Gunnar Henderson projects to top pre-arbitration bonus payouts, but is he still undervalued?

Gunnar Henderson leads the way on a list of baseball’s best young players

Chicago Cubs v Baltimore Orioles
Chicago Cubs v Baltimore Orioles / G Fiume/GettyImages

In 2022 Major League Baseball and the MLBPA agreed to add language to the collective bargaining agreement that would help younger players make more money. $50 million is now allocated every year to be divided up among the top 100 pre-arbitration players.

The first projection of the payouts was recently released, and to no surprise it is Baltimore Orioles superstar Gunnar Henderson who projects to earn the most. The $1,325,021 is over $130,000 more than Bobby Witt Jr., who projects to make the second most, but it still doesn’t seem like enough.

Last season Henderson earned $1,428,001 from the pre-arbitration bonus pool and that was the eighth most money anyone earned. He did get a $750,00 bump by earning Rookie of the Year, which obviously he can’t win again but he should get an even bigger bump this season. The agreement awards bonuses for any eligible player that wins certain end-of-season awards.

Gunnar Henderson can increase his total payout with a top-5 MVP finish

A player can win $2.5 million for winning an MVP or Cy Young, $1.75 million for finishing second, $1.5 for third and $1 million for fourth or fifth. Henderson is certainly in the top three of MVP voting at the moment and he’s having a much better season than he had as a rookie.

After the award bonus money is given, the remaining money is divided up by a WAR calculation created by the MLB union and the MLBPA. Whatever that calculation may be, it will give Henderson more than he made last season.

He’s already matched his home run total from 2023, surpassed his steals total and is on pace to tie or pass his runs, hits, doubles, triples and RBI’s while currently batting 31 points better.

Other Orioles to appear on the list are Jordan Westburg ($580,918), Adley Rutschman ($543,319), Colton Cowser ($435,391), Grayson Rodriguez ($382,274) and Kyle Bradish ($246,372). If everything stays the same it would bring the Orioles total to $3,513,295 but I expect that number to increase. 

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