The Top Houston Astros Shortstops in Team History

Much like catchers, a shortstop is one of the most important defensive roles in baseball. They're the anchor of the infield. 

In this article, we take a deep dive into the best shortstops that have played for the Houston Astros - a team that has won two World Series titles since its inaugural season in 1962.

We rank the top Astros shortstops based on their Wins Above Replacement (WAR for short).

A Note About Wins Above Replacement (WAR)

WAR is an incredibly useful baseball metric that’s utilized to measure the overall value that a player provides to his team. 

Unlike most other statistics that focus on a very specific aspect of a player’s performance, WAR is holistic in that it attempts to reflect the sum total (e.g., both defensive and offensive) contribution and performance of an individual player. 

It’s for this reason that we think WAR is the correct statistic to use to evaluate players among one another. 

In this article, we rank all Houston Astros shortstops based on a player’s highest career WAR and highest single-season WAR, using the Fangraphs WAR calculation (also referred to as fWAR).

Keep reading to learn who these shortstops are...

Top 3 Astros Shortstops by Career WAR

Please note: The player must have at least 100 games played as a member of the Astros to be eligible for the career WAR list.

#1. Miguel Tejada, 39.7 career WAR

Miguel Tejada had an excellent 16 year MLB career that peaked with an AL MVP award in 2002 while playing for the Oakland Athletics.

Toward the latter half of his career, Tejada played two full seasons (2008 - 2009) with the Astros, both seasons of which he was named an all star.

The Dominican Republic native batted .285/.336/.456 with 2,407 hits, 307 home runs and 1,302 RBIs over the course of his career.

He had a career .972 fielding percentage as a shortstop and led all league shortstops three times in double plays turned, seven times in assists, and eight times in defensive games.

#2. Carlos Correa, 31.3 career WAR

Carlos Correa was the first overall pick in the 2012 MLB draft and signed with Houston for a $4.8 million bonus. 

It would prove to be a good investment for the Astros.

Correa broke into the majors in 2015 and went on to claim the Rookie of the Year award that season. He stayed with the Astros through 2021 before signing with the Minnesota Twins.

Thus far in his MLB career, Correa owns a .279/.357/.479 slash line with 155 career home runs and 553 RBIs. He has a .988 fielding percentage as a shortstop and has collected over 1,000 putouts.

Correa has been named to two all star teams and was a member of the Astros 2017 World Series championship squad.

#3. Alex Bregman, 30.8 career WAR

Although Alex Bregman is primarily known for his time manning third base for Houston, he’s actually played approximately 129 games at shortstop for the Astros (through the 2022 season).

Bregman has put up some big numbers since his major league debut with the Astros back in 2016. 

In his seven years in the league to-date, Bregman owns a .277/.375/.497 slash line with 140 home runs and 490 RBIs. 

From a defensive perspective, his career fielding percentage is .968 overall and .973 as a shortstop. He has spent multiple seasons in the top 10 (primarily among third baseman) for categories like defensive games, putouts and assists. 

Bregman is a two-time World Series winner, has been named to two all star teams, owns a silver slugger award and nearly won the 2019 NL MVP award.

Honorable Mentions

• Dickie Thon, 20.3 career WAR

• Julio Lugo, 13.9 career WAR

 

Top 3 Seasons by Astros Shortstops, Ranked by WAR

Please note: The player must have at least 70 games played (as a shortstop) in one season with the Astros to be eligible for this single-season WAR list.

#1. 1983 - Dickie Thon (7.2 WAR)

The best season a Houston Astros shortstop ever had (based on WAR) was Dickie Thon's 1983 season.

Thon had a career year in '83. He hit .286/.341/.457 and set career highs in hits (177), home runs (20) and RBIs (79), to name a few.

He played a career high 154 games at shortstop that season and had a .966 fielding percentage with 166 double plays and 533 assists at short.

Thon's 7.2 WAR in 1983 was the highest of all position players in the National League (NL) that year. His banner season was highlighted by an all star game appearance and a silver slugger award.

#2. 2021 - Carlos Correa (6.2 WAR)

Carlos Correa's final season as an Astro was one of the best of his career thus far.

In 2021, Correa hit .279/.366/.485 with 26 home runs and 92 RBIs over 148 regular season games. 

While Correa had a strong season at the plate, his defense was equally stellar. He won a gold glove in '21, and maintained a .981 fielding percentage and an AL-leading 13 total zone runs that year.

Correa also earned an all star game selection in 2021 and finished the season fifth in voting for AL MVP.

#3. 1982 - Dickie Thon (5.1 WAR)

Dickie Thon was one of the bright spots on a subpar 1982 Astros team.

He hit .276 in 1982 with a .724 OPS. Additionally, Thon really showed off his wheels that season with a league leading 10 triples and a team-high 37 stolen bases.

Thon started at shortstop for 114 of Houston's games in 1982. Defensively, he finished in the top 5 in the league that year for double plays turned (80), total zone runs (15), and fielding percentage at shortstop (.975).

List of All Astros Shortstops With a 2.0+ WAR Season

A season with a WAR that’s 2.0 or better typically indicates that a player had a productive year. 

A number of Astros shortstops have reached or exceeded this number since the club first started playing back in 1962. 

Take a look at the list below which shows every Houston Astros shortstop to have a season with a 2.0+ WAR.

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Astros Shortstops over the Last 10 Years

Please note: the below list of shortstops are ordered based on the number of games played per season for the Astros. Shortstops who played the highest number of games per season at the position start at the top. 

2013 Astros

• Jonathan Villar (primary)
• Marwin Gonzalez
• Ronny Cedeno
• Jake Elmore

 

2014 Astros

• Jonathan Villar (primary)
• Marwin Gonzalez
• Gregorio Petit
• Enrique Hernandez

 

2015 Astros

• Carlos Correa (primary)

• Marwin Gonzalez
• Jonathan Villar
• Jed Lowrie

 

2016 Astros

• Carlos Correa (primary)
• Marwin Gonzalez
• Alex Bregman
• Danny Worth
• Jose Altuve

 

2017 Astros

• Carlos Correa (primary)
• Marwin Gonzalez
• Alex Bregman
• Colin Moran

 

2018 Astros

• Carlos Correa (primary)

• Marwin Gonzalez
• Alex Bregman
• Yuli Gurriel

 

2019 Astros

• Carlos Correa (primary)

• Alex Bregman
• Myles Straw
• Jack Mayfield
• Aledmys Diaz
• Jose Altuve

 

2020 Astros

• Carlos Correa (primary)

• Jack Mayfield
• Myles Straw

 

2021 Astros 

• Carlos Correa (primary)

• Robel Garcia
• Aledmys Diaz

 

2022 Astros 

• Jeremy Pena (primary)

• Aledmys Diaz
• Mauricio Dubon
• David Hensley

 

Complete List of All Astros Shortstops Over the Last 10 Years

The following list displays every Houston Astros shortstop that played in one or more defensive games at the position for the team since 2013. 

Each player is listed in alphabetical order by first name.

• Aledmys Diaz
• Alex Bregman
• Carlos Correa
• Colin Moran
• Danny Worth
• David Hensley
• Enrique Hernandez
• Gregorio Petit
• Jack Mayfield
• Jake Elmore
• Jed Lowrie
• Jeremy Pena
• Jonathan Villar
• Jose Altuve
• Marwin Gonzalez
• Mauricio Dubon
• Myles Straw
• Robel Garcia
• Ronny Cedeno
• Yuli Gurriel

 

That’s a Wrap!

Thanks for stopping by Catchers Home to read this article. We hope you found it to be interesting. 

If you have questions or comments, please get in touch with us. 

 

Sources for this Article

• Baseball Reference

• ESPN

• Fangraphs

• Houston Press