The Orioles won 101 regular-season games thanks to a roster with top-to-bottom depth. But their peers recognized some individual standouts.
Three Baltimore players were named finalists for the Major League Baseball Players Association’s Players Choice Awards, as voted on by players across the league.
Infielder Gunnar Henderson was nominated for American League Outstanding Rookie alongside Texas third baseman Josh Jung and Boston first baseman Triston Casas. The favorite for the league’s official Rookie of the Year honor, Henderson overcame a slow start to his first full season to bat .255 with an .814 OPS, 28 home runs, 29 doubles, nine triples and 10 steals. Although Henderson could be the Orioles’ first AL Rookie of the Year since 1989, teammate Ryan Mountcastle won the MLBPA’s version of the honor in 2021.
In his second season, right-hander Kyle Bradish joins New York’s Gerrit Cole and Minnesota’s Sonny Gray as the finalists to be AL Outstanding Pitcher. Cole likely takes this honor and the league’s Cy Young Award, but Bradish’s placement speaks to how fellow players viewed his season. In 30 starts, Bradish posted a 2.83 ERA, including a 2.34 second-half ERA that led all AL starters.
First baseman Ryan O’Hearn could be the second Oriole in three years to be the AL Comeback Player after Trey Mancini received the honor in 2021. After hitting .211 with sporadic playing over the previous four years with the Kansas City Royals, O’Hearn broke out with Baltimore. He spent much of the year as the Orioles’ primary cleanup hitter against right-handed starters, batting .289 with an .801 OPS while setting or matching career highs in most offensive statistics. He’s up against two pitchers for the MLBPA award — Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow, who missed most of 2022 because of Tommy John elbow reconstruction, and Chicago’s Liam Hendriks, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma over the offseason.
Phil Bradley, an outfielder who played with Baltimore in 1989 and 1990, is a finalist for the Curt Flood Award, which recognizes a former player “who in the image of Flood demonstrated a selfless, longtime devotion to the Players Association and advancement of Players’ rights.”
Winners will be announced Nov. 2 during the 6 p.m. edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter. The league’s official awards — Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player — will be announced in mid-November on MLB Network.
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