Gunnar Henderson was one of the best shortstops in the game of baseball last season for the Baltimore Orioles. Henderson has quickly shot up the ranks in his few years for the Orioles. He was the O’s best player last year in 2024 and he’s become a great option in fantasy for the upcoming 2025 season and was a great option in 2024. Henderson had a comparable season to another top shortstop prospect in fantasy in the AL last season Bobby Witt Jr. Here’s a look at his 2024.
Gunnar Henderson 2024 Production
Henderson had a .281 batting average, 37 Home Runs, and 92 RBIs for the Orioles last season, a leap from his Rookie of the Year season in 2023. Those numbers, which also included a .364 OBP, a .893 OPS, 177 hits, 31 doubles, 7 triples, and 21 stolen bases, helped propel him to finish fourth in the AL MVP race in 2024. He also earned his first All-Star appearance as well in 2024 for the second-place Orioles.
The Orioles Shortstop also saw a huge leap in his WAR rating, going from 6.2 to 9.1, which is a substantial leap, especially when entering the second full season of your career. His strikeout percentage also decreased slightly in 2024 compared to 2023, going down from 25.6% to 22.1%, which also helped his strong fantasy production last season. Speaking about Fantasy production let’s look ahead at Henderson’s 2025 projections.
Gunnar Henderson 2025 Projections
ESPN has Henderson as the fifth-ranked overall hitter in their projections and the second-best shortstop only behind Kansas City Royal’s superstar Bobby Witt Jr. Witt Jr and Henderson will be battling for the title of best shortstop all season long but Henderson is in a great spot to potentially top him. Here are ESPN’s stat-line projections for the Baltimore 23-year-old shortstop: 35 HRs, 93 RBIs, 76 BBs, 170 Ks, 17 SBs, .278 average, .359 OBP, and .876 OPS.
That projection is not only pretty similar to his line from 2024 with a small dip, but it’s comparable to the ESPN line for Witt Jr, but the speed of Witt Jr with his projected 39 stolen bases to Henderson’s 17 is the major difference on why Witt Jr is the slightly better fantasy option at the shortstop position.
I would still rank Henderson high on fantasy draft boards and might take him over Witt Jr. because Henderson could end up with more Home Runs and RBIs. After all, Camden Yards’ dimensions did change again to make it a more hitter-friendly park than it was last season. This is especially true without Anthony Santander, who signed with Toronto in the offseason. So, more might be put on his plate, and he’ll be able to step up for the Orioles this year.
Final Thoughts
Henderson will be one of the major players in the AL MVP race once again this season in my mind and will be competing with Witt Jr for being the best shortstop in the AL once again this season and will be worthy of a high first-round pick in fantasy redraft formats in various platforms including ESPN. He will also make you a lot of money in DFS lineups when the Orioles play this upcoming season. You can go either way in terms of these two shortstops of him or Witt Jr., but I think Henderson has a slightly higher ceiling this year because of the team around him.
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