Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
If you were waiting for the New York Yankees‘ Derek jeter to return in a week or two to help your fantasy baseball team, you probably drafted him to be your every day shortstop. Depending on how early you held your draft, you might have expected to see Jeter active on your roster for opening day or shortly thereafter.
Well, it was just announced that Jeter has another small crack in his ankle and will be out at least until the All Star break.
Should you be fortunate and be in a shallow league, check to see if the Oakland Athletics‘ Jed Lowrie is available on your league waiver wire. It is likely he is not, and should the Kansas City Royals‘ Alcides Escobar and Cincinnati Reds‘ Zack Cozart not be available either, here’s three deep league shortstops to take a closer look at.
The San Diego Padres‘ Everth Cabrera is not an option I would have considered drafting, but he is off to a very nice start. Cabrera is hitting .298 with four stolen bases. More surprising to his nice average is that he has hit two home runs already. While I don’t expect Cabrera to keep hitting homers, he is someone who could approach the 40 steals mark should he continue to be able to get on base.
Another shortstop off to a surprising start is the San Francisco Giants‘ Brandon Crawford. Crawford has hit two homers and is hitting a cool .320. Like Cabrera, I don’t expect Crawford to help you a lot in the power department, but you could do worse at short than Crawford.
In the deepest of leagues, if you are hurting for a shortstop, it looks like the Houston Astros‘ Marwin Gonzalez might get the bulk of the playing time at short. Gonzalez also has hit two homers in the early going, and is hitting .313. Snag him now, and ride him until he either stops hitting or loses playing time.
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