There are nearly a dozen shortstops available on the free-agent market, with the “big four” heading the way: Trea Turner, Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts, and Dansby Swanson. The Dodgers are one of several teams in the market for a shortstop, and those big four are all appealing ideas.
MLB insider Jon Heyman thinks one of those four stands above the rest, though. On the radio in Chicago on Tuesday, Heyman identified his top option.
“To me, all guys, if all healthy, [Correa] is the best player, I think. I mean, you heard early that Turner — you know, combination speed, power — but if you look at their total records, Correa is the better defender, Correa has been better in the clutch. Turner, as good as he is, has not really been very good in the postseason. This year, I think he did hit a home run or two in the postseason, but he also made a couple errors.”
“Clutch” is a funny word that does a lot of work in Heyman’s analysis. What he really means, of course, is “the postseason,” because in their careers, both Correa and Turner have actually performed relatively poorly in “clutch” situations in the regular season — Correa’s OPS in “high leverage” situations in his career is .797, Turner’s is .787, both below their .836 and .842 overall OPSes, respectively.
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Correa’s postseason OPS is .849 and Turner’s is .614, although Turner’s was 1.111 in the 2022 postseason.
Still, Correa is undoubtedly the better defensive player between the two, and his offense is close to Turner’s. Factor in that Correa is 15 months younger than Turner, and Heyman’s analysis, while flawed, probably comes to the correct conclusion.
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