Gunnar Henderson

As I was looking over the list of the best players last week, Gunnar Henderson's name caught my eye. I went to see how long it's been since he was named my MLBoyfriend, and was shocked to discover he never has never been. Although he's only been in the majors for 4 years, he has definitely made a big name for himself.

I'm sure there have been many weeks when Henderson has been in the running. I looked up the times he has won the American League Player of the Week award to see who took the award that week. On June 12, 2023, he lost to Corbin Carroll--interestingly, both of them would go on to win the Rookie of the Year award in their respective leagues that year. Henderson lost the MLBoyfriend title to the National League Player of the Week, Kyle Schwarber, on September 9, 2024.

Henderson was very impressive last week. He had a .286 batting average, 1.196 OPS with 1 double, 1 triple and 4 home runs. He scored 7 runs and batted in 7. He also stole base twice. I couldn't deny him the MLBoyfriend award any longer.

Congratulations, Gunnar Henderson! You are my MLBoyfreind of the Week.

Derek Jeter

Last week, I said I was going to start casting a wider net for MLBoyfriends. This week, I'm naming my first Retro-MLBoyfriend. Absolutely no one will be surprised to discover that Derek Jeter wins the title.

Jeter's last season was 2014--two years before MLBoyfriend was started. It is a fluke of timing that he was never even eligible for the award. 

I won't try to summarize Jeter's career here. Fortunately, the Yankees made an excellent highlight reel to celebrate his retirement.

I will point out a few of Jeter's more impressive statistics. Over the course of his career he had a .310 batting average and .817 OPS. Those are both really impressive given they cover 15 years and speak to his remarkable consistency at the plate. He famously has 3465 career hits--only five players in MLB history have more.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Derek achieved all this while also being model-handsome.

FWIW, Jeter looks even better at 51 than he did at 21 during his rookie year.

The decision to name Derek Jeter as my Retro-MLBoyfriend seems so obvious that I don't really have more to say about it. I do, however, have a few more cute pics of him to post.

Congratulations, Derek Jeter! You are the first ever Retro-MLBoyfriend.

Opening Week 2026

Before we get to the boys, a little announcement...

2026 is the 11th season of MLBoyfriend! The focus and format were exactly the same for the first 10 years. As Opening Day approached this year, I wasn't feeling very inspired to do the same thing again.

A decade is a long time to be doing anything. Also, between the gambling scandals and the icky politics of the World Baseball Classic, I'm not feeling so great about Major League Baseball lately. Finally, it is a really rough time to be a Minnesota Twins fan these days--and, while I try to spread the love, there's no denying that the Twins have been a key element of MLBoyfriend since the beginning.

I do still love baseball though. So, let's see where this thing goes this year. Perhaps there will be some coverage of Minor League Baseball (hello, Saint Paul Saints!) and even some Townball (hi, Dassel-Cokato Saints!). Maybe I'll feature some players from the past who would have been named my MLBoyfriend if the award had existed in their careers. Certainly, if a current player catches my attention, they can win the traditional MLBoyfriend title.

With all that said, I easily managed to find not one but two MLBoyfriends from opening week--one old friend and one very new friend.

Mike Trout has appeared on MLBoyfriend quite a few times. He was one of the first players to be awarded the title in 2016. Somewhat shockingly, he hasn't won the award since 2018. Last week, he put some great numbers to end his dry streak. Trout had a very impressive .462 batting average and 1.573 OPS with 2 home runs, 5 runs, 3 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Not bad for an old guy.

Chase DeLauter had a very good first "week" as a Major League ballplayer. The rookie had a .353 batting average and 1.412 OPS with 5 runs scored and 5 runs batted in. Most impressively, he had 4 home runs--the most in MLB last week. Only 2 players had hit 4 home runs in their first 3 career games before DeLauter. DeLauters performance earned him the first American League Player of the Week award of 2026.

Congratulations, Mike Trout & Chase DeLauter! You are the first MLBoyfriends of 2026.