The Orioles May Already Have One Answer to Their Defensive Problems

The Baltimore Orioles have a lot to fix this offseason defensively, but Gunnar Henderson probably isn't where they should start looking for answers.

That may be easy to overlook after a season in which Henderson struggled to look like the player Baltimore expected him to become. His .225 average and .712 OPS were both career lows, and his offensive decline became one of the more noticeable parts of a second straight losing season.

Defensively, though, the picture is considerably different.

Henderson was one of only three Orioles to finish the season with a positive Outs Above Average, joining Colton Cowser and Christian Encarnacion-Strand. His plus-one mark wasn't overwhelming, but it placed him on the right side of a defensive group that finished 22nd in the majors with minus-18 OAA.

That distinction matters as the Orioles figure out what their roster should look like in 2027.

According to MASN's Roch Kubatko, Baltimore's infield could already be close to settled with Henderson at shortstop, Jordan Westburg at third, Jackson Holliday at second and Pete Alonso at first. The outfield, meanwhile, remains much less certain, with the Orioles finishing the season with a minus-nine OAA and allowing more unearned runs than any team in baseball.

The organization's challenge is figuring out how to improve that defense without taking too much away from an offense that still needs to score.

Mike Elias acknowledged that balancing act earlier this season.

“I think we knew going into this that the team wasn’t built around defense, but we could have played better than we have been,” Elias said, according to Kubatko. “When you have some defensive lapses, it’s going to show up in close games.”

That puts more importance on the players Baltimore already knows it can trust.

Henderson is one of them.

Manager Craig Albernaz spent much of his final week talking about execution and the importance of getting players to consistently handle the small details of the game. He pointed to the defensive work the Orioles continued doing throughout the season, including cuts and relays and pitcher fielding practice.

“The defensive play was the biggest driver,” Albernaz told reporters Monday, according to Kubatko.

That message probably applies to Henderson differently than it does to some of the other players Baltimore will have to evaluate.

The Orioles don't need to figure out whether Henderson belongs at shortstop. They need to get more out of the rest of the defense around him while helping Henderson return to the offensive form that once made him one of baseball's most dangerous young players.

Henderson himself seemed to understand that distinction when discussing his season with MLB.com's Jake Rill. Rather than blaming his struggles entirely on what was bothering him physically, he admitted there were stretches when he was trying to force things to happen.

“Some of it was probably a little bit of doing too much in certain situations, just not allowing myself to take over,” Henderson said. “And then, me trying to force stuff to happen.”

That is an important place for Baltimore to start.

Henderson doesn't need to become someone different in 2027. The Orioles need to put him in a position where the player they already know he can be shows up more consistently — while the organization builds a defense around the pieces it already has.