Inside The Orioles

Orioles' Craig Albernaz Assesses Gunnar Henderson's World Baseball Classic Outing

Baltimore Orioles manager Craig Albernaz was tuned in to his star player's World Baseball Classic performance.
Grant Young|
United States shortstop Gunnar Henderson
United States shortstop Gunnar Henderson | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

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Baltimore Orioles

While the Baltimore Orioles are gearing up for the 2026 season, the team's arguably best player is currently playing for Team USA at the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

This would be star shortstop Gunnar Henderson, who is a part of perhaps the most star-studded roster in American baseball history. Given that there are so many talented players on Team USA, it was going to be interesting to see how many opportunities Henderson would get in the tournament. Especially because Kansas City Royals star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. is also on the team.

Henderson got the start against Great Britain on March 7 and made the most of his opportunity. He went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs, which was the best offensive showing of the day for the United States' squad. They cruised to a 9-1 victory over Great Britain, which puts them at 2-0 heading into their March 9 game against Mexico.

Craig Albernaz Says It All About Gunnar Henderson's WBC Performance

First-year Orioles manager Craig Albernaz knows the sort of player he has in Henderson. However, even he seemed to be impressed with what he saw during Saturday's game, which he conveyed when speaking with the media on March 8.

“I’ll tell you one thing: It was a good thing we had a show-and-go planned today, after the split-squad and daylight saving, because I couldn’t sleep. I was fired up watching it. It was so cool,” Albernaz said of the World Baseball Classic, per an X post from Jacob Calvin Meyer of The Baltimore Sun.

“So cool for Gunnar, and also the rest of the fans to kind of see what Gunnar can do on the big stage, and the impact player we all know he is. And to see him do that on that stage was awesome," Albernaz added.

When Albernaz was asked what it was like seeing Henderson showing emotion after a performance with such high stakes, Albernaz added, “Yeah, you don’t get those emotions in spring training, and spring training games. So to see those emotions — especially the hustle double like that, he had two of them — I think that just shows how he plays the game.

"And on that stage, that’s why WBC is so cool, to kind of get thrust into those competitive environments. And yeah, like I said, I was fired up," Albernaz added.

Many Orioles and United States baseball fans felt the same way.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Mets and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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