’s 32. Kind of shocking to know he’s still that young, isn’t it?

In 2022, Story knocked 16 home runs with 13 steals in just 94 games. I could see a strong possibility for something like 140 games at a 20/25 output with plenty of RBI in his future, especially in a strong offensive lineup such as Boston’s.

Batting directly behind Jarren Duran, Rafael Devers, Triston Casas, and new teammate Alex Bregman will have its benefits. He’ll see more of certain pitches, he can be more aggressive, and his counting stats as a whole should improve. 

He may not be the true star he once was, but his tools are far from exhausted. I would even feel comfortable selecting him as my main shortstop. Cash in on the cheap cost while others sneer.

Tyler Fitzgerald Provides Power and Speed – #232

If you didn’t know about Fitzgerald before last season, the cat is very much out of the bag now. So, it came as a surprise to me when I saw him coming off the board down at 232.

The older prospect broke out in 2024, and I like him once again in 2025. He’s one of those guys that doesn’t have a whole lot of supporting metrics to back him up besides launch angle, but I typically make exceptions for certain players. 

When a guy performs as well as Fitzgerald did at the upper minor league levels, there’s reason to believe in him. In a 2023 PCL stint, Fitzgerald smacked 20 homers with 29 steals and an .857 OPS in 102 games.

His year before at Double-A Richmond was similar, with 21 long balls on top of 20 bags taken. When someone possesses this type of power/speed upside, I’m more lenient when it comes to trusting his offensive profile.

And if we do want to talk about the data, that’s fine, too. How about I mention his sprint speed, which was quite literally in the 100th percentile of the entire league?

In just 96 games with the Giants last year, we saw his thieving skills at work with 17 stolen bases. Combine that with his ability to pull the bull into the left field bleachers at Oracle Park and we’ve got something cooking!

While he may not have the most raw power in the world, Fitzgerald knows how to hit the ball at the most efficient angle possible, which we saw time and time again in 2024. And because of San Francisco’s recent acquisition of Willy Adames, expect Fitzgerald to get many reps at second base and in the outfield. We love a dual eligibility Swiss Army knife to insert all over our lineups!

He showed a bit of weakness versus off-speed pitches, and I expect him to clean up that issue as he gains experience at the major league level. Keep in mind, the kid is still 27 and learning. We often forget about that key human element.

If Fitzgerald replicates his 96 games in 2024 over 150 games this season, we could be witnessing the birth of a consistent 25/25 threat.