Baltimore Orioles Superstar Ranked Top Shortstop, Among MVP Favorites

This Baltimore Orioles star was recently ranked as the league's top shortstop. He's also among the American League's MVP favorites.

Ryan Reynolds | Feb 2, 2025

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Baltimore Orioles

Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson was ranked by MLB.com as the top shortstop in baseball. That’s quite a meteoric rise for the former American League Rookie of the Year, who will turn 24 in late June.

What’s truly unique about Henderson’s ascension is roughly this time last year MLB.com ranked him as the sixth best third baseman. Henderson’s eventual move to shortstop was expected, but it’s still rare for a young player to produce at an elite level at two positions. Henderson has already made a tremendous impact for the Orioles.

Aside from a five-year run from 2012-16, winning baseball has been elusive in Baltimore since the turn of the century. Henderson’s arrival in 2022 coincided with the Orioles' current resurgence, with Baltimore making the playoffs in each of Henderson’s two full seasons. In fact, the Orioles have won 192 regular season games over the past two years. Only the Dodgers and Braves have won more regular season games over that span.

Collectively, not only is Henderson one of the league’s rising stars, but he's a big reason why the Orioles are one of the better teams in baseball. That duality has him among the preseason contenders in the American League MVP race. He finished fourth in last year's voting and in the Top 10 in 2023.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has won two of the last three American League MVPs. Former Angels unicorn Shohei Ohtani has won two of the last four, including a third in the National League last season. Ohtani's move to the NL opens a significantly-sized door for other contenders to challenge Judge over the next few seasons.

Gunnar Henderson heads for home with dirt on his chest at Yankee Stadium

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Henderson, Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez make up the primary challengers to Judge's MVP crown. You could easily argue that baseball is the most analytics heavy of the major sports. Advanced data plays a major role in who wins the MVP in both leagues.

Wins Above Replacement (WAR), is the centerpiece of advanced analytics. Last season Judge was the leader in WAR at 10.8, while Witt was actually second at 9.4. WAR Ohtani led the NL with 9.2 WAR, which was third overall in the entire league. Henderson was fourth, with a 9.1 WAR.

In 2024 Henderson hit 37 home runs (9th) with an .893 OPS (11th), which are both impactful stats for MVP purposes and very high for a shortstop. Ultimately, Henderson has already shown that he can produce at an MVP-caliber level, in his age 23 season. Expect him to be a factor in this race for years to come, and a top contender in 2025.

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