For a lot of the season up to this point, Gunnar Henderson was the best player in the American League and it wasn’t even a particularly close margin to second place. The All-Star starting shortstop remains among the upper echelon of AL players this season, but he’s not all alone at the top any more due to an ongoing stretch of ridiculous performance from Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge.
Orioles fans have been able to hope that Henderson might be following in the footsteps of a Hall of Famer, Cal Ripken Jr. Cal was an AL Rookie of the Year winner in 1982 and followed that up with an MVP win in 1983.