After undergoing Tommy John surgery in early August, free agent right-hander Liam Hendriks hopes to return to the mound in about a year.He states to MLB.com’s Scott Merkin that his return aim is the trade deadline of the next year. It seems that he has spoken with a few teams, but no deal is expected to be completed very soon.
Hendriks, who turns 35 in February, is coming to the end of a difficult season marked by off-field issues. He declared in January that he would begin non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment. He revealed that he was cancer-free shortly after finishing his chemotherapy treatment in April.
He began a rehab assignment in early May and was activated from the injured list by the end of that month. Just a couple of weeks later, he landed on the injured list due to elbow inflammation and required TJS in early August, having thrown just five big league innings for the year.
As part of the deal he originally signed with the White Sox, they had a $15M club option for 2024 that came with a $15M buyout. The difference, however, was the timing of those equal payments. They decided to buy him out and pay him $1.5M in 10 annual installments as opposed to picking it up, which would involve paying the entire amount during the 2024 campaign.
Hendriks is currently a free agent and will be a long-term investment for any team that shows interest, as he will miss the first few months of the next campaign at minimum. If a club contracts him, they might be thinking about 2025 or looking for a late-season boost to their bullpen.
One of those teams is the Cubs, with Hendriks relaying that they reached out, but it appears those talks were more preliminary than anything.
“There’s been nothing substantial about any of the conversations we’ve had,” he said. “But they were one of the teams that reached out pretty early on.” It seems other clubs are taking a similar wait-and-see approach. “Obviously, we are in no rush. My timeline hasn’t changed. I’m not going to be ready in April. Teams are making sure they really get their main part of 2024 set up. We’ve had some clubs call and be like, ‘Once it heats up, let us know.’”
His ultimate market might come down to who still has a bit of money left in their budget after the other free agents are signed and Spring Training approaches. But whoever does get him to put pen to paper will obviously be banking on his tremendous run as an elite closer, prior to his mostly lost season in 2023.
He recorded a 2.26 earned run average across 226 games from 2019 to 22 and recorded 114 saves during that time. He walked just 5.1% of the batters he faced while striking out 38.8% of them.
He could improve any bullpen in the league if he could return to anything like that level of play. But for the time being, it appears he must wait for developments. Even though he might fall short of his aim by a few months, he still has the potential to be a very interesting wild card in the 2024 campaign. His target is on the lower end of the average TJS return.
According to MLBTR’s piece on the Top 50 free agents, Hendriks is expected to get a $12 million, two-year contract.
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