ARLINGTON, Texas — Corey Seager is not old — not even by baseball standards.
In his 10th MLB season, the Rangers shortstop turned 30 years old only three months ago. Since his time as a youngster with the Los Angeles Dodgers to now a defending champion with the Rangers, Seager has been one of the game’s best shortstops with five All-Star appearances on his resume.
But at the All-Star Game last week, he entered as a substitute for a player seven years his junior — a shortstop who grew up as his fan. Gunnar Henderson, the Orioles’ superstar, has said Seager was his favorite player as a teenager, but his fandom isn’t one-sided.
Seager is now a fan of Henderson, too.
“I mean, obviously a big compliment,” Seager said. “It’s a mutual feeling, for sure.”
Seager was an American League All-Star alongside Henderson last week at the Rangers’ Globe Life Field. It was a weird feeling for him to be one of the older players at the Midsummer Classic and to learn his young teammates have memories of watching Seager when they were in high school.
When Seager debuted for the Dodgers in 2015, Henderson had just begun his freshman year of high school. When Seager in 2019 bounced back from an injury and led the National League with 44 doubles, Henderson was drafted in the second round by the Orioles. When Seager signed a 10-year, $325 million contract with the Rangers in 2021, Henderson was about nine months away from making his MLB debut at 21 years old — the same age Seager was when he made his.
Henderson, last season’s AL Rookie of the Year, has emerged this year as one of baseball’s best players. He is a legitimate candidate for the AL Most Valuable Player Award, currently with the second-best odds behind New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge.
While the Orioles were swept by the Rangers in last year’s AL Division Series, Henderson was perhaps Baltimore’s best player with six hits and a home run in three games. Seager said what Henderson is doing, especially at a young age, is “very impressive.”
“Just watching how he competed and how he performed in the playoffs, too, in big moments being that young, it’s special,” Seager said. “He’s a really good player, and he’s going to be a good player for a long time.”
As Henderson’s dreams of being a professional baseball player started to become realistic in high school, he looked up to Seager as a bigger shortstop. Seager is 6 feet 4 and 215 pounds, while Henderson is 6-3, 220. As a prospect, Henderson’s high-end comparison was Seager — one made because of their similar size. He split time between shortstop and third base last season, but he’s been the Orioles’ full-time shortstop this season.
“I think just the pure abilities they both have, the way they carry themselves as star shortstops in this game, is pretty similar,” Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg said. “I’m sure that Gunnar looks up to him. You can definitely see it. It’s very understandable when somebody says, ‘Gunnar’s going to be like Corey Seager.” For sure, I can definitely see it.”
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It’s common for bigger shortstops to later move to third base because of their size, but that’s less often the case in today’s game. Seager and Henderson’s success is part of the reason.
“The day I was drafted they told me I would move to third base before even seeing you play,” Seager said. “It’s something that just is what it is. You just go out and play and compete and perform and try to stay there as long as you can.”
Of course, the shortstops before them paved the way. Most notably, Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. at 6-4, 200 pounds was seen by some as too big to play short. Like Henderson, he mostly played third base to begin his career, playing there for the first half of his AL Rookie of the Year campaign in 1982. But beginning that summer, he played 2,216 consecutive games at shortstop on his way to a record 2,632 straight starts.
The knock on bigger shortstops is how their size will impact their defense — specifically their range and ability to make the quick-twitch plays the position demands. But Ripken showed in the 1980s that he could overcome any challenges caused by his size with his smarts and skill with the glove. Alex Rodriguez did the same in the 1990s and early 2000s, as did Seager in the 2010s and now Henderson in the 2020s.
While Henderson’s prowess at the plate — earning him a place in the Home Run Derby — is what’s making him an MVP candidate, he’s also been one of the AL’s best defensive shortstops, ranking third in the circuit in Statcast’s outs above average.
“I really enjoy watching Corey Seager play,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “I saw him when he first came up with LA, and you watched how easy he played the game defensively. The ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, that’s very similar [to Henderson]. Shortstops don’t normally run 6-4, 225, and to have guys that are that athletic, have that build and play the middle of the field is incredibly impressive.”
Seager said Hall of Famer Derek Jeter is who he looked up to growing up — more because of his intangibles. Another Orioles infielder looked up to Seager, who possesses a calm demeanor at a position where flash is often rewarded, for those reasons.
Westburg, an All-Star as well, entered the Midsummer Classic at the same time as Seager, playing second base next to a shortstop he admired when he was in high school. Amid his breakout sophomore campaign, Westburg is earning praise for the same traits he liked Seager for — his consistency and even-keeled attitude.
“I remember watching him as a rookie when I was in high school,” Westburg said. “The way he handled himself, the way he played the game, his skillset — I don’t know why, I just kind of gravitated towards his game.”
Marcus Semien, the Rangers’ second baseman who was also an All-Star, said he sees Seager in Henderson’s game.
“The power that Gunnar’s showing reminds me of Corey,” Semien said. “He’s a big boy. He looks like he’s about 6-4 and he steals bases.”
Orioles co-hitting coach Matt Borgschulte agrees with the comparison. Seager, the MVP runner-up last year, has hit 84 long balls across the past three seasons, while Henderson’s 28 this season rank third in MLB behind only Judge and Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.
“They both have that short, quick swing that’s still able to produce a ton of power,” Borgschulte said. “They’re both strong, well-built players. It’s certainly easy to draw some similarities between them.”
The All-Star nod likely won’t be the last for Henderson. Perhaps in a decade, the newest crop of young shortstops will talk about how they looked up to Henderson growing up.
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What’s to come?
Ryan O’Hearn has a bruised left knee after taking a 95 mph fastball off it Saturday. It won’t stop him from achieving his Monday plans.
“I’m definitely going to enjoy the off day in Miami,” he said.
Who wouldn’t?
After the day off, the Orioles take on the lowly Marlins — an NL-worst 35-64 — in a three-game series before returning home for a weekend set against a San Diego team that is in a three-way tie for the Senior Circuit’s final wild-card spot.
Friday’s contest against the Padres (52-50) will mark only Manny Machado’s second time back at Camden Yards since the Orioles traded him at the 2018 deadline. He first returned in June 2019, homering in the series opener and receiving cheers from Baltimore fans.
What was good?
The break.
Despite Sunday’s 3-2 loss in which the bats went cold, this weekend’s series against the Rangers was a breath of fresh air for an Orioles team that entered the All-Star break reeling. Baltimore (60-39) went 9-13 across its final 22 games, including 1-5 in the final week. The main problem was the offense, which averaged 2.92 runs per game in the club’s final 13 contests of the first half.
The hypothesis for the downturn was that the team was feeling the effects of a brutal June that gave Baltimore only one day off. That theory was perhaps proven true Friday and Saturday, when the Orioles combined to hit seven homers and score 17 runs. It’s possible the only thing Baltimore needed to start hitting like baseball’s best offense was a little break.
“I think it’s a chance for guys to take a little bit of a breath, realize how much success we’ve had in the first half,” Borgschulte said. “The recent struggles that we had are a thing of the past.”
What wasn’t?
The Orioles had five players in the All-Star Game. Three of them started. Corbin Burnes pitched a scoreless inning. Anthony Santander singled and scored the winning run. When real baseball resumed, Baltimore’s bats broke out Friday and Saturday, and the Orioles won the series over the Rangers.
What wasn’t good? Check back next week.
On the farm
As busy as the week was for the Orioles between the All-Star festivities and the series in Texas, it was even more so for the farm system.
Baltimore drafted 21 players last week. The organization stuck to its philosophy of preferring college players over high schoolers and using its early selections for position players over pitchers.
High-A Aberdeen pitchers Zach Fruit, Deivy Cruz, Preston Johnson and Kyle Virbitsky on Friday threw a combined no-hitter against the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Nationals). It was the second combined no-hitter by an Orioles affiliate this season after prospect Chayce McDermott and Triple-A Norfolk achieved the feat in May.
Top prospect Jackson Holliday returned to playing defense this weekend after missing the past month nursing an elbow injury. The 20-year-old will spend the second half lobbying for a call-up back to Baltimore, and if he keeps hitting like he did this weekend, it might not be long. He went 4-for-8 with two homers, two walks and six RBIs to improve his OPS in Triple-A to .948.