Gunnar

Henderson

A lineout, a strikeout, a groundout, a popout and a forceout; Henderson accomplished the cycle of lousy at-bats tonight. He’s hit .225/.282/.351 in 151 at-bats since the beginning of May. His bat speed is down, his EV numbers are down and his strikeout rate is up in is fourth full season as a big leaguer. He once seemed poised to maybe receive the biggest contract of all-time as a 27-year-old free agent. Perhaps that still could happen, but 2 1/2 months into his age-25 season, he’s basically an average regular.

Henderson is desperately trying to fight his way out of this early season malaise. This was his third multi-hit game out of his last seven and he’s now hit six home runs over his 30 games. That’s all great, but the issue has been truly stringing these strong games together and finding a way to get his on-base skills back to the elite place they once were. He may be a bit too focused on lifting the ball with a fly ball rate much higher than both his career and the major league average. That’s come with a slight increase in his swing tilt and attack angle while he’s chasing pitches out of the strike zone far more than ever before. The home runs are great, we just need to see more consistency.

Henderson victimized Tigers’ starter Framber Valdez for a 368-foot (100.8 mph EV) solo shot on a first-pitch curveball in the sixth inning. That got the Orioles on the board and pulled them to within a run at 2-1. Henderson also walked and struck out twice in the ballgame. For the season, the 24-year-old infielder is slashing a disappointing .230/.282/.438 with 11 homers and 25 RBI.

Henderson got the party started in the top half of the first inning with a 397-foot (106.7 mph EV) solo shot off of Richard Lovelady. He then capped off the scoring in the contest with an RBI single in the ninth. His bat has started to show signs of life, raising his season slash to .214/.269/.423 to go along with 10 homers, 24 RBI and six stolen bases.

It’s been grim. Henderson has delivered the nine homers and five stolen bases — good production — but has weighed them down with a .202 batting average even after this performance. In fact, he’s been so cold out of the gate that he hasn’t raised his batting average above .246 all season. Henderson has two or more hits in three of his last six games and hasn’t struck out multiple times since May 6. Perhaps he’s turning a corner. Fantasy managers that invested an early pick on him have little else to do but hope that’s true.

Henderson has struck out in 31.5 percent of his 168 plate appearances this season, which is an alarming development considering he whiffed just 21 percent of the time in 651 plate appearances last year and has never battled strikeout issues before. It’s too early to draw any firm conclusions, but Henderson’s elevated strikeout rate is going to pull down the rest of his offensive profile. He’s batting .201/.262/.429 with nine homers, 19 RBI and five steals through 36 games.

If you’re going to have to take a day off at some point, doing so against Max Fried isn’t the worst idea. Henderson has struggled at the plate so far this season, slashing just .209/.275/.460 to go along with nine homers, 19 RBI and five stolen bases across his first 153 plate appearances. Blaze Alexander will start in his place at shortstop and bat ninth for the O’s on Sunday.

He kick-started the festivities with a leadoff homer that bounced in front of the warehouse in right field and added a pair of other singles that he would eventually come around to score on. Henderson badly needed a game like this -- even with it, he’s at .182/.247/.424 over his last 15 games. The four homers and three stolen bases over that timespan are nice, but fantasy managers didn’t invest in Henderson early to watch him flirt with the Mendoza line at .207, with 37 strikeouts in 111 at-bats.

Henderson seems like more of a No. 5 hitter than a leadoff man at the moment. He’s hitting .189/.269/.443 with a whopping 36 strikeouts in 25 games. He’s currently on pace for 233 strikeouts, which is 10 more than Mark Reynolds’ major league record from 2009.

Henderson’s homer was of the two-run variety and came in the ninth inning with two outs and the Orioles trailing 6-1. It was his third homer in his last four games and his fifth on the season, as Henderson continues to be one of the few bright spots in an Orioles lineup that has gotten off to a slow start. After getting off to a slow start to the season himself, Henderson has now hit safely in his last four games and is slashing .321/.424/.821 in his last seven.