\u201cHe had great swings,\u201d Albernaz said, choosing to remain positive about this freshly turned 25-year-old with star potential who has yet to realize it consistently. \u201cIt\u2019s just, nothing\u2019s falling for him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Albernaz almost shrugged, unable to explain it. In the clubhouse later, Henderson could do little else but shake his head when presented with a similar line of questioning.<\/p>\n
For a player who has excelled at every level \u2014 from the travel ball showcases through the minor leagues and even here, at the unforgiving highest level \u2014 Henderson is at a loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know how to describe it,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cProbably one of the most frustrating things I\u2019ve ever been through.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of Sunday\u2019s loss, Henderson\u2019s batting average dropped to .221. His on-base percentage is .291. And his on-base-plus-slugging percentage is .701. <\/p>\n
Before that 0-for-4 display to cap a series loss, Henderson\u2019s OPS+ was 97 \u2014 which means, for the first time in his major league career, he is performing at a below-average level (OPS+ standardizes offensive production, making 100 league average; the higher the number, the better).<\/p>\n
The Orioles, it\u2019s fair to write, have a Gunnar Henderson problem. Usually it\u2019s the other way around, with opponents cringing at the prospect of facing this dynamic player. He is still that dynamic player. He has 16 home runs, one shy of his 2025 total. But what Henderson has lacked is the average that came with that power, and the trickle-down affects the rest of the lineup.<\/p>\n
When asked during the recent West Coast road trip about Henderson still batting No. 2 most nights despite struggling, Albernaz said the Orioles want to give him as many plate appearances as possible because they know he can change the game with one swing.<\/p>\n
Be that as it may, of Orioles players with at least 100 at-bats this season, Henderson\u2019s average ranks 10th, ahead of only Coby Mayo and Tyler O\u2019Neill. His home runs raise his OPS to seventh, but his on-base percentage is ninth.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/W5LJ322U5RFLTCMZ3BKX3QNPKA.jpg\")
Gunnar Henderson\u2019s 16 home runs are one fewer than he hit last season, but his batting average and OPS have declined steeply. (Ulysses Mu\u00f1oz\/The Banner)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to think about results, but it\u2019s hard not to when crap doesn\u2019t show up for so long. So it sucks. It\u2019s baseball, but, yeah \u2026\u201d Henderson trailed off.<\/p>\n
Henderson said he and hitting coaches Dustin Lind and Brady North worked on aspects of his swing Saturday. Although he felt good Sunday, a hitless day is difficult to accept.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I\u2019ve been trying to do any and everything that I can to help the team win, because it really doesn\u2019t feel like I\u2019m doing that, offensively, at least,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cIt just sucks, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the more noticeable things about Henderson\u2019s season is that he\u2019s facing more off-speed pitches than ever. While he correctly pointed out he has done well against off-speed pitches before (and continues to handle them well when they\u2019re in the strike zone), one aspect of seeing more junk balls is the lack of fastballs.<\/p>\n
Entering Sunday, Henderson was hitting .132 against four-seam fastballs, which is the lowest mark of his career. His negative-6 run value against that pitch type is a sharp digression from 2025, when he produced a positive-7 run value against four-seamers, according to Statcast.<\/p>\n
North said those numbers include four-seamers that are outside the strike zone, and Henderson\u2019s numbers against in-zone four-seamers are still strong. That means Henderson is expanding the zone, perhaps because he\u2019s trying too hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Gunnar\u2019s making the right decisions and swinging the bat at balls in the zone, we see the results lining up. He\u2019s showing us Gunnar Henderson,\u201d North said. \u201cMaking some bad decisions, but he\u2019s working through it and he\u2019s going to be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if there\u2019s an element of pressing involved, North said: \u201cI can see Gunnar wanting to be Gunnar fast and wanting to do a lot in a short amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would help the Orioles if Henderson was his All-Star self more quickly, but his average and OPS won\u2019t rise in one game. Patience is required, especially from the player himself, to allow for better results in the future.<\/p>\n
President of baseball operations Mike Elias said what Henderson is dealing with is \u201call manageable, fixable stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/TOOMI2PFUFGDNIKMUGS72LBFA4.jpg\")
Henderson\u2019s slump has a trickle-down effect in the Orioles\u2019 lineup. (Ulysses Mu\u00f1oz\/The Banner)<\/p>\n
\u201cGunnar\u2019s working his butt off,\u201d Elias said. \u201cHe cares like crazy, and we see flashes of it. He\u2019s still very, very helpful to this team and one of the best players in baseball. I think last time I talked [to members of the media in May], I thought he was going to get going. To be answering this question again, we\u2019re probably all frustrated, including him. But he will get going.\u201d<\/p>\n
That seems to be the common sentiment. Henderson has shown too much success at this level to be discounted in the future. He produced three consecutive seasons with an OPS at .787 or higher, and he finished all the way up at .893 in 2024.<\/p>\n
The Orioles, who are seven games below .500, sorely need Henderson in the second half of the season. Maybe, just maybe, one of those balls that Albernaz referenced \u2014 the silver linings to an 0-for-4 day \u2014 will fall. And who knows what will happen then?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just, I guess, a matter of time at this point,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moral victories do not help the batting average. They do not alleviate the desperate feeling when looking up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[40976,371,1558,160718,363,160720,309796,48262,99],"class_list":["post-733086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baltimore-city","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baseball","tag-camden-yards","tag-mlb","tag-os","tag-opacy","tag-orioles","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}