Orioles, Gunnar Henderson agree to $8.5 million deal for 2026, set arbitration record

BALTIMORE — Gunnar Henderson has added another line to a rapidly growing résumé.

The Baltimore Orioles’ star shortstop agreed Thursday to a one-year, $8.5 million contract for the 2026 season, avoiding salary arbitration and setting a franchise record for a first-time arbitration-eligible player, the team announced.

The deal, reached hours before Major League Baseball’s salary-exchange deadline, underscores Henderson’s status as the centerpiece of Baltimore’s young core and offers a glimpse of how quickly the cost of contention is rising for a club that only recently emerged from a lengthy rebuild.

Henderson, 24, was eligible for arbitration for the first time after three full seasons in the majors. While the Orioles confirmed they had reached an agreement to avoid arbitration, multiple outlets reported the salary figure and noted that no multi-year extension was attached, making it a straightforward one-year pact.

Henderson remains under club control for several more seasons. Different public projections place his free agency after either the 2028 or 2029 season, depending on service-time calculations, meaning the Orioles will likely go through arbitration with him at least two or three more times if they continue the year-to-year approach.

A fast rise to franchise cornerstone

Baltimore drafted Henderson in the second round in 2019 out of John T. Morgan Academy in Selma, Alabama. He debuted in the majors in August 2022 and almost immediately became a fixture on the left side of the infield, splitting time between third base and shortstop before settling in as the club’s everyday shortstop.

His performance since then has made him one of the most decorated young players in the sport.

In 2023, his first full season, Henderson was a unanimous American League Rookie of the Year, receiving all 30 first-place votes. He became the Orioles’ first Rookie of the Year winner since reliever Gregg Olson in 1989 and the first Baltimore position player to take the award since Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. in 1982.

“I just went out there and tried to play as hard as I could each and every day,” Henderson said that November, after the award was announced.

He followed that with an All-Star selection in 2024 and back-to-back Most Valuable Oriole awards in 2023 and 2024, as voted by local media. In 2024 he hit .281 with 37 home runs and 92 RBIs, finishing fourth in AL Most Valuable Player voting.

His 2025 season, which served as the platform year for this arbitration case, was slightly less explosive but still among the league’s most valuable. Henderson appeared in 154 games, batting .274 with 17 home runs, 68 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. He produced 5.3 wins above replacement by Baseball-Reference’s calculation, ranking among the top dozen position players in the American League.

Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias, speaking in 2023 about Henderson’s impact, called watching the young infielder “a treat.”

“Everything that he does at his age, and the way he does it, it’s a treat to watch,” Elias said.

Through the 2025 season, Henderson owns a .270 career batting average with 86 home runs, 260 RBIs, a .347 on-base percentage and a .484 slugging percentage across 497 games.

That combination of production, durability, awards and age helped push his first arbitration salary to the top end of the historical range for a player at his service level — and to the top of Baltimore’s internal charts.

Part of a broader arbitration sweep

Henderson’s agreement headlined a busy day for the Orioles. The club reached deals with nine of its 11 arbitration-eligible players prior to the deadline, continuing a pattern in which Baltimore has largely avoided salary hearings under Elias’ leadership.

Outfielder Taylor Ward, acquired in November from the Los Angeles Angels for right-hander Grayson Rodriguez, agreed to a $12.175 million salary for 2026, the highest figure in the group. Star catcher Adley Rutschman, in his second year of arbitration, settled at $7.25 million. First baseman Ryan Mountcastle agreed to a $6.787 million salary plus a 2027 club option worth $7.5 million.

Left-hander Trevor Rogers, coming off a breakout season, agreed to $6.2 million in what is believed to be his final year of arbitration. Right-handers Dean Kremer ($5.75 million), Shane Baz ($3.5 million), Tyler Wells ($2.45 million) and reliever Yennier Cano ($1.6 million) also reached one-year deals.

Left-hander Keegan Akin and right-hander Kyle Bradish exchanged salary figures with the club and, absent later agreements, are positioned to proceed to hearings.

The Orioles in recent years have generally followed what is commonly called a “file-and-trial” approach, in which they stop negotiating standard one-year deals after the exchange deadline and proceed toward arbitration unless a multi-year contract or club option is involved. That structure can create additional incentive for players and agents to settle early, particularly in a first year of arbitration, when the relationship is still being defined.

The price of a young star

Henderson’s $8.5 million figure is significant not only within the organization but also in the context of how salary arbitration has evolved for elite young players.

Under the sport’s collective bargaining agreement, most players become eligible for arbitration after three years of major league service, with a smaller class of so-called “Super Two” players qualifying earlier. In arbitration, one-year salaries are typically set by comparing a player’s performance — particularly counting statistics and awards — to past players with similar service time.

Players with Rookie of the Year awards, All-Star nods and MVP votes have increasingly used that résumé to push first-year arbitration salaries higher, narrowing the gap between pre-free agency pay and open-market value. Henderson’s unanimous Rookie of the Year award, MVP-ballot finish and strong platform season placed him firmly in that upper tier.

The agreement also establishes a high starting point for any future arbitration years. Because arbitration raises are often calculated as increases off the prior year’s salary, a strong performance in 2026 could put Henderson in line for much larger figures in 2027 and beyond.

A growing bill for a growing contender

The Orioles emerged as an American League power in 2023, when they won 100 games and captured the AL East just two seasons after a 110-loss campaign. Since then, the club has been widely viewed as operating in an active contention window built around homegrown stars such as Henderson and Rutschman, supported by a deep farm system and an influx of young pitching.

That model is now transitioning from inexpensive to expensive.

Ward, Henderson and Rutschman alone will account for nearly $28 million in arbitration salaries in 2026. When the rest of the arbitration class is included, Baltimore’s commitments via the process climb well past $40 million, not counting pre-arbitration players, guaranteed contracts or any future free-agent signings.

For a franchise long regarded as a mid-market spender, the escalating cost of its own talent is forcing the front office and ownership to make choices about roster construction and long-term planning. To this point, the Orioles have not publicly announced long-term extensions for either Henderson or Rutschman, opting instead to move year to year through arbitration.

The agreement with Henderson ensures that the face of the franchise will be in place for 2026 without the strain of a hearing-room dispute. It also sharpens the focus on what comes next — both for a player on a superstar trajectory and for a club that will soon decide whether to commit to him well beyond his arbitration years.