Gunnar Henderson’s third full Major League season was another success, as the infielder hit .274/.349/.438 with 17 home runs over 651 plate appearances. It was more or less a match for the 2023 season that earned Henderson AL Rookie of the Year honors — Henderson posted a 122 wRC+ and 4.7 fWAR that year, and a 120 wRC+ and 4.8 fWAR in 2025.
Last season’s numbers were, however, a step back from the 154 wRC+ and 7.9 fWAR Henderson delivered in 2024. Henderson missed most of Spring Training and the first week of regular-season action recovering from an intercostal strain, but the shortstop revealed Thursday that he also spent about “three-quarters of the year” dealing with a heretofore unknown shoulder impingement.
In an interview on WBAL’s Orioles Hot Stove Show (hat tip to MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko), Henderson said “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.” Despite his solid production, Henderson “could never get to the spot that I wanted to get to with my swing, but no excuse. Just had to play through it and felt like I still with all those circumstances put up a decent year. Looking forward to being healthy this year and getting back to my normal self.”
The injury wasn’t serious enough to merit a trip to the injured list, or even any missed time, as Henderson played in 154 of 155 games after being activated from the IL on April 4. Since the Orioles faded from contention pretty early in the season, the team certainly should’ve shut down Henderson or at least reduced his playing time if there was any real concern over his shoulder.
With Henderson now predicting good health for 2026, the shoulder impingement can probably just be written off as a yet another footnote within an injury-riddled season for the Orioles roster. Getting the 2024 version of Henderson back would go a long way towards helping the O’s return to playoff contention after their disappointing 75-win campaign.
Having Framber Valdez in the rotation would also be a huge boost, and the possibility of a big rotation add remains alive since the Orioles have been linked to the free agent southpaw’s market. This isn’t the first time Baltimore has looked to acquire Valdez, however, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon report that the left-hander was part of a four-player trade package the Astros were prepared to send to the O’s for Zack Britton at the 2017 trade deadline.
It was known at the time that a Britton trade fell apart at the last minute between the two sides, with the Orioles reportedly pulling out due to medical concerns over two of the players involved. Houston’s side of the deal wasn’t known until now, as Rosenthal/Sammon report that the Astros were offering Valdez (then a somewhat unheralded Double-A prospect), J.D. Davis, Jason Martin, and Rogelio Armenteros for Britton, who was in the midst of an injury-shortened season but was arguably baseball’s best closer when healthy.
While initial reports said the Orioles took issue with the medical of both pitchers (Armenteros and Valdez) in the trade offer, Rosenthal/Sammon write that Baltimore’s issue was just with Armenteros. Former Orioles owner Peter Angelos was somewhat notorious for his caution over pitcher health, leading to several trades or free agent signings that were renegotiated at the eleventh hour, or abandoned altogether.
Armenteros’ MLB career ended up consisting of five appearances for the Astros in 2019 and he missed the entire 2020 season due to surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow. In this context, it’s hard to say the Orioles were incorrect in their concern, though Arementeros ended up being the least-accomplished of the four players Houston offered. Beyond just Valdez, Davis became a very productive infielder once the Astros traded him to the Mets during the 2018-19 offseason, and that breakout could’ve very well happened in Baltimore rather than in New York. Martin’s MLB career consisted of 85 games with the Pirates and Rangers from 2019-21, but Martin was one of the four players the Astros sent to Pittsburgh for Gerrit Cole prior to the 2018 season.
The Astros went onto win the 2017 World Series anyway without Britton, and Valdez ended up being a cornerstone piece of the team’s success over the last decade. While Houston’s front office (which included current Orioles president of baseball ops Mike Elias at the time) was surely irritated when the Orioles pulled the plug on the Britton trade, the team came out on top in the long run, and it’s another example of how you just never know which prospect might end up as the key figure of a trade package.
In fairness to the O’s, there wasn’t much indication at the time that Valdez would turn into a frontline starter, and it is possible Valdez wouldn’t have developed as well as he did in Baltimore’s organization rather than in Houston. The 2017 season was the first of five straight losing seasons for the Orioles as they entered a rebuilding period under Elias, and it is interesting to wonder how having Valdez (and Davis) around might’ve changed the trajectory of that rebuild.