The accolades keep pouring in for the Orioles.
A day after four Orioles were named American League All-Stars and just hours after Adley Rutschman announced he will be participating in the Home Run Derby, two Baltimore players received monthly awards by Major League Baseball.
Infielder Gunnar Henderson and closer Félix Bautista were both recognized by the league for their impressive performances in June. Henderson was named the AL Rookie of the Month, while Bautista was picked as the AL Reliever of the Month.
Henderson was Baltimore’s best hitter in June, stepping up after leadoff hitter Cedric Mullins, the Orioles’ top offensive performer through the first two months, landed on the injured list. The 21-year-old slashed .320/.354/.640 — good for a .994 OPS — with four doubles, six home runs, 16 RBIs and three stolen bases.
He is the first Oriole to win the award since Ryan Mountcastle in June 2021.
Henderson opened the season as the consensus No. 1 prospect in the sport, but stumbled out of the gate. While displaying an impressive batting eye and keen plate discipline, Henderson struggled making consistent contact and was hitting below .200 for the vast majority of the season’s first two months.
He started to heat up in late May and then broke out in the second week of June, hitting .526 with a whopping 1.603 OPS to earn AL Player of the Week honors. He capped off the best week of his career with a majestic home run at Camden Yards estimated at 462 feet — the farthest ever hit onto Eutaw Street.
“It’s definitely going through those struggles, it just goes to show you that you’re going to get through it at some point and just stick with the process of it,” Henderson said. “I feel like that’s been a big thing that I’ve learned so far.”
On the season, Henderson is hitting .239 with a .794 OPS, and his 1.7 wins above replacement on FanGraphs ranks fourth on the team.
Bautista, meanwhile, was recognized as the top reliever in the Junior Circuit for the second month this season. After earning the award in April, Bautista was his usual dominant self in June, tallying seven saves and allowing just one run in 10 2/3 innings. He struck out 22 of the 39 batters he faced in June for a strikeout rate of 56.4%.
Bautista on Sunday was one of the four players, along with catcher Adley Rutschman, outfielder Austin Hays and setup man Yennier Cano, to be named AL All-Stars for the first time in their careers. The 6-foot-8 right-hander is on pace to shatter several MLB strikeout records, including the strikeouts-per-nine-innings record that Aroldis Chapman set in 2014. Chapman struck out 17.7 batters per nine innings that year; Bautista this year is striking out 18.4.
When Bautista first won the award, he was the first Oriole to do so since Jim Johnson in May 2012 when the honor was named the “Delivery Man of the Month” award. Now, he’s won it twice in one season.
Baltimore Sun reporter Nathan Ruiz contributed to this story from New York.
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