Winning a home run contest with Gunnar Henderson? Veteran Anthony Santander showing young O’s how it’s done

Soon after reporting for spring training, Anthony Santander approached teammate Gunnar Henderson with an idea: a friendly season-long home run contest.

The veteran outfielder saw the sky-is-the-limit potential in Henderson, the reigning American League Rookie of the Year. Santander envisioned years of 40-plus home runs in the shortstop’s future as the Baltimore Orioles‘ cornerstone. But the season is long, he thought. They could use the competition to nudge each other through the grind.

Henderson accepted. On cue, Henderson banged 18 home runs through May. Santander had half as many.

“I started a little slow,” Santander said in Spanish this week. “He started, ‘Boom!’ So in June I told him, ‘Kid, I need you to keep going, because I’m going to hit 10 home runs this month.'”

Santander sold himself short. He hit 13 in June, solidifying a timely breakout campaign that has continued through August. Santander on Tuesday cracked his 37th home run of the season, four more than Henderson and tied with Marcell Ozuna for third most in the majors. Only Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani have hit more.

Santander and Henderson form one of just two duos in baseball with 30-plus home runs. Judge and Juan Soto is the other.

“Now he’s the one that’s like, ‘Keep going, going,'” Santander said with a laugh. “And that’s how we’re going. We have that good competition going.”

With all the attention the Orioles’ wave of young talent has rightfully garnered, Santander has soared under the radar as an indispensable member of a team seeking its second straight AL East title. The switch-hitter’s 37 home runs are already a career high. His .824 OPS — second on the club to Henderson — would be a career best for a non-shortened season. His 82 RBIs lead the team.

In July, Santander earned his first All-Star Game nod in what is perhaps his final season in Baltimore; the 29-year-old from Venezuela is slated for free agency, and likely a life-changing payday, this winter. It’s a remarkable ascent for a 2016 Rule 5 pick who joined the Orioles with a surgically repaired right shoulder and not a single game above High-A on his résumé.

“It’s been fun to watch Anthony really come into his own these past five years and become a really good major league player in the middle of the order,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.

Hyde was hired to replace Buck Showalter before the 2019 season, two years after Santander became an Oriole and one year into the organization’s agonizing, down-to-the-studs rebuild. Santander, however, got to share a clubhouse — briefly — with players who were part of the Orioles’ previous playoff core: All-Stars Manny Machado, Adam Jones, J.J. Hardy and Mark Trumbo. That experience guided him through all the losing: the 47-win, rock-bottom season in 2018; the 54-win struggle in 2019; and the 52-win nightmare in 2021.

“I think that’s what kind of helps guide the team to where it’s at today,” said Cedric Mullins, another veteran outfielder who weathered the storm at the turn of the decade. “We’ve been able to understand what it’s like to really go through those types of years. We’ve been able to see what winning teams do and how they go about things on the day to day. We try to incorporate that and a lot of guys have fallen in line with that and we’ve seen the results.”

Sure enough, the results were better in 2022, as the Orioles won 83 games and Santander posted career highs in hits, home runs and RBIs. Last year was Baltimore’s coming-out party: 101 wins and a division title, plus another strong season for Santander.

This year, the Orioles, battling with the New York Yankees for the AL East crown, are among the World Series favorites in a wide-open race. It could be Santander’s final stretch calling Camden Yards home.

Santander said he wants to stay in Baltimore, but the club has not engaged his representatives with extension talks. Santander has his deficiencies — he’s batting .236 with a .304 on-base percentage, the metrics indicate he isn’t a strong defender even though he boasts elite arm strength, and he is a below-average baserunner — but front offices value power highly, and he has plenty of it.

Juan Soto headlines this offseason’s free-agent class. Behind him, Teoscar Hernández, Santander and possibly Cody Bellinger — if he opts out of his current contract — should be the winter’s most sought-after outfielders.

“Obviously, it’s something you think about because it’s something that’s going to be there in the future, but I focus on the moment,” Santander said. “What do I have to do to be able to get there? It’s going well, but there’s still six weeks to go. Anything can happen. The most important thing is to remain healthy.”

Health hasn’t been an issue this season. Santander has started 121 of the Orioles’ 129 games — 102 in right field and 20 as the designated hitter. He was the right fielder Tuesday when his two-run home run gave Baltimore a 2-0 lead in an eventual 9-5 win against the New York Mets at Citi Field.

The blast — his 26th batting right-handed this season — moved him to within three home runs of becoming the eighth switch-hitter ever to hit 40 in a season, and it expanded his lead on Henderson with less than six weeks to go.

“Whichever one of us is ahead, it’s just like, ‘Keep going,'” Henderson said. “Because the one that’s behind is always like, ‘Yup, I’m going to catch him.’ It’s fun to have that guy to compete with. We’re having fun with it.”