It used to be said that old guys couldn’t stick at shortstop.
“You know, it’s kind of like a running back after 30 [years old],” then-Rangers manager Chris Woodward said back in 2020, marveling at the defensive longevity of Elvis Andrus. “Shortstops after 30? There’s not too many of them.”
As of late, though, something has changed. Here is a plot showing the number of primary shortstops qualifying for the batting title in their age-30 season or older. In 2026, there are nine pacing to qualify, almost touching the previous peak in 2014:
I’m not entirely sure why this is happening. I think it’s partly because so many teams are signing shortstops to long-term contracts that carry them into their mid-to-late 30s. If you’re spending at least $150 million on a shortstop, you’re going to want him to actually play shortstop. Some of these shortstops in their 30s are showing their age, while others have been at least solid defenders. But even though I can’t pinpoint exactly what’s going on here, I think I can understand how one particular shortstop is making it work.
Dansby Swanson is not a toolsy freak like Trea Turner, maintaining top-end sprint speed even in his ostensible decline years. Nor does he have a cannon like Carlos Correa, gunning down runners from deep in the hole. Swanson rates as a slightly above-average runner with a weak arm. And yet, over the course of this decade, he ranks as the best defender at the position by Baseball Savant’s Fielding Run Value.
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Fielding Run Value leaders, SS (2020-2026)
| Name | SS FRV | Innings at SS |
|---|---|---|
| Dansby Swanson | 60.2 | 7,599 |
| Francisco Lindor | 56.4 | 7,177 |
| Bobby Witt Jr. | 43.1 | 5,200 |
| Nick Ahmed | 33.1 | 2,717 |
| Ezequiel Tovar | 30.2 | 3,902 |
| Brandon Crawford | 25.6 | 3,421 |
| Miguel Rojas | 25.5 | 4,250 |
| Nicky Lopez | 25.4 | 2,090 |
| Masyn Winn | 22.9 | 3,021 |
| Nick Allen | 18.0 | 2,683 |
Source: Baseball Savant
Much of Swanson’s value, it must be said, was compiled in the early part of the 2020s. But even as he’s lost a step or two over the last couple years, he’s managed to remain a plus defender.
While writing this article, I started to think about the great tennis player Daniil Medvedev. For many years, Medvedev has managed to sit at or near the top of the men’s tour with flat groundstrokes of decidedly middling power and a serve of inconsistent quality. His superpower is tracking every single ball down, regardless of pace or spin, and redirecting it deep into the court. Unlike Swanson, Medvedev would probably grade out as a plus-plus mover. But I thought of him because, to my eye, they share a certain spatial genius.
Both Medvedev and Swanson exert the precise amount of effort to track down a ball on contact. In tennis, the defender must read the spin and trajectory of the shot and know in a split-second where to intercept the ball and how their body will need to be positioned to best return the shot. The shortstop does something similar. Speed can help, but the play is truly made in the read off the bat. That’s when the shortstop must visualize the next few seconds before they’ve actually happened, from the intercept point to the angle of their body as they guide the throw to first base, all while taking into account the speed of the runner and their projected position in space.
It isn’t speed or strength that makes Swanson a great fielder, but instead this proprioceptive intuition that allows him to stick at the position without superlative tools.
This isn’t just seen in his ability to track down balls, but also in the ability to perfectly weight his throws. A post I saw the other day made this point well: “My absolute favorite thing about watching Dansby Swanson play defense is he throws every ball to first with the EXACT amount of zip it needs for each play. No more, no less. It’s a level of feel for the game I’m not sure I’ve ever seen elsewhere.”
Back in 2023, Elise Menaker delivered a report on the Cubs broadcast on the origins of Swanson’s internal clock. At Vanderbilt, Swanson would practice under specific timing conditions — the ball had to be delivered to the first baseman in four seconds or less. These drills, Menaker reported, are the basis of his ability to beat the runner by a step every time, no matter the type of throw.
It hasn’t been his finest defensive season. His +1 FRV this year and +2 in 2025 suggest he’s now slightly above average rather than elite, but the qualities that have made him the best of this decade — the intuit, the range, the clock — have been, at various points, on display.
Just look at him on this groundball hit by Nathaniel Lowe earlier this month. Swanson slides to the ground, corrals the ball, spins, and fires a throw that beats Lowe by a step.
At full speed, it looks pretty impressive; at quarter speed, it’s even cooler. Off the bat, Swanson has identified the precise intercept coordinates, and his small, choppy steps guide him to that exact point. Just prior to gloving the ball, Swanson starts angling his body toward center field, getting a head start on the 360 spin to come. He even throws in a little double clutch once he realizes he has a handful of milliseconds to steady himself for the throw. Everything is calibrated.
He does this so frequently that, later in this exact same inning, he made a nearly identical play:
Here’s another one for good measure, nabbing the extremely speedy Jacob Young at first. Notice how the entire process is sped up, compared to the two highlights above, this time to match the pace of the runner:
Swanson especially excels on slow rollers; he’s gotten most of his defensive value in his career from coming in on balls. His clock is on display here in a chaotic situation, with a runner crossing right in front of the ball, and perhaps even intentionally trying to interfere with his sight line. Freddy Fermin, the batter, actually has decent speed, but Swanson has the pacing exactly down here, not ever rushing and still getting Fermin by a step.
On the play below, Swanson is faced with a slightly different challenge – Chandler Simpson chopping a ball five feet in front of the plate onto a turf infield. Swanson’s pacing, naturally, is accelerated to match the speed of Simpson, and he gets him by the same margin as he did Fermin.
Swanson can be stretched thin in certain contexts. Turner is (still, somehow) one of the fastest guys in the league; Swanson sat back on his chopper, and needed a max effort throw to gun him down. It was not on target:
And Swanson just doesn’t have the extreme physical abilities to make the Bobby Witt Jr.-style plays deep in the hole to his right. Savant’s model gave Swanson about a 50/50 shot of making this play, but it didn’t really ever look like he had a chance:
If there’s a force play at second, however, he can handle it just fine:
As all these old shortstops cling onto their jobs, Swanson provides a model for one way that it can get done. It doesn’t necessarily take your mid-20s body to excel defensively, but it might take an unquantifiable mix of vision, perception, and feel.