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Tiers are a particular form of rankings that is less concerned with parsing individual players and more with denoting the biggest drop-offs. Players whose value is essentially the same are bundled together to help you prioritize which position to draft next. If the goal in a draft is to maximize the return of each pick, then a simple way to do so is to target a position that's nearing a drop-off and wait on a position that isn't. By crossing off names as you go, your path to victory should become clear.

Below are the shortstop tiers for 2024, which show how the position has begun to thin out a bit, its depth mostly concentrated in the middle. There are rebound and breakout candidates to fall back on, but it's a dangerous strategy given how abruptly the talent drops off.

The First-Rounders: Bobby Witt, Trea Turner
The Also-Elite: Francisco Lindor, Elly De La Cruz^, Gunnar Henderson, Corey Seager
The Near-Elite: Bo Bichette, C.J. Abrams^, Oneil Cruz
The Next-Best Things: Nico Hoerner, Matt McLain, Ha-Seong Kim, Xander Bogaerts, Jackson Holliday, Dansby Swanson
The Fallback Options: J.P. Crawford†, Carlos Correa, Willy Adames, Anthony Volpe, Thairo Estrada, Trevor Story, Jackson Merrill
The Last Resorts: Tommy Edman, Vaughn Grissom, Ezequiel Tovar, Tim Anderson, Jeremy Pena
The Leftovers: Zachary Neto, Javier Baez, Jordan Lawlar, Masyn Winn, Luis Rengifo, Ezequiel Duran, Orlando Arcia, Geraldo Perdomo, Jon Berti, Amed Rosario, Brice Turang

^ one tier lower in points leagues
† one tier lower in categories leagues