Gunnar Henderson is not Chris Davis. But he's enduring the kind of season that the Orioles' single-season home run king knows something about.
Davis was inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony Saturday, then joined the MASN broadcast in the third inning of the Orioles game with the Philadelphia Phillies. Asked what advice he'd give Henderson — who's having his least productive year at the plate since he was called up in 2022 — Davis didn't hesitate.
"Just keep going, bud. You're a great player. You have a track record. You're going to get through this. You just kind of have to ride it out and weather the storm," Davis said. "I know that's easier said than done, but these guys are good players. They're so much fun to watch."
The numbers back up how far off Henderson's pace is from his own standard. From 2023 through 2025, he slashed .271/.347/.487 and averaged nearly six wins above replacement a season, winning 2023 AL Rookie of the Year, finishing fourth in AL MVP voting in 2024 on the strength of 37 home runs. This year, he's hitting .219/.291/.394 with 16 homers — a career-worst line by a wide margin.
He's had good moments - like Friday night's tie reaking triple against the Phillies - but has also endured his share of hard luck on hard-hit balls.
Davis has lived a more extreme version of that swing. He hit 53 home runs in 2013, still the Orioles' single-season franchise record, and followed it with a seven-year, $161 million contract. By 2018, he was hitting .168 — the lowest batting average in MLB history for a qualified hitter — and eventually retired in 2021 after hip surgery.
Henderson, who is playing on a one-year, $8.5 million contract in his first of three scheduled arbitration years before becoming a free agent after 2028, turns 25 next June and is halfway through a season nobody, including Davis, expected.
"I was hopeful when the season started that it would go better than it's been going, but there's still hope," Davis said. "You still have a shot. So you just keep fighting, you keep clawing, you keep digging until it's all said and done."