Gunnar Henderson and 2 Orioles eyeing major career milestones in 2026

Baseball keeps track of many records. Some of them are famous, like the all-time home run record or the consecutive games played record. Most of them are obscure and ridiculous and loaded with qualifiers that make them borderline meaningless. The Baltimore Orioles have a couple of players in position to set legitimate franchise and MLB records this season.

Gunnar Henderson: Fastest Oriole to 100 career home runs

The current record holder for fewest games taken to hit 100 home runs in Orioles history is Trey Mancini, who hit his 100th career homer in his 531st career game. Henderson currently sits at 86 career homers in 497 games.

That means that he would need to hit 14 home runs in his first 34 games this season. After only hitting 17 home runs all season last year, it sounds like a lot to ask of him, but Henderson did hit 10 home runs in his first 28 games of the 2024 season, so he's capable of the kind of power surge he would need to reach Mancini's record. Plus, Henderson was on fire in the WBC. If he can carry that momentum into the season, he has what it takes to run down Mancini.

Pete Alonso: Most home runs in a single season in Orioles history and most home runs for a player in their first season with a team

This one is a two-for-one record. The current record for most home runs in the first season with a team is 53, and is held by Alonso himself. If he were to eclipse his own home run record, he would also set the Orioles franchise record for home runs in a single season, which is also 53 and held by Chris Davis.

Players capable of hitting 50 home runs are rare, so it's not often that either of these home run records Alonso will be chasing is threatened. This is the only year Alonso will be able to chase the most homers in a first year with the team record with the Orioles, and just factoring in age, probably his best shot at taking down Chris Davis' record.

Kyle Bradish: Highest single season K/9 in Orioles franchise history

The Orioles have a storied history of pitching, making many of the single-season statistical milestones seem impossibly difficult to reach. However, the record for high single-season K/9 is still attainable. The current record holder for the Baltimore Orioles is Erik Bedard, who had a K/9 of 10.9 in 2007.

Bradish already has the third-highest mark in franchise history at 9 in 2023. In the following seasons, he did not pitch nearly enough to qualify for the record, but his K/9 number was well above Bedard's record. He reached 12.1 in 2024 and 13.2 in 2025. Obviously, those numbers would be hard to sustain over a full season, but he has a lot of cushion between where he's been recently and the record mark of 10.9.