Gunnar Henderson’s September with Orioles is off to a truly awful start

For a franchise built on the backs of its young stars, September could’ve been the stage where Gunnar Henderson re-established himself as the face of the Baltimore Orioles’ resurgence. Instead, what’s unfolded so far has been the exact opposite. Through the first week of the month, the Silver Slugger looks more like a ghost in the batter’s box than the MVP-caliber shortstop fans have come to expect. In seven September games as of September 11, Henderson has managed just two hits in 25 at-bats, slashing an anemic .080/.258/.080 while striking out seven times — already half of his total from the entire month of July.

Slumps are part of the game, but when your franchise cornerstone is posting a .338 OPS in the season’s final stretch, alarm bells start ringing. Henderson has still logged over 130 games in 2025 despite an early injury setback, but even zooming out from this September slump reveals a year that simply hasn’t measured up to his own lofty standards.

After finishing top-10 in MVP voting in 2023 and 2024, winning Rookie of the Year and a Silver Slugger in 2023, and earning an All-Star nod in 2024, Henderson seemed destined to only climb higher. Instead, he enters mid-September with just 16 home runs, putting him on track for the lowest full-season total of his career after never dipping below 20.

Gunnar Henderson’s struggles add to Orioles’ 2025 frustrations

The struggles wouldn’t sting as much if they weren’t emblematic of a larger Orioles collapse. Henderson isn’t alone. Star catcher Adley Rutschman couldn’t stay healthy long enough to make his usual impact. Heston Kjerstad was demoted after failing to hit much at all. The veterans who offered stability — Ramon Laureano, Ryan O’Hearn — were dealt at the trade deadline in a fire sale that gutted the clubhouse. What was left was an inconsistent group of youngsters trying to learn on the fly, with the lone silver lining being top prospect Dylan Beavers emerging as a late-season bright spot.

For Henderson, the slump is as much symbolic as it is statistical. The Orioles’ vision of a dynasty built around Henderson, Rutschman, and an endless wave of Baby Birds was supposed to carry Baltimore into contention deep into the decade. Instead, 2025 has felt like a step backward, both for the team and its centerpiece shortstop.

Still, baseball has a way of flipping narratives quickly. Henderson has shown before that he can heat up in an instant, and his track record suggests he’s too talented to stay down for long. Whether he salvages his numbers this month or carries the frustration into the offseason, one thing is clear: as Gunnar Henderson goes, so do the Baltimore Orioles. And right now, both player and team are searching for answers.

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