A's Hendriks Isn't Done Changing His Game

After adjustments led to Liam Hendriks adding 3 mph to his fastball, now the A's closer is adding a bit of hesitation to his delivery, just to keep batters guessing

There are ways things could be a little more different this year from last year for Liam Hendriks.

He could, for example, be playing left wing for the San Jose Sharks or he could be hiking the Hindu Kush rather than taking part in spring training with the A’s.

Those would be radical turnarounds from this time last year. Almost as radical as the reality, which is that Hendriks is the A’s closer heading into the season.

A year ago at this point, Hendriks was just hoping to make the team. He’d been non-tendered by the A’s on June 25, 2018, and was so little valued that no one claimed him. Oakland brought him back on a minor-league contract a week or so later. He was back in the big leagues on Sept. 1 when the rosters expanded.

He started eight times during the final month as the A’s experiment with using an opener rather than a classic starter, and he was the starter – the first Australian pitcher ever to start a post-season game – in the 2018 Wild Card game.

When spring training opened in 2019, however, Hendriks was just another arm in the bullpen. Rather unremarkable. But when Blake Treinen came up hurting in May, manager Bob Melvin turned to Hendriks.

And Hendriks turned up the velocity. He had used his time at Triple-A in 2018 to fix a mechanical problem, adding velocity in the process. To that point, Hendriks had regularly thrown a 92-93 mph fastball. Afterward he was throwing 96 with ease, spiking to 98.

Along the way, he ditched the sinker, opted to use the slider as his second pitch and went more and more to the four-seam fastball as his primary serve to take advantage of the new-found velocity. He wound up an All-Star and the owner of a 4-4 record, a 1.80 ERA and 25 saves. That’s 24 more saves than he’d had in his first eight big league seasons.

And now he’s adding something new.

In his first Cactus League game Monday against the Brewers, he showed a bit of hesitation in his delivery during the one inning he threw – three batters, 12 pitches and two strikeouts. The hesitation was particularly noticeable in strike three against David Freitas, who looked at a called third strike.

“I had a little hesitation on that last pitch to him. It’s something I was working on all offseason. We’ll see how it goes,” Hendriks told the A’s media. “Whether or not I implement it during the season, we’ll see.”

Others, including Angels’ right-hander Hansel Robles and Mets’ right-hander Marcus Stroman, mix in some hesitation as a weapon, although Hendriks said he won’t be using it as much as they do. It’s just something he’s toying with for the moment.

“Just something I can add in every now and then if I’m not feeling great or have an opportunity to take advantage of a hole,” Hendriks said. “You can read guys’ swings. Some have big leg kicks and you can throw that timing off a little bit.”

He said he came up with the idea in the offseason while doing some exercised designed to give him better balance on the mound. His tendency has been to fall forward after releasing the ball, and he wants to stay back a little more if he can.