Red Sox to sign three-time All-Star pitcher

Hendriks, 35, was the AL’s Comeback Player of the Year award winner in 2023 after he managed to return to the mound five months after he began undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in early January before announcing that he was cancer-free in April. Unfortunately, Hendriks’ amazing comeback was cut short after just five appearances due to a bout of elbow inflammation, which ended up leading to the veteran undergoing Tommy John surgery back in August. Hendriks’ lengthy impending rehab led the White Sox to decline their club option on his services for the 2024 season, allowing him to hit the open market back in November.

While 2023 was something of a lost season for Hendriks, he’s long been one of the most dominant relievers in the sport. The right-hander debuted as a starting pitcher with the Twins back in 2011, though he struggled in the role for Minnesota, Kansas City, and Toronto with a 5.92 ERA in 39 appearances across four seasons before the Blue Jays decided to move him to the bullpen full time in 2015. The role change did wonders for Hendriks’ performance, as he pitched to a strong 2.92 ERA with an even better 2.14 FIP across 64 2/3 innings of work for the club that year. That season, Hendriks struck out a solid 27.2% of batters faced while allowing free passes at a minimal 4.2% clip.

The Blue Jays didn’t retain Hendriks after his breakout campaign, instead dealing him to the Oakland A’s prior to the 2016 season. During his first few years in Oakland, Hendriks came back down to earth a bit, pitching to relatively middling results out of the club’s bullpen with a 4.01 ERA and a 3.24 FIP across 152 2/3 innings of work from 2016 to 2018. Hendriks returned to form in 2019, however. When then-A’s closer Blake Treinen struggled to a 4.91 ERA during the 2019 season, Hendriks took over the closer’s role and did not look back with an incredible 1.80 ERA with a 1.78 FIP in 85 innings of work.

The righty continued that strong performance in 2020, his final year of club control. He headed into the open market after racking up 14 more saves in the shortened season, posting a 1.78 ERA thanks to a huge 40.2% strikeout rate and a tiny 3.3% walk rate. He landed a three-year, $54M deal with the White Sox with a complicated club option for 2024. The salary and buyout on that option were both $15M, though the buyout would spread the payouts over a 10-year period.

He continued to serve as a lockdown closer for the first two years of that deal before, as mentioned, going through various challenges in the third. With Hendriks looking at missing at least the first few months of 2024, the White Sox went for the $15M opt-out instead of the $15M salary. Despite those matching figures, they will save money in the long run by holding that money, collecting interest on it and paying it out later when inflation has reduced its value.

Hendriks went into the open market unable to market himself for much of the 2024 season. He is targeting a trade deadline return from last year’s surgery, though that would be on the ambitious end of typical Tommy John recovery timelines since he just went under the knife a year ago.

It would obviously be great news if Hendriks is back on the mound in August or September but the signing for the Red Sox is more about 2025. The club has Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin as their top relievers this year but both are impending free agents and each have been in trade rumors this offseason. The club seems to have little hesitation about subtracting from this year’s relief corps, as they recently traded John Schreiber and flipped Nick Robertson earlier in the winter as part of the Tyler O’Neill deal.

Overall, the club’s offseason has been more focused on the future than the present. The move for O’Neill and the signing of Lucas Giolito were nice adds for this year, but they’ve also been seemingly trying to keep payroll fairly low and have sent out players with minimal club control like Chris Sale and Alex Verdugo. While they’re not exactly tearing things down to the studs as part of a deep rebuild, they do seem to be aware that they need to think about the long term after a couple of last-place finishes in the A.L. East in the past two seasons.

Signing Hendriks fits into that, as he will upgrade next year’s roster more than this one’s. There’s also some financial wiggle room due to their relatively modest winter. Roster Resource pegs their current payroll at $181M, even after the Hendriks signing. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, they were twice over $230M a few years back and at $207M two years ago. RR also has its competitive balance tax now at $202M, nowhere near the $237M base threshold of the tax.

If the Sox find themselves in contention later this year, perhaps Hendriks can come back from his rehab and join their bullpen for the stretch run. But for next year, he potentially gives the club an elite closer at a relatively modest salary, providing an early solution to the departures of Jansen and Martin.

Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam of MassLive first reported the sides were nearing an agreement and that Hendriks was present at the club’s spring training facility in Florida. Buster Olney of ESPN first had the two-year and $10M guarantee. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com relayed the 2026 mutual option. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the potential to get to $20M via incentives.