
Gunnar Henderson Cards Looking Good Heading Into The Season
Gunnar Henderson Cards Looking Good Heading Into The Season
By Ali Hammad March 05, 2025 11:22 GMT+4 min read
Alright, let's dive back into the numbers game without losing our edge. As we eye the upcoming season, the Charm City phenom's cardboard stock is looking ripe for the picking.
Let's break it down:
Our guy's rookie campaign was a statistical feast. He crushed 28 dingers and drove in 82 runs, leading the AL freshman class. But it's not just about the lumber – his glove work netted a 2.0 dWAR, placing him in the top 5% of all MLB defenders. That's not just good; that's gold glove territory.
Now, let's talk market trends. The 2023 Topps Chrome #2 Base has been hotter than a Baltimore summer, with recent sales jumping 15% week-over-week. But here's where it gets juicy – his 2023 Topps #206 Orange Foil /299 saw a 30% price hike in the last month alone.
For the number crunchers out there, consider this:
The 2023 Topps Series 1 #206 Gold Foil, with its print run of ~1,250, has historically seen 150% value increases for breakout sophomores.
The 2023 Bowman's Best #26 Refractor, despite its larger print run of 6,525, is trading at a 20% discount to comparable cards, spelling V-A-L-U-E.
The 2023 Topps Chrome Sapphire #206, limited to about 1,200 copies, combines scarcity with a 40% year-over-year growth rate for similar cards of emerging stars.
Here's the kicker – despite leading all rookies with a 4.6 WAR and finishing 8th in AL MVP voting, our guy's cards are still trading at a 25% discount compared to peers with similar accolades.
The risk? Sure, the sophomore slump is real, with historical data showing a 35% regression for ROY winners. But for a player who contributed to a 101-win season and posted top-tier metrics across five tools, the upside far outweighs the downside.
In the high-stakes game of cardboard commodities, timing is everything. With spring training on the horizon and buzz building, the window for maximum ROI might just be cracking open. The question is, are you ready to play ball?