How Orioles’ Gunnar Henderson turned an early MVP candidate

BALTIMORE — Clarke Schmidt made just one mistake Monday, and it wasn’t a foul pitch. The New York Yankees starter thought Gunnar Henderson regarded awkward fouling off two straight knuckle-curves, so he threw the Baltimore Orioles leadoff hitter a 3rd one. It was sharper than the earlier two — not precisely the place he needed it, however shut.

With Schmidt’s stuff, notably crisp on this balmy evening, shut is normally adequate. Not towards Henderson.

Henderson crushed the baseball 112.3 mph, 410 ft over the tall right-field wall at Camden Yards for a leadoff residence run. The laser gave the Orioles a lead they would not fumble of their collection opener towards the rival Yankees, and it made historical past: The 22-year-old shortstop turned the youngest participant in Main League Baseball historical past with 10 residence runs earlier than the beginning of Might.

“That is the type of participant,” Schmidt mentioned, “to construct a workforce round.”

For a number of years, baseball discuss in Baltimore was in regards to the future. The farm system represented hope whereas the large league membership floundered with rosters designed to lose. The Orioles endured three seasons with a minimum of 108 losses. They went six consecutive years with out a postseason berth.

Then final season, outcomes lastly flipped. They gained 101 video games and their first division title since 2014.

Henderson was within the thick of the turnaround, starring for the resurgent franchise en path to profitable American League Rookie of the 12 months. The mustached, mulleted dynamo mirrors the Orioles’ trajectory over the previous half-decade — from promising rebuild to prepared for prime time to lastly, maybe, an annual pressure.

“I need to in the end be top-of-the-line gamers to play the sport,” Henderson mentioned. “I really feel like that is how I’ve carried myself.”

Now the on a regular basis shortstop — he cut up time primarily between shortstop and third base as a rookie — Henderson is garnering MVP buzz because the Orioles settle into their unfamiliar standing as AL East favorites. They handed their first stiff take a look at of the season this week, taking three of 4 video games from the Yankees, their principal competitors within the AL East to this point, in a collection that featured an electrical energy at Camden Yards hardly ever generated this early in a season.

Henderson started the collection with some thump, however pitching dominated the four-game set. The Orioles, whose bullpen limped into the collection after blowing two video games to the Oakland Athletics, held the Yankees to simply six runs over the 4 days. Luis Gil carried the Yankees to their lone win, tossing a career-high 6⅓ innings in a 2-0 victory Wednesday. Apart from that, the Orioles rolled.

“It is nonetheless early,” Orioles supervisor Brandon Hyde cautioned after the Orioles’ series-closing 7-2 win Thursday.

It was the O’s sixteenth straight collection win towards an AL East foe, a date that stretches again greater than a yr. It is why this yr, even coming off a disappointing Division Collection sweep by the hands of the Texas Rangers final fall, expectations are totally different in Baltimore.

The Orioles have been among the many preseason favorites to win the World Collection. They’re first of their division, with one of the best document within the American League. The O’s lead the majors in residence runs — by seven — and rank second in runs. The pitching employees this week acquired reinforcements when starters Kyle Bradish and John Means have been activated from the injured record. Bradish, fourth in AL Cy Younger voting in 2023, made his season debut Thursday, holding the Yankees to 1 run over 4⅔ innings.

There are nonetheless gamers to develop and prospects to include on the main league stage. However after years constructing so far, to annual competition, they’ve an opportunity to convey the franchise’s first championship to Baltimore since 1983.

“The long run is now,” Orioles reliever Danny Coulombe mentioned. “We’re in our window already.”

Adley Rutschman, who joined the large league membership in 2022, is now one of many sport’s premier catchers. Jordan Westburg and Colton Cowser — each underneath 26 — have excelled. The lineup is so deep that Heston Kjerstad, a top-100 prospect, has principally been caught on the bench since mashing his strategy to a promotion on April 23. Then there’s Jackson Holliday, the consensus No. 1 prospect within the sport, again in Triple-A — for now — after a tough large league introduction.

Coulombe, at 34 the third-oldest member of the Orioles, recalled wanting round throughout spring coaching and marveling on the nameplates above the lockers.

“I bear in mind being like, ‘There may be a lot expertise on this group,'” Coulombe mentioned. “It is rather a lot. Gunnar, clearly, might be one of the best one. It is laborious to disclaim that.”

The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted Coulombe, a left-hander, within the twenty fifth spherical in 2012. The Dodgers’ first-round choose that yr was a highschool shortstop named Corey Seager. Henderson, Coulombe mentioned, reminds him of Seager — however with velocity. An enormous, left-handed hitter. The drive, the preparation. The best way the sport appears really easy to him.

Henderson’s different teammates see it too.

“He all the time desires to enhance and that is what separates one ballplayer from one other — a star from an everyday participant,” Orioles veteran infielder Jorge Mateo mentioned in Spanish. “To me, he is a star already. And I do know he’ll hold enhancing.”

Henderson’s rise wasn’t linear. A yr in the past, he was scuffling in his first prolonged stint as a serious leaguer. He slashed .201/.332/.370 over the season’s first two months, then the 2019 second-round draft choose turned it round in June. Henderson completed the season batting .255 with 28 residence runs and an .814 OPS.

“It is like, received to go up there and you bought to trick your self into having that self-confidence since you simply undergo it each single day and it actually beats you down mentally,” Henderson mentioned. “It is positively powerful.”

There’s been no gradual begin to overcome this yr. On Friday, Henderson — who slashed .291/.356/.624 in March/April — was named American League Participant of the Month.

“I do not know what software he would not have,” Hyde mentioned. “He is doing somewhat little bit of the whole lot, and he is received the bodily capacity and the psychological capacity to be pretty much as good as there might be.”