BOSTON — Liam Hendriks had his pants down as he spoke. His undershorts had been on, however his uniform was right down to his knees. He’d simply thrown his first bullpen of the yr final Wednesday, a momentous step ahead for any pitcher coming back from Tommy John surgical procedure. But he stood within the Boston Purple Sox clubhouse refusing to deal with the event as critical, and even notable.
How did his arm really feel?
“Hooked up,” he stated.
Was there some added adrenaline getting on a mound?
“Probably not,” he answered.
What stood out concerning the rehab course of?
“How boring it’s,” Hendriks deadpanned.
None of this got here throughout as dismissive. It was performed for laughs, a break from the monotony for Hendriks, his teammates, and even the gathered reporters. He was talking to a full scrum with TV cameras and microphones, all due to a 15-pitch bullpen three hours earlier than recreation time. Give Hendriks credit score for not rolling his eyes. He didn’t journey from Australia, by way of years of baseball obscurity and rounds of most cancers remedy to rejoice just a few pregame fastballs within the bullpen.
“I don’t know whether or not the trainers love me or wish to kill me,” Hendriks stated. “Day by day is a wrestle telling them to let me do extra and having them attempt to maintain me again into a traditional stratosphere.
“Which sucks.”
He’s eager for moments of higher consequence and is assured they’re coming.
Liam Hendriks has confronted intense bodily and psychological challenges over the previous 20 months however has managed to take care of a humorousness about all of it. (Barry Chin / The Boston Globe through Getty Photos)
There are numbers to assist inform each baseball story and Hendriks’ profession is advised by way of his three All-Star Video games, two Reliever of the Yr awards, and 116 profession saves. His backstory is chronicled by way of the 14 groups and 6 major-league organizations that noticed him come and go earlier than anybody trusted him with the ninth inning. He’s the one and solely graduate of Australia’s Sacred Coronary heart Faculty to ever play within the majors, and he was designated for task 4 instances and traded three extra earlier than most individuals had ever heard of him. But, right here he’s, a survivor in additional methods than one.
Hendriks’ previous 20 months have been all about 4 rounds of chemotherapy, a six-game rehab task within the minors weeks later, and his emotional big-league return final Might. He had 4 good outings in June earlier than season-ending Tommy John surgical procedure in August after which entered free company.
“Theoretically, I’ve obtained a brand new elbow,” Hendriks stated this spring. “So, I’ve obtained one other 10 (years) in me.”
Now 35 years previous, Hendriks is hellbent on proving himself but once more. He signed a two-year cope with the Purple Sox, partially, as a result of they promised him two issues: They believed he might pitch this season, and so they wished him to spend most of his rehab course of with the big-league staff. So, that’s what Hendriks has been doing. On the street, at house, all through spring coaching. He hasn’t been rehabbing at some fancy, far-flung facility; he’s been throwing on the sphere, sitting at his nook locker, and making jokes on the bullpen bench. Most cancers remedy stored him away from folks for much too lengthy final yr. However he doesn’t wallow. He doesn’t query.
GO DEEPER
Contained in the Purple Sox coach’s room with Lucas Giolito and Liam Hendriks
“I’ve by no means been a giant ‘why me’ individual,” Hendriks stated. “I believe it was inevitable that I used to be going to have one thing to do with my elbow. Sadly, it was in the identical yr that I handled a variety of different issues, however it’s what it’s. There’s nothing I can do to vary it. All I can do is present as much as the park daily with a constructive perspective and hopefully rub off on a number of the youthful guys right here.”
When Hendriks reported to Purple Sox camp, he’d been given a goal of 64 mph, as in, a pitcher who usually throws a 95-mph fastball must be throwing roughly 64 mph when he’s seven months out from Tommy John surgical procedure. In his early days of spring coaching, although — “My surgeon might be not going to be pleased about this,” Hendriks stated — he was throwing within the mid-70s.
“Not constantly!” Hendriks clarified. “Persistently low 70s. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless, the soar from the place I used to be the time earlier than that was a bit of too excessive. … A few instances I used to be a bit of too robust within the paint. However I favor to go too far than not do sufficient.”
Such is the Liam Hendriks Expertise. Numbers don’t do justice to what he brings on the mound and off the sphere. He’s a vein-bulging, obscenity-screaming, trash-talking wildman, but additionally a Lego-building, caregiving, joke-making teddy bear.
Inside these extremes, a most cancers prognosis in December of 2022 was a shock. Stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Docs advised Hendriks to count on six rounds of chemotherapy. He’s happy with the actual fact he wanted solely 4. He can’t keep in mind the precise date his final spherical began, solely that it was the Chicago White Sox’s house opener, and he was imagined to be of their bullpen, not in some hospital. He had a bone marrow biopsy on the finish of April and commenced a rehab task the primary week of Might.
His elbow lasted a bit of greater than a month after that.
The reality is, Hendriks knew his elbow was in hassle lengthy earlier than it popped. He’d first discovered of a small tear in his UCL in 2008. He’d pitched for greater than a decade with out snapping it, however as he ramped up in his return following most cancers remedy — after a full six months off — he might inform it wasn’t proper.
“He didn’t care,” former White Sox teammate and present Purple Sox teammate Lucas Giolito stated. “A variety of guys could be like, ‘Oh, this hurts,’ and within the coaching room or no matter. He was like, ‘I’m simply going to go till it breaks.’”
Was there ever any considered defending it after going by way of a lot to get again on the mound and a membership possibility looming?
“No. F— no,” Hendriks stated. “I don’t child it.”
Hendriks stated he’s come to consider he’s most vulnerable to harm when he holds again.
“The elbow was gone it doesn’t matter what,” he stated. “So, I’m not sitting there to attempt to rehab one other six weeks doubtlessly and never come again. If it goes, it goes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I used to be fairly certain it was already achieved, however I used to be holding out hope that it was perhaps a bit of (bit) of scar tissue, and if that snaps off on the proper time, I’ll be wonderful. It wasn’t that.”
This offseason, the White Sox declined a $15 million membership possibility, making Hendriks a free agent. It’s commonplace for pitchers recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure to signal two-year offers with an eye fixed towards actually contributing in that second yr. When Hendriks talked to groups this winter, although, he clarified that it wasn’t a 2025 negotiation.
“We made it very abundantly clear that should you’re coming in with that perspective, it’s a no-go,” Hendriks stated. “There have been some groups that reached out and simply light away straight from there.”
Hendriks expects to be pitching for the Purple Sox this August. He signed a two-year deal that ensures him $10 million however features a $12 million mutual possibility for 2026. By the point he signed, Hendriks had begun taking part in catch together with his bodily therapist, and Hendriks stated he was much less anxious about his elbow and extra anxious about spiking a throw to a non-baseball participant. However Hendriks hit his accomplice within the chest, and the moment suggestions was that Hendriks wasn’t “muscly,” which means he was staying unfastened and never getting tense. The movement was as pure as ever.
When Hendriks talks about limits, he talks solely about breaking them. From Australia to the All-Star Recreation. From being on waivers to signing long-term contracts. From Stage 4 most cancers to a faster-than-expected restoration. From Tommy John surgical procedure to having an excessive amount of oomph on his fastball in spring coaching. Now a 15-pitch bullpen and a tongue-in-cheek miniature press convention.
Does the sunshine on the finish of a Tommy John tunnel look totally different than the sunshine on the finish of a most cancers tunnel?
“Ehh, in my thoughts, it’s the identical,” Hendriks stated in spring coaching. “There’s nonetheless an finish purpose. There’s nonetheless a purpose that I must get again from. It’s just a bit bit extra of a slow-moving course of.”
Hendriks doesn’t have a sit-back-and-wait character, and he’s needed to do precisely that for a lot of the previous yr and a half. He’s wired to pitch the ninth. Examine with him once more when that lastly occurs.
“It’s not that (rehab) is lengthy. I can deal with lengthy,” Hendriks stated. “I can’t deal with sluggish. And it’s the slowness that’s actually pissing me off.”
(High photograph of Hendriks in Might 2024: Maddie Malhotra / Boston Purple Sox/Getty Photos)