Gunnar

Henderson

The 24-year-old superstar is expected to return to the club’s spring training facility on Sunday. This won’t have any impact on Henderson’s ability to get himself ready in time for the start of the regular season and shouldn’t impact his fantasy draft stock at all. He has been the third shortstop drafted on average in early drafts, behind only Bobby Witt Jr. and Elly De La Cruz.

Henderson elaborated, “I could never get to the spot that I wanted to get to with my swing... I just wasn’t able to hold the plane and my body was adjusting to it, not feeling great, so that didn’t really set up me in the right spot to leverage the ball like I normally do... Looking forward to being healthy this year and getting back to my normal self.” It’s strange that nothing about the shoulder issue came out at all from the Orioles during the 2025 campaign, but it could help to explain the 24-year-old superstar’s significant falloff at the plate, especially in the power department — falling from 37 long balls to just 17. Assuming full health, look for Henderson to bounce back in a big way in 2026.

Like many of the Orioles, Henderson had a down year in 2025, slashing .274/.349/.438 with 17 home runs, 68 RBI, and 30 steals in 154 games. The speed was obviously nice to see, but the power and run production didn’t carry over from 2024. We expect him to bounce back in 2026 and would be fine with him as a late-first or second-round pick in fantasy leagues.

Schwarber played for Team USA back in 2023 and hit two home runs in five games. He’s coming off a season in which he hit 56 home runs and drove in 132 RBIs. The pending free agent will be joined on Team USA by fellow new additions second baseman Brice Turang, shortstop Gunnar Henderson, and catcher Will Smith, who were all announced today.

The Orioles were 7-for-7 stealing bases against Edgar Quero today, and one helped lead to a run; Henderson and Tyler O’Neill pulled off a double steal in the first, after which Henderson scored on an infield single. The other runs came on a Dylan Beavers homer. Henderson is now 26-for-30 steals bases this season, helping to make up for his rather disappointing .274/.348/.440 line.

It’s an extremely rare off day for Henderson, who rarely ever comes off the field. The 24-year-old fantasy star is batting .278/.349/.455 with 16 homers, 61 RBI and 20 steals in 558 plate appearances over 132 games. He’s on pace for his third consecutive 25-homer campaign and has eclipsed 20 thefts in each of the last two seasons.

Henderson homered in the first and then singled, stole second and third and scored on Ryan Mountcastle’s single in the sixth. He’s up to 16 homers and 19 steals on the season. It’s far too late for him to make a run at his 2024 total of 37 homers, but it looks like he’ll easily top the 21 steals he had then.

The triple, a liner into the corner in right field, should have been a double and an error on Roman Anthony, but we suppose that hardly matters. Both that and the homer were crushed at 110.6 and 108.0 mph, respectively. The homer was his third of the month, which obviously doesn’t count the grand slam he barely missed out on in Houston yesterday.

Henderson provided all of the team’s offense in Saturday’s loss against the A’s, taking Jack Perkins deep for a three-run blast in the first inning. Baltimore would be shut down for the rest of the game. The 24-year-old shortstop is up to 14 homers while slashing .284/.354/.466 with 66 runs scored, 50 RBI, and 15 steals across 458 plate appearances.

Henderson knocked a base hit in the first inning, then came up in a huge spot for the Orioles in the eighth. Down by two runs with two runners on and two outs, he took Caleb Thielbar deep for a go-ahead, three-run homer. It was his 13th home run of the season while slashing .285/.335/.468 with 63 runs scored, 46 RBI, and 14 steals across 437 plate appearances.