Gunnar Henderson, who turned 23 years old Saturday, was showered with birthday wishes as players arrived at the clubhouse pregame. Nick Vespi took the opportunity to poke fun at Henderson’s youth.

“What are you now, 21?” Vespi asked.

Henderson, through a smile, held up a two and a three with his fingers while he passed the reliever’s locker to correct him.

What the shortstop is doing in his second full season with the Orioles would be astonishing for a 21-year-old. They’re still otherworldly at 23.

With Baltimore just past the midway point of 2024 and its star shortstop turning a year older while in the midst of a stellar season, here are six numbers before Saturday night’s game against the Rangers that show the company Henderson has placed himself in.

142

In many ways, Henderson is on pace to accomplish feats few have done at his age in MLB history. He has the sixth highest wRC+, an all-encompassing metric that defines a player’s total offensive impact where 100 is league average, in the last 50 years among players with at least 1,000 plate appearances before their 23rd birthday.

Most of the players he trails are likely headed to the Hall of Fame. His 142 career wRC+ is only behind Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Fernando Tatis Jr., Juan Soto and Yasiel Puig.

6.0

Henderson’s FanGraphs wins above replacement, or fWAR, is best in MLB this season. It’s also the fourth most of any player in a single season over the last two years, and he’s only midway through this campaign.

He boasts a 6.0 fWAR, which trails only Shohei Ohtani, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien’s 2023 marks of 6.5, 6.1 and 6.1, respectively. And those totals were across full seasons — Henderson’s close to catching them in just 81 games. Aaron Judge at 5.7 is the only player from this season on his tail.

It’s also the most fWAR a player has posted through this point in the season since Barry Bonds in 2002.Turn to Numbers, Page 2

Henderson’s career OPS is .871, which puts him in an exclusive list of players to maintain an OPS above .850 with at least 250 games played before turning 23.

The most recent 12 players to do so is an impressive group. It features current or future Hall of Famers Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr. and Miguel Cabrera, former Most Valuable Players like Trout, Alex Rodriguez, Giancarlo Stanton, Bryce Harper and Ronald Acuna Jr., and perennial All-Stars Soto, Tatis and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The Orioles shortstop is the latest to join that group. His career is well on pace to unfold similarly.

9

There are just nine Orioles to accrue 6.0 or more Baseball Reference wins above replacement this century. Henderson’s now done it twice, despite one of those campaigns only being halfway completed.

Manny Machado is the only other Oriole to do it twice, in 2015 and 2016. Nick Markakis, Miguel Tejada, Chris Davis, Brian Roberts and Jonathan Schoop have each done it once.

But none of those players eclipsed 7.5 bWAR. That was Machado in 2015, his age-22 season. If Henderson continues his pace, he’ll blow through that mark in just weeks.

76

Henderson is the 76th player in MLB history to collect at least 13.2 Baseball Reference wins above replacement through his age-23 season. If Henderson continues on his torrid pace this year, he will move up to 31st all-time in bWAR for players through their age-23 seasons, between Hall of Famers Tris Speaker and Joe DiMaggio.

Since Henderson was born in 2001, only 16 other players have accrued at least 13.2 bWAR through their age-23 season. Henderson is on pace to rank seventh on that list behind some of the biggest names in baseball this century: Soto, Trout, Pujols, Harper, Machado and Carlos Correa.

500

Henderson is one of only 23 players in MLB history to surpass 500 total bases before turning 23. He has the 16th most among that group, ahead of Hall of Famers Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron and Stan Musial.

He’s one of just seven active players on that list, behind Tatis, Trout, Acuna and Julio Rodriguez and ahead of Soto and Guerrero.