CHICAGO — Chicago White Sox closer Liam Hendriks on Friday pitched in a game for the first time since being diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December.
He pitched a perfect inning, including a strikeout, for Triple-A Charlotte. It was the first of what is expected to be five or six rehab appearances before he’s activated from the injured list.
It was also amazing. Another awe-inspiring step in a long road back that has been maybe the best story in baseball this year.
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“I don’t plan on regressing,” Hendriks vowed this week as he addressed a full house of media in the White Sox interview room before heading out on his rehab assignment. “That’s my mindset. There’s no taking it easy. If I go out there and I give up a hit, I’m still gonna be pissed. If I go out there and walk somebody I’m still gonna be pissed.
“There are extremely high expectations, and it’s not going to be, ‘Oh, I’ve been through this, so I’m allowed to give up a hit.’ There’s going to be none of that. It’s gonna be, ‘I’m out there to do a job.’”
Back to business.
All business.
Maybe even more than he knows or wants to think about now.
The furthest thing from Hendriks’ or the White Sox front office’s minds as Hendriks spoke Wednesday, wearing a black “Struckout Cancer” T-shirt, was the part of the business that will be unavoidable over the next two months or so if the Sox don’t become one of the hottest teams in the game during that span.
Even after winning for the fourth time in five games Friday night, the White Sox are 11-22 with a lot of ugly baseball to show for the first five weeks of the season.
And for a team like that, with a closer near the end of a contract who has pitched in the last three All-Star games, that usually leaves only one question: How much can the Sox leverage for that kind of coveted asset from a contender at the trade deadline?
Talk about a lousy ending to the feel-good story of the year.
Liam Hendriks is ‘an inspiration to us all’
Nobody’s talking about trades now. Not with the real-life, life-and-death battle Hendriks is winning these days and sharing with anyone who wants — or even needs — to listen.
“He lifts us all up. He’s an inspiration to us all,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said.
Hendriks, 34, told the story of discovering lumps in his neck last June, finding out through a doctor that he had even larger lumps in his hips but then getting clean blood test results back. He kept pitching.
- Liam Hendriks stats (career): 3.25 ERA, 115 saves, 10.1 K/9, 26.9% K-rate
That made it tough for him to be sure how long he actually had the cancer before it was diagnosed long after he’d finished a season that involved fatigue down the stretch.
“There was always the chance I pitched damn near all year with lymphoma in my system,” he said. “I’d like to think that was the reason I struggled to recover and at the end of the year I was damn near limping to the finish line.”
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He still wound up with 37 saves, a 2.81 ERA and 13.3 strikeouts per nine innings.
Maybe Friday’s first rehab outing is a harbinger, and Hendriks will pick up where he left off last season, clear of the fatigue and illness.
Maybe he’ll help write an amazing new chapter in which the White Sox rise from the ashes into the American League Central race by the time the front office has to make the buyers-or-sellers decision.
More likely, by the looks of this team, that decision will be clear early in the process.
Business has a way of interrupting even the best vibes and feel-good stories in baseball.
And whether it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies or somebody else, Hendriks is sure to be one of the most pursued pitchers at the deadline if he makes good on his vow to take care of business. This is the final guaranteed year ($14 million) of his contract, with a $15 million club option for next year that automatically vests if he’s traded.
One intriguing possibility would seem to be the crosstown Chicago Cubs sticking close enough to the playoff race to go after him, giving the White Sox the chance to at least allow him to stay in the same city with his medical support system.
Until then, he’s focused on one thing. And it’s not that.
“I’m not OK with not succeeding,” he said. “There’s going to be no qualms or resets or anything like that. It’s as soon as I’m back, I’m meant to be in midseason form, and that’s what I’m going to be doing.”
Gordon Wittenmyer covers Major League Baseball for Sportsnaut. You can follow him on Twitter at @GDubCub.