Former Chicago White Sox Closer Sets Aggressive Goal in Return From Tommy John Surgery
Free agent closer and multi-time All-Star Liam Hendriks is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery and he's set an aggressive timeline for when he hopes to be back on a big league mound.
Per Scott Merkin of MLB.com, who covers the Chicago White Sox.
But Hendriks is a man with a mound plan for the present and future, and at this point he’s looking at right around the ’24 Trade Deadline, which represents a quicker return than the projected 12 to 14 months.
“I’m giving them a target date,” said Hendriks with a laugh when I talked to him by phone on Monday.
Hendriks underwent the surgery back on August 2nd, so being back by the trade deadline would represent about one year. That is aggressive, but perhaps with Hendriks being a reliever, he'd have an opportunity to build back quicker since things like pitch count build-up are not necessarily a requirement.
Furthermore, with Hendriks, anything appears possible. He already beat a cancer diagnosis in the offseason after the 2022 season and returned in May of 2023 before injury the elbow.
A three-time All-Star, the 34-year-old is a 13-year big league veteran. He has played for the Twins, Royals, Blue Jays, Athletics and White Sox.
He starred with Chicago when healthy from 2021-2022. He led the league in saves in 2021 with 38. He also helped the White Sox get to the playoffs that year.
For his career, he's 33-34 with a 3.82 ERA. He's got 116 career saves, the bulk of which have come since 2019.
One interesting thing to note: While Hendriks said that no talks with teams have truly gone anywhere, but he did note that the Chicago Cubs had reached out early on after his White Sox option was declined.
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