Orioles Still Have Excellent Franchise Cornerstone Despite Poor Season

It has been an extremely disappointing season for the Baltimore Orioles, who haven’t been able to bounce back from a slow start.

Coming into the year, the Orioles were expected to be one of the best teams in the American League. Baltimore has been a team that has been very successful in recent campaigns, but have been unable to get going this season.

Even though they have struggled, there is still some good talent on the roster.

Some of the veterans will likely be traded this summer if the team decides to become sellers, but there is still a young core to build around.

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While that group might have looked better even a couple of months ago, there is still some hope that this year could end up being an outlier.

Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the cornerstone player for the Orioles being their star shortstop Gunnar Henderson.

“Henderson missed the first week of the season with an intercostal strain, and it took him another week to get going once he returned to action. Since April 12, though, he has looked an awful lot like the star who was named AL Rookie of the Year in 2023.”

One of the main reasons why the offense for Baltimore got off to a bad start was because of the absence of Henderson.

The former AL Rookie of the Year missed some time, and then it understandably took him some time to get going when he returned.

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Despite the slow start, the numbers are starting to come around for the 23-year-old. This season, he has slashed 274/.335/.440 with eight home runs and 19 RBI. Even though those aren’t bad stats, it’s still way below his career numbers.

In 2024, Henderson was in the conversation for the AL MVP in just his second full campaign. The talented shortstop is still one of the best young players in the game despite a poor year by his standards.

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When looking at the future of the team, Henderson is still very much the cornerstone player for Baltimore. Unfortunately, another young player in Adley Rutschman has struggled for about a year now, which has really been disappointing and has negatively impacted the team.

Even though this hasn’t been a good season for the Orioles, having a franchise cornerstone like Henderson can help the franchise turn things around quickly.

If they do end up selling at the deadline and trade some of their veterans, they could help replenish what was a great farm system not too long ago.

For more Orioles news, head over to Orioles On SI.