Liam Hendriks Targeting Trade Deadline Return From Tommy John Surgery

Free agent right-hander Liam Hendriks underwent Tommy John surgery in early August and is hoping to be back on the mound roughly one year after going under the knife. He tells Scott Merkin of MLB.com that he’s targeting next year’s trade deadline as a return goal. It appears he has had conversations with some teams but nothing is imminent in terms of getting a deal done.

Hendriks, 35 in February, is wrapping up a challenging year dominated by off-field concerns. He announced in January that he would be starting treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He completed his chemotherapy treatment in April and announced that he was declared free of cancer shortly after that. 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 $15MM club option for 2024 that came with a $15MM buyout. The difference, however, was the timing of those equal payments. They decided to buy him out and pay him $1.5MM in 10 annual installments as opposed to picking it up, which would involve paying the entire amount during the 2024 campaign.

Now a free agent, Hendriks will be a long-term play for any interested club, as he’ll miss at least the first few months of the upcoming season. Any club that signs him would be hoping for a late-season boost to the bullpen or would perhaps just be thinking about 2025. 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. From 2019 to 2022, he posted a 2.26 earned run average over 226 appearances, racking up 114 saves in the process. He struck out 38.8% of batters faced while walking just 5.1% of them.

If he can get back to anything close to that kind of performance, he would upgrade any bullpen in the league. But for now, it seems he has to wait for things to progress. His target is on the shorter end of the typical TJS return but he could be an intriguing wild card in the 2024 campaign even if he misses that goal by a month or so. On MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents post, Hendriks was predicted to secure a two-year, $12MM contract.