Gunnar Henderson emerged as Orioles’ next superstar during electric 2024 season

The 22-year-old followed up his Rookie of the Year season with MVP-caliber numbers, cementing himself as the heartbeat of the O’s lineup

After he unanimously won Rookie of the Year in his first season in the bigs, many eagerly waited to see how Gunnar Henderson would fare in his second act. The answer was resounding, as the Orioles’ star shortstop not only established himself as the best player in Baltimore but one of the best in all of baseball.

Henderson came into the 2024 campaign with the comfort of knowing he’d no longer be bouncing around the Baltimore infield. In spring training, Brandon Hyde named the then 22-year-old his everyday SS, a significant change after Henderson logged more innings at third base than shortstop as a rookie.

Unlike his rookie season that saw him start off in a funk, Birdland’s favorite Country Boy began 2024 with a bang. He launched a leadoff HR in his second game of the season against the Angels, the first blast in a season in which he rewrote parts of the Orioles HR record books. Through the month of April, Henderson slashed .291/.356/.264 while launching 10 HRs and collecting 24 RBI—both career highs for a single month.

Even when Gunnar showed even the slightest signs of struggle this past season, you could still clearly see how he’s grown and continues to grow as a player. After an excellent April, he hit a cold patch in May, with his average in the second month dropping to .221 and his OPS dropping by nearly 100 points. Yet in the midst of those struggles, Henderson also managed to cut down his strikeout rate by three percent while nearly tripling his walk rate.

Henderson put up the best month of his career to date in June, slashing a ridiculous .342/.432/.649 and posting a career-high 11 doubles in a month to go with 8 HRs, 17 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. June also saw Henderson crush his two longest HRs of the season, with a 430-foot blast to lead off a game in Tampa and a 426-foot bomb against Cleveland that gave him 26 home runs halfway through the season.

Those eye-popping first-half numbers—a .286 average, .956 OPS with 28 HRs, 63 RBIs and 14 SBs—not only earned Gunnar his first All-Star nod, but saw him named the AL starter at SS in the 2024 Midsummer Classic in Texas. The first-time All-Star made the most of the festivities by throwing his name into the Home Run Derby, though he ended up with the least home runs and was eliminated after the first round.

Despite the disappointing showing in Arlington, Henderson headed into the second half as the best player on the AL East leaders and a clear MVP candidate. Henderson dashed any worries that the Home Run Derby would mess with his swing, getting off to a hot start after the break. Through the first 25 games of the second half, Henderson hit .300 with a .381 on-base percentage, but saw his slugging percentage start to dip with only nine extra-base hits over that stretch.

Down the stretch, though, Henderson started to show signs of cracking under the pressure that came from trying to carry an incredibly up-and-down Orioles offense. From August 16 through the end of the season Henderson’s average dipped to .255, his on-base to .333 and his slugging percentage nose-dived to .438—nearly 100 points lower than his season slugging percentage. Once at a 50+ HR pace, the Orioles star SS mustered only nine long balls in the second half.

Henderson’s defining moment of the second half did, however, come via a long ball. On September 4 against the White Sox, Gunnar led off the bottom of the first with a solo HR to the right-center bleachers. The homer, Henderson’s 35th of the season, broke a record for most HRs by a shortstop in a season previously shared by Cal Ripken Jr. (1991) and Miguel Tejada (2004). The record breaker was also his 10th leadoff home run of the season, making him only the second Oriole to hit double-digit leadoff home runs, along with Brady Anderson’s 12 in 1996.

The unfortunate end to his season—capped off by going 0-7 against the Royals in two playoff losses—shouldn’t distract from the emergence of Baltimore’s next superstar. Henderson put together a staggering 9.1 bWAR across his 2024 campaign, becoming only the second player in Baltimore history to post a 9+ bWAR in a season (Cal did it twice, in ‘84 and ‘91). Gunnar’s jaw-dropping numbers (100+ runs, 175+ hits, 30+ 2Bs and HRs, 90+ RBIs) form a statline not even the Iron Man can match in a single season. That type of production makes it easy to see why Henderson was voted Most Valuable Oriole for the second straight year in 2024—the first back-to-back winner since Adam Jones in 2011 and 2012.

The 2024 season also saw the Alabama native become more aggressive on the basepaths. Henderson has always had upper echelon speed, topping out at just below 29 ft/sec in both of his first two seasons. This past year he turned that speed into more of a weapon, going from 10 stolen bases in 2023 to 21 steals in 2024.

While most of his game took a step up in 2024, defensively we saw Gunnar go through his fair share of struggles. His 25 errors were second to only Elly De La Cruz amongst all MLB shortstops. There was a stretch during the end of July when Henderson committed five errors in four games as he went on to rack up nine errors in July alone. He still has all the tools to be a good defensive shortstop—the arm strength, range and overall athleticism. A lot his errors felt like a result of him rushing on defense, something he’ll hopefully iron out with more reps.

Very few questions remain regarding Gunnar’s future role with this Orioles team. The Orioles are led by their de facto captain in Adley Rutschman, but #2 at SS is the team’s best player. The only mystery for Gunnar moving forward is whether he’ll stick as the club’s leadoff hitter in 2025 and beyond, and whether he can chase down Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. for the title of best SS in baseball.