Baltimore and Henderson agreed to a one-year, $8.5 million deal for 2026, and that number is loud. It’s well above the $6.6 million projection MLB Trade Rumors had pegged for him earlier in the offseason, which tells you two things at once. First, the Orioles know exactly what they have. Second, the Henderson extension conversation is only getting more expensive from here.
For context, this is the largest Arb-1 salary the franchise has ever handed out, topping Adley Rutschman’s $5.5 million Arb-1 deal from last year.
That’s great for Gunnar (and it should be because he’s a cornerstone talent), but for the Orioles, it’s also the kind of number that quietly resets the internal math.