Going back to his first season in the majors in 2014, just 11 other starters have outdone Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks’ 3.14 ERA. That owes largely to an ability to limit walks, as Hendricks has issued just a bit over two free passes per nine innings during his career, as well a penchant for preventing damaging contact. Even though his typical fastball only clocks in around 86 mph, hitters can’t seem to square up Hendricks. Just last season, he ranked in the majors’ 97th percentile in exit velocity and its 88th percentile in hard-hit rate. It went down as yet another quality effort by Hendricks, who turned in a 3.46 ERA/3.61 FIP with his second-highest fWAR (4.1) across 177 innings.
Not many could have expected Hendricks to pan out this well. The Rangers chose the former Dartmouth standout in the eighth round in 2011 (keep that in mind when unpicked players start signing after this year’s truncated five-round draft); although he went on to put up great production at the lower levels with the Rangers, he was never seen as a can’t-miss prospect. And at the July 2012 trade deadline, a little over a year after the Rangers drafted Hendricks, they traded him and third baseman Christian Villanueva (then a top 100-caliber prospect but now a member of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball) to the Cubs for veteran righty Ryan Dempster.
Dempster, who originally entered the pros as a third-rounder of the Rangers in 1995, got off to a strong start in 2012 before the Cubs traded him back to his original franchise. As MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes wrote when the swap occurred: “Dempster posted a 2.25 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 42.1% ground ball rate in 104 innings with the Cubs this year.”
Unfortunately for Texas, Dempster was unable to carry his Windy City effectiveness to the Lone Star State. While the Rangers did earn a playoff berth in 2012, they didn’t make it past the one-game wild-card round, and Dempster didn’t play much of a role in their regular-season success. He wound up tossing 69 innings of 5.09 ERA ball with the team before leaving for the Red Sox in free agency during the ensuing offseason. That proved to be a wise move for the last year of his career, as Dempster ended up as part of a World Series-winning Red Sox roster.
Dempster didn’t play a major role in Boston’s title, but Hendricks has gone on to be a key part of a championship winner since switching organizations. The Cubs took home their first World Series in 108 years in 2016, a season in which Hendricks recorded a league-best 2.13 ERA in 190 frames and added an jaw-dropping 1.42 ERA in 25 1/3 playoff innings. Three years later, the Cubs locked up Hendricks to what has always looked like an eminently reasonable contract extension, inking him to a $55.5MM guarantee over four seasons prior to the 2019 campaign.
We don’t know when we’ll see Major League Baseball again, but considering Hendricks’ track record, it seems safe to assume the 30-year-old will continue to hold his own when it does return. He’s one of the most valuable players on the Cubs, but he’s also one who got away for the Rangers.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Got to give thanks to Ryan Dempster for banging the babysiter and why he did not accept the trade to Atlanta. Could of had Randal Delgado instead. Barf!
Hendricks has simply been awesome and a guy you can trust to pitch in a big high pressure game. One of the best changeups in the game.
I really enjoyed this comment! Thank you
Wait, he banged the baby sitter?
Actually Nanny, now ex-wife caught them back in 2012. They lived in Atlanta at the time.
I imagine the Braves were just as grateful not to trade assets for Dumpster fire Dempster.
Dempster probably would have pitched better with the Braves if he had not been traded out of the league.
He’s not a front line starter lol. His 2016 was an outlier, he played way better than his peripherals. He’s a great mid rotation starter. Overrated imo
He is not overrated. lol
He has a 3.14 career ERA and you’re a dufus.
He is Doug Fister 2.0.
Perennially underrated.
Works a game well to get results, sans great stuff.
2016 was his outlier year in that he pitched like an ace. Every other year he has pitched like a front end starter
Dixon can you explain why he is not a front line starter? Oh let me guess … he does not throw in the 90’s. I bet that is your sad uninformed reason.
Far from overrated. He’s a fineness pitcher. Can you name another pitcher that can have a complete game shutout with 81 pitches?
Luke Jackson another solid pitcher they let get away.
You mean Atlanta’s Like Jackson?
Too soon
2012 was the Rangers last run because Josh Hamilton was going to leave after the season.
They were coming off 2 straight WS and wanted to make sure their pitching was set up.
2012 was the year before the Astros joined the AL West but the storylines of that division were absolutely crazy.
I see why the Rangers made the deal. They just brought in the wrong guy.
Plus the drama around Josh Hamilton and the Oakland A’s screwed them more than Dempster.
Ouch… This is disappointing to see, though I don’t mind talking about it. If we kept him, it definatley would’ve changed the course of Rangers history, and maybe even baseball history. He was TERRIFIC for the Cubs in 16′, so it begs the question… Would they have won it? Would the trade for Cole Hamels in 2015 have ever happened? Would we have tanked… Think about it, if we get Hendricks, and he is putting up terrific seasons do we trade him in 18′ like we did Hamels, and get a load of prospects back, and then decide to go full rebuild? If the Hamels trade never happened, would we still have Alfaro at catcher? This is a deep wormhole, but IDK if we’d be better off now if we had kept him… You’ll never know.
“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts then every day would be Christmas.”
Why did I sing this instead of read it?
Southside folk
Kyle is one the only pitchers in a league of throwers
It was a horrible move at the time and an even more horrible one in retrospect. How jon has a jon after the sheer volume of horrible trades he’s made.
Volquez for Hamilton
The Nelson Cruz trade in 2006
Mark Texiera trade in 2007
Every GM has hits and misses
True but a GM needs to hit on trades too. You referenced good trades he made but that was 14 years ago!!
So how does Daniels still have a job
That is on the Rangers.
My opinion of the Rangers…
Combination of two things
Beltre retiring
Andrus being injured
2017 they were a competitive team. 2018 they weren’t.
What I mentioned changed this.
If the Rangers don’t play competitive baseball in the next two years Daniels is gone.
That would be 4 years in a row. He doesn’t have that luxury.
Competitive baseball meaning that a team enters September with a chance at a playoff spot.
We see how quickly he can put a team together than can win 85+ games again.
Majority of the time he has been there have been around 85 or higher
When they did the GM history don’t think they did Jon Daniels.
Would have been way too much work.
But for the most part he has his winners.
Those 3 I mentioned were huge winners. Somewhat the backbone of two straight AL pennants.
Being as unbiased as I can here…
Jon Daniels is a good GM.
It was a combination of a few things that got him sidetracked..
Him and the organization thought Profar was going to be this perennial Top 10 MVP player
Believe they thought Profar was going to really step up in 2014
Plus the Astros have raised the level of the division.
Let’s be real here. Before the Astros showed up the division was average at best.
The Astros have made it tougher.
A few years ago, at the cubs convention. Ryan Dempster joked about taking credit for the cubs acquiring Kyle Hrndricks after rejecting a trade to the Braves. He has a talk show for the event every year. Called Off the Mound.