Despite wrist issue, Gunnar doesn't want to make excuses for down '26

NEW YORK -- Asked the question late Friday night inside the visitors’ clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, Gunnar Henderson hesitated for a moment. His reluctance to answer shows exactly the type of competitor that the Orioles’ shortstop is.

In 2025, Henderson played through a left shoulder impingement for much of the season -- an ailment that impacted his play, but didn’t become public knowledge until he shared it last offseason. Has there been anything similar bothering the 25-year-old in ‘26?

Henderson paused, then divulged some new details.

“I really don’t like making excuses, because everybody’s banged up at this point in the year. But yeah, I had a little [right] wrist issue going on,” Henderson said. “But I felt like bat knob changes helped that out. So it was just minor, getting that a little bit better. But like I said, everybody’s banged up at this point in the year. It just sucks that it happened. It is what it is.”

It makes sense that Henderson may not have been close to 100 percent for periods of this season. In fact, he said the wrist bothered him for “pretty much half the year.”

Henderson can be a star player. He’s shown it. In 2023, he was an All-Star who placed fourth in American League MVP Award voting. He hit 37 home runs and posted an .893 OPS, both highs for his five-year MLB career.

The numbers have trended in the wrong direction since. This year, Henderson has especially struggled, hitting only .225 with a .714 OPS, both career lows. The power has still been there (24 homers), but the 2019 second-round Draft pick and former top prospect hasn’t looked quite like the player capable of taking over games for much of the year.

There have been small glimpses. But not like it was early in Henderson’s career, when he was a burgeoning superstar.

If it wasn’t the wrist injury, then what was it?

“Some of it was probably a little bit of doing too much in certain situations, just not allowing myself to take over. And then, me trying to force stuff to happen,” Henderson said. “That’s some of it, and then some of it was obviously just swing feels and stuff. When I get to that point in the offseason, I’m excited to go to work on that, because I’ve felt like I’ve felt a lot of good here recently. It’s just a matter of putting that all together and being able to be confident in that.”

Henderson knows he can still be one of the best players in the sport. He didn’t forget how to play baseball overnight.

“Obviously, a couple games here and there, I’ve shown it’s still in there. It’s not a matter of it just disappearing one day,” Henderson said. “It’s just the game. Obviously, the pitchers are getting paid, too, and they’re getting paid to make adjustments to you and get you out. So, I feel like they did a really good job of making adjustments, and I just didn’t make that adjustment that I needed this year.”

When manager Craig Albernaz was asked about Henderson’s season prior to the Orioles’ doubleheader split vs. the Yankees in New York on Friday, the first-year skipper was quick to point out the shortstop’s availability. It’s not easy to play 157 games (like Henderson has), especially at such a premier position.

But one thing Albernaz believes can help Henderson going forward is the emergence of first baseman Pete Alonso as a team leader. Henderson doesn’t need to put as much pressure on himself to singlehandedly carry the team, because Alonso has shown he can carry a large chunk of that responsibility.

“Gunnar doesn’t have to shoulder the load,” Albernaz said. “He can go out and be the best version of himself, and the best version of Gunnar is his ability to play baseball, his ability to run the bases, to play good defense, to hit the ball to all fields. He doesn’t have to be the sole guy taking on all the weight.”

The Orioles (79-82) have one game remaining on the 2026 schedule -- Sunday’s series finale at Yankee Stadium. Then, Henderson and his teammates will part ways, beginning their offseasons without experiencing any postseason baseball.

As much as Henderson wants to get back on track from an individual standpoint, what bothers him most is the team’s lack of success. Baltimore has now missed the playoffs in back-to-back years, after previously reaching the postseason in both 2023 and ‘24.

Henderson got a taste of October, and he wants more than anything to get back there.

“The postseason is something that I myself have as the mindset going into every year, and I feel like that’s the same for every individual in here,” Henderson said. “Obviously, not being able to get back to the postseason this year is a failed year for us. So I feel like that’s something that’s going to be, for me at least, sitting on my mind. Because I want to play postseason baseball every year, and that’s something that I enjoy playing and want to do each and every year. Take it into the offseason and prepare for the postseason next year.”

If Henderson can return to form in 2027, then there shouldn’t be any reason why Baltimore can’t do that.