Where did all of the MLB free agent shortstops sign?

[Ely Sussman]

Now that the shortstop carousel has mostly come to a halt, let's recap what happened to the other veteran options that the Marlins were reportedly interested in.

"We felt honestly pretty good about the shortstop options that we would had in-house, but it was still something that we were gonna try to look to upgrade."

That was Miami Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix speaking to the media last weekend, attempting to downplay his club's dire situation at a crucial position. By any measure, the Marlins got poor production from their shortstops in 2023. None of their in-house candidates inspired much confidence moving forward (I do not believe Bendix's "honest" claim otherwise). Hence why there were persistent rumors throughout this offseason about them shopping for a shortstop.

Bendix inherited a barren farm system with which to trade from, so Miami's focus was mainly on free agency. One problem: the 2023-24 FA shortstop class was one of the weakest ever. There were 21 qualified MLB hitters last season who primarily played shortstop, per FanGraphs, and only the bottom three as ranked by fWAR became free agents.

Ultimately, the Marlins added Tim Anderson on a one-year, $5M deal. Anderson was more expensive than most of the alternatives below, but inarguably comes with the highest upside, not far removed from his 4.6 fWAR peak and still just 30 years old.

Oft-injured Adalberto Mondesi—who was directly linked to the Marlins earlier in the offseason—remains available as of Tuesday morning, but all of the other experienced shortstops have now found their new homes: 

• Isiah Kiner-Falefa—signed two-year, $15M deal with Toronto Blue Jays 
• Amed Rosario—signed one-year, $1.5M deal with Tampa Bay Rays
• Paul DeJong—signed one-year, $1.75M deal with Chicago White Sox 
• Joey Wendle—signed one-year, $2M deal with New York Mets
• Brandon Crawford—signed one-year, $2M deal with St. Louis Cardinals
• Nick Ahmed—signed minor league deal with San Francisco Giants

I might as well mention Kiké Hernández (1/$4M deal with Los Angeles Dodgers) even though nobody views him as a regular shortstop. The desperate Boston Red Sox experimented with him in that role in early 2023 and quickly regretted it.

Unless Anderson rebounds and is open to re-signing at a Fish-friendly price or Jacob Amaya takes a significant step forward, the Marlins will be back in this predicament again next winter. At least the 2024-25 FA class projects to have a couple sexier solutions in Willy Adames and Ha-Seong Kim (assuming Kim declines his 2025 mutual option). Also, there's hope that the Marlins could have more assets to use via trade by then if their pitching staff's health improves or new player development hires find quick success in helping hitting prospects maximize their potential.

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