Kyle Hendricks hasn’t pitched since early July due to a strain in his right shoulder, and it appears as though his 2022 season is over. The Cubs right-hander told reporters (including MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian) that he is trying to get healthy in order to have a normal offseason and ramp-up period for the 2023 season, and to that end, Hendricks plans to restart a throwing program at the Cubs’ training complex in Arizona this week.
Hendricks underwent an MRI earlier this month that didn’t reveal any structural damage, according to Chicago manager David Ross. However, it seemed even at the time that Hendricks’ 2022 campaign was probably over, as Ross said that getting Hendricks back this season wasn’t “a top priority” compared to the bigger-picture desire to make sure the veteran is healthy.
As such, it looks like Hendricks will wrap up his ninth MLB season with a 4.80 ERA over 84 1/3 innings. This marks two underwhelming seasons in a row for Hendricks, who has a 4.78 ERA/4.62 SIERA in 265 1/3 frames since the start of the 2021 campaign. His once-elite walk rate fell to a still-decent 6.7% this year, but combined with a big increase in hard-hit ball rate, Hendricks’ low-velocity, contact-heavy arsenal wasn’t fooling many batters.
While the 2020 season was only 60 games long, Hendricks was still a capable front-of-the-rotation starter as recently as two years ago, when he finished ninth in NL Cy Young Award voting. Sometimes underrated as a key piece of the Cubs’ success over the last decade, Hendricks was a very solid member of the rotation from 2014-20, with a 3.12 ERA over 1047 1/3 innings of an old-school approach that relied more on command and soft contact rather than missed bats. The 2016 season was a peak for Hendricks, both due to his league-best 2.13 ERA and his big role in the Cubs’ World Series triumph.
With the Cubs now in a rebuild, it’s safe to guess that if Hendricks hadn’t been struggling with both performance and injury over the last two seasons, he might very well have joined the long list of veterans traded away. Hendricks’ salary was also a big factor — 2023 is the final season of the four-year, $55.5MM extension he signed in March 2019, and he is owed $14MM for the 2023 season.
The Cubs also have a $16MM club option on the right-hander’s services for 2024, but at this point, it would seem like Chicago will buy that option out for $1.5MM unless Hendricks can turn things around next year. Or, if a bounce-back year is in the cards, that option decision could be in the hands of another team, if the Cubs looked to finally trade Hendricks after all. Since it doesn’t seem like Hendricks has much trade value at the present, he’ll need to return healthy and pitch well in the first half of 2023 before we get more clarity on his future either in Chicago or as a potential trade chip.
Still can’t believe the Rangers traded him to the cubs for 15 bad starts of Ryan Dumpster
Don’t let this distract you from the fact that the Orioles traded Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop to the Cubs for half a season of a no.5 starter (Scott Feldman) and a third-string catcher (Steve Clevenger). In my opinion, that ended up being an even more lopsided trade for the Cubs
I still can’t believe Dusty Baker let Mark Prior throw 130 pitches in the NLCS 2003 and I’m not even a cubs fan
I’ve seen high school pitchers with better stuff then him. Have no idea how he had a decent long career.
Maybe because pitching isn’t always about stuff bud.
Pitching is definitely always about stuff bud.
If you honestly believe that then you know literally nothing about baseball. Which really doesn’t surprise me with you
As opposed to figuratively knowing nothing about baseball. Your vocabulary choices are compelling
Pitching is about being able to change speed and location, something Hendricks did very well.
It was a couple years ago, Hendricks started working up in the zone more to get more swing and misses, since then, he has progressively gotten worse and worse each season.
Because the dude was and has been a pitcher. He outsmarted over anxious hitters in the playoffs and world series by pitch channeling, hitting his spots, and making hitters overthink their approach. This dude is what makes baseball great. They call him the professor because he is very Maddux like. No other pitcher in the past two decades has been compared to Maddux. Yes, he doesn’t have the stuff, but that’s exactly what made him so great because he didn’t need the stuff. I mean seriously, he pitched and succeeded in game 7 of the world series without having the “stuff” you say is so important to succeed. So actually, he did have the “stuff”…just not the same “stuff” you were thinking of.
Thank you for explaining. This guy literally has no clue about baseball so i didn’t even feel the need to explain it to him
As opposed to figuratively having no clue about baseball. Word choices.
Nope i said exactly what I meant. I literally meant that this guy literally knows nothing about baseball.
Wow. Kyle, is that you?
I wish I were. But no I’m just someone who has watched many Kyle Hendricks starts and know and appreciate what he has accomplished and how he accomplished it.
Shane Beiber gets some Maddox comps. Roy Halladay did as well. To think of it, usually any righty starter with good control gets compared to Maddux by an announcer with four hours to fill.
Tommy Maddox comps?
Because he has (or a least had) pinpoint command and knows how to play to batters’ weaknesses the fullest degree.
Greg Maddux sucked.
His Four Cy Young Awards say otherwise
along with his 300 plus wins, 3000 plus strikeouts, and world series ring (and like pedro in 99, got robbed of the mvp award in 1995, finishing a ridiculous 3rd place that year).
Although he’s not as good as he once was. Can you name anotner pitcher whether his “stuff” is 99kph fastball and a change up like Pedro Martinez that pitched a complete game shutout on 81 pitches?
This was a fee years ago against the Cardinals. Most pitchers nowadays have 81 pitches going into the 5th maybe the 6th inning. When he’s on his game he’s very good. He three 8 2/3 at Petco allowing only 3 hits and 1 walk that came in the 9th inning with 2 outs. That’s pretty damn good.
I think Hendricks would be more successful on a better team. Guys who live on the margins need more help from their catcher and defense than the Cubs currently offer.
DonOsbourne;
Actually, all pitchers do – but you’re correct about average pitchers.
Teams that accentuate defense as well as pitching not only get the best results from their pitchers, but are almost always competitive even if their offense is so-so.
As bad as some of your Cardinals pitchers look at times, think about how bad they’d be without that superlative D in front of them and behind them.
Hi Samuel – to your point, this is what the Braves did, once upon a time, to help their young pitchers :
December 3, 1990
Signed Terry Pendleton as a free agent.
December 5, 1990
Signed Sid Bream as a free agent.
December 18, 1990
Signed Rafael Belliard as a free agent.
9 mlb seasons , 87-61 3.46 career era , over 200 mlb starts. WS. And we got couch potatoes dissing his “ stuff “ lol
Can we please just bring back the down vote? So many crappie trolls w/ multiple accounts….
It’s really amazing how all the trolls go away when you mute them. Makes for a nice flow and pretty solid back and forth of thoughts.
If I was Jed Hoyer, I’d be telling him a spot in the 2023 rotation is NOT guaranteed!
Why? Bc he’s been nursing a nagging shoulder and decided to put in on ice now?
He is virtually untradeable now. I mean, the Cubs would certainly need to pay a sizable chunk of money…
Trade him to the Yankees for cash considerations. I’ll gladly take Hendricks and his full salary next year.
Keep Hendricks. Hope he has a great bounce back year next year. Also, re-sign Contreras, and extend Nico and Madrigal. Kyle needs stout defense behind him to be most effective.
Another Cub blunder! This guy should have been traded 2 years ago for a haul of prospects. Cubs continue to add years to their rebuild. White Sox got Dylan Cease (best pitcher in A.L.?) and Eloy Jimenez for Jose Quintana. Hendricks will NOT bring any type of haul close to that. Another front office blunder.
Who was offering a haul of prospects two years ago? Two years ago, the Cubs won the Central and were in the playoffs. What have the Sox done with Cease and Eloy? Both teams will again have the same seats this postseason, except one team was expected to lose in a poor division while the other has been an expected perennial World Series contender in a garbage division.
The white Sox are at max payroll and sitting at .500 in the year they were supposed to be World Series contender. The vast majority of their free agent signings have been awful and most of the can’t miss prospects have missed or been constantly injured. The cubs front office with all its flaws looks like geniuses compared to the other team in Chicago. The Sox need a hard reset before they squander the 15 year rebuild. Sox trolls
Hendricks is a bum now. Should be relegated to throwing BP
Why the hostility for Hendricks was the winning pitcher in the 2016 WS. It is doubtful that his trade value diminished because he doesn’t rely on speed. Hendricks will be around for a long time als Jamie Moyer.
Trade Hendricks so he can experience an organization that wants to win every year and sandwich him between to hard throwers…you’ll get your 12-15 wins every year.