It's Never Too Early for Athletics to Start Talk About Hendriks & Cy Young
Back in 1992, Dennis Eckersley won the American League Cy Young Award for the Oakland A’s by pitching some of the best relief anybody had ever seen.
He pitched in 69 games, finishing 65 of them while saving 51. His 1.91 ERA was off the charts. He walked just five men unintentionally while going 7-1. More than that, he only pitched in five games the A’s lost all year.
It was an outlier; no AL pitcher has won the Cy Young since, although in the NL, Eric Gagne was the Cy Young winner in 2003. In all, the Cy Young is almost exclusively a starting pitcher’s award; only nine relievers have won it going back to 1956.
In many ways, 2020 has already been a stranger year, what with shutdowns, pandemics, fan-less stadiums and a 60-game schedule. Would that open the door for another reliever to win the Cy Young, say the A’s Liam Hendriks?
A pair of Oakland A’s relievers, Jake Diekman and T. J. McFarland, say it could happen.
“He’s got nine saves; he could have 10,” Diekman said. “He strikes out like 45 per night or something like that. Yeah, definitely, he should be up there.”
McFarland believes that closers in general, as well as Hendriks specifically, might find that this is their year.
“Obviously I'm a little biased because I am a reliever,” McFarland said. “But I think in a normal season, a closer of any type of reliever who’s done extremely well should be a viable choice for the Cy Young, but especially this year, with especially the fact that there's only 60 games.
“With a closer who gets as many saves in as many big situations as Liam has, and who has had incredible success, I think there's no doubt that he should be recognized for that. It’ll be interesting to see how any of the accolades work this year, but he definitely has my vote already.”
Hendriks has yet to appear in an A’s loss this season, although at 19-9 entering Sunday, the club hasn’t had that many losses. His nine saves lead the Major Leagues while he’s tied for third in games pitched (14) with a 1.26 ERA and 21 strikeouts and three walks in 14.1 innings.
With the season just 28 games old, Hendriks has already pitched in relief on three consecutive days twice.
For all of that work, Hendriks wants more.
“I’m never going to tell you I need a day off,” Hendriks told the A’s radio team this week. “I’m never going to tell you I need a day (off). It’s on them (manager Bob Melvin and pitching coach Scott Emerson), because I’m always going to take the ball and battle a little bit no matter what the score is.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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