Angels Pitcher Plans to Retire at End of 2025 Season: Report

Angels manager Ron Washington (37) has a meeting at the mound with starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks (28) and the infielders during the sixth inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on June 17. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Angels pitcher Kyle Hendricks will reportedly retire after the 2025 season, his 12th in Major League Baseball.

Hendricks, 35, signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract with the Angels in November 2024. Though far removed from his peak years with the Chicago Cubs, he gave the Angels all they could have hoped for by making 30 starts and throwing 159.2 innings — and counting.

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Yet the Orange County native has informed friends that he expects to retire after the season, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Hendricks turns 36 in December and is perhaps unwilling to test the free agent market for the second straight year.

Hendricks made his 300th career start for the Angels on Sunday in Colorado, and tossed seven shutout innings against the Rockies in Coors Field.

"Kyle has been great for us all season," Angels designated hitter Mike Trout said after the game. "His last couple starts have been unbelievable. It's been unbelievable watching him go out there and just spot up. As a hitter, you know, facing a guy that can locate it's a tough at-bat. I see the work he puts in every single day. To go out there and do that, it's pretty cool."

RF Mike Trout’s post-game interview with @EricaLWeston

Trout on hitting his 400th career Home Run, finally hitting 400, Kyle Hendricks, and being able to get the ball back pic.twitter.com/fD0FKXb1EY

— Angels News (@AngelsNews27) September 21, 2025

Hendricks can put the exclamation mark on his career Friday against the Houston Astros. He's 8-10 this year with a 4.79 ERA, and 105-91 with a 3.79 ERA in his career.

Hendricks finished third in National League Cy Young Award voting in 2016, when he went 16-8 with an MLB-low 2.13 ERA. That October, he made five postseason starts and allowed a combined four earned runs — an instrumental performance as the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians to end their 108-year World Series championship drought.

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Hendricks was close to league-average (66-64, 3.99 ERA) over his final eight seasons in Chicago. The Cubs failed to repeat as champions.

Relying more on guile and command than velocity and spin, Hendricks still offered teams a reliable source of innings as his career advanced. He'll likely finish this season third on the Angels in innings and tied for second in starts, a solid return on investment for an affordable one-year contract.

The Angels were perhaps unlikely to bring back Hendricks in 2026 regardless of his career intentions. Still, his retirement means the Angels will need to replace both him and left-hander Tyler Anderson, who will be a free agent after going 2-8 with a 4.56 ERA this year.

Unless Anderson returns, only Yusei Kikuchi and Jose Soriano are the surefire holdovers from a rotation that consisted of the same five pitchers before the All-Star break, but struggled to fill innings afterward. The Angels have baseball's third-worst record since the break.

For more Angels news, head over to Angels on SI.