Notes on Gunnar Henderson's MVP finish and the pre-arb bonus pool

For as good a year as Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. had and same for the Yankees Juan Soto, we knew they were not going to win the American League's MVP award. On Thursday that went to New York’s Aaron Judge, who got all 30 first-place votes as a unanimous selection.

Witt was second in the voting, Soto was third and the Orioles' Gunnar Henerson was fourth. A strong showing for the Baltimore shortstop, who was eighth in the AL MVP vote in 2023 when he was the AL Rookie of the Year.

Soto finished with 229 points in the balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and Gunnar was at 208. On six of 30 ballots, the writer placed Henderson third, ahead of Soto.

What O’s fan would not celebrate that?

An Oriole being voted on a few ballots ahead of a Yankee, especially one with hot dog tendencies that has the cocky approach of Soto.

But Soto is of course, a big talent and if I had voted for MVP (I did not) it would have been hard for me to place Henderson ahead of Soto. Just being honest here.

Soto outhomered Henderson 41-37, had more RBIs by 109-92, scored 128 runs to 118 for Gunnar, had a better walk-to-strikeout rate (a remarkable 129 to 119) and had a better OPS by .988 to .893.

But good for Gunnar, who if you grade humility, would win that battle with Soto.

Maybe he got some props for playing a more premium position, but he also had his moments of shaky defense this year.

But at age 23, Gunnar now has a Rookie of the Year award, a Silver Slugger, two top eight MVP finishes and one All-Star appearance.

Stay tuned, more to come.

By finishing fourth or fifth in this vote, Henderson got a $1 million dollar bonus through the MLB pre-arbitration bonus pool, which was added to the last collective bargaining agreement. I think the players and owners did a good thing by funneling more money to players not yet ready to collect the bigger bucks that arbitration provides but are exceptional players or had an exceptional season. Last year, Gunnar got a $750,000 bonus for his ROY.

Per Baseball-Reference.com, Henderson’s salaries as a pre-arb player for the combined 2023 and 2024 seasons is $1,479,400. In the two bonuses alone, he gets an additional $1.75 million. It is well deserved, and this is exactly how this pool is designed to work and to reward those zero to three-year players.

Per the Association Press, an eligible player gets $2.5 million for winning a MVP or Cy Young Award, $1.75 million for second in the voting, $1.5 million for third, $1 million for fourth, fifth or all-MLB first team, $750,000 for Rookie of the Year, $500,000 for second in Rookie of the Year voting or all-MLB second team. A player is eligible to receive a bonus for only one award per year, for the highest amount eligible for. The remaining money is allocated by a Wins Above Replacement formula.

Both last year and this year, several young Orioles are expected to add some dollars via this pre-arb pool.

Meanwhile, Soto’s free agency is expected to take another big step forward this week. ESPN reports that teams may be about to make Soto official free-agent offers. Up to now Soto has met with several clubs and owners.

He is known to have met with the Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Dodgers and Phillies. Of course, there could always be a mystery team.

At 26, Soto is about to cash in a huge, huge way.

The Athletic projected he would get a 12-year deal for $540 million while FanGraphs.com went 12 years and $576 million. MLBTradeRumors.com projected 13 years and $600 million while ESPN went 13 years and $611 million. The four average annual values per those deals would be $45 million, $48 million, $46.2 million and $47 million.