FORT MYERS, Fla. – Before their first full-squad workout of spring training, the Red Sox made another pitching addition early Monday morning.
A team source confirmed to the Herald that, pending a physical, the Red Sox are signing veteran reliever Liam Hendriks to a two-year, $10 million deal with a mutual option for a third season. According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, there are additional performance bonuses as well. He’s already at camp, and joined some of his new teammates in the breakfast room.
The 13-year MLB veteran owns a career 3.82 ERA across 476 regular-season games, including 44 starts, 212 games finished, and 116 saves. He began his career with the Minnesota Twins, followed by stints with the Kansas City Royals, Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics, and most recently, three seasons with the Chicago White Sox.
From 2019-22, Hendriks, 35, was one of the league’s most dominant closers. He posted a 2.26 ERA, 2.13 FIP, and 0.883 WHIP during that period, appearing in 226 games, with 170 finished and 114 saves. Over 239 innings, he struck out 359 batters (38.8%) and only issued 47 walks (5.1%). Opposing batters hit .191 with a .548 OPS against him. He was an All-Star three times in those four years, the only exception being 2020, when MLB shelved the midsummer event due to the coronavirus pandemic. He also won back-to-back Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year awards for the ’20 and ’21 seasons; in the latter, he led the AL with 38 saves.
Early in his career, the right-hander relied on five pitches: primarily a sinker, followed by a four-seam fastball, slider, and lesser-used curveball and changeup. According to Baseball Savant, Hendriks phased out the sinker completely after the ’19 season, and the changeup hasn’t been seen since a lone pitch in ’21.
Last January, Hendriks announced that he’d been diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He finished chemotherapy in early April and confirmed he was in remission weeks later. He made his season debut on May 29, less than six months after his initial diagnosis, but only pitched in five games before going on the injured list with elbow inflammation. He had Tommy John surgery at the beginning of August, and so will miss most, if not all of the upcoming season.
Hendriks has a reputation as one of the game’s most philanthropic players. He and his wife, Kristi, donate more than $1 million of their own money each year. They champion a wide variety of causes, including a pitbull rescue and other animal rescues, ALS, foster care, children’s hospitals and pediatric cancer, LGBTQ+ rights, and a non-profit foundation for military special-operations veterans.
According to The Athletic, the two-time Roberto Clemente award nominee once donated the nomination check to the latter. In 2017, he pledged $100 per strikeout and $200 per walk to Striking Out Poverty, which aims to end poverty in the Dominican Republic. MLB.com reported that after finishing chemotherapy last spring, Hendriks purchased every wig in stock at the Mayo Clinic Store to donate to fellow cancer patients.
Originally from Perth, Australia, Hendriks will be the first player from his country to play for the Red Sox.
