Ex-White Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks has more to say, and that's a very good thing

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Former closer Liam Hendriks has something to say about why recent White Sox teams weren’t more successful.

“We had too many guys pulling in different directions, too many cooks in the kitchen trying to fix what they thought was [wrong],” he said this week. “There’s a lot of Type A people in a clubhouse. You’ve got certain people thinking, ‘This is the way it’s got to go.’ Certain people want to fix something, so they just scream and yell until someone fixes it. There wasn’t, honestly, enough positivity and eagerness to go out there and play on a day-to-day basis.”

So there you have it, a Hendriks weigh-in. But there’s nothing new about the just-turned-35-year-old doing that.

At the spring-training home of the Red Sox, whom he recently joined on a two-year deal that’s all about 2025, Hendriks opened the spigot in a conversation with the Sun-Times because that’s who he is and what he does. If anybody doesn’t like it, oh, well.

According to Hendriks, some Sox teammates didn’t like it, in particular how open and accessible he was with the media.

“Some guys thought I was seeking too much attention,” he said. “But when you answer questions in a non-generic way, they tend to come to you a little bit more. And I’m not one to shy away from a conversation, whether it be uncomfortable, whether I’m going well, whether I’m going poorly. I want to be as transparent as I can, because baseball is a very stoic man’s sport.

“When I started being transparent, knowing what my flaws were and embracing them, that’s when I started having success on the field and when I started having success away from the field. We’re all human, and I want to make sure I remain true to myself. I want to make sure that I live as well at the field as I do away from it.”

It’s a matter of need as much as nature. In January of last year, Hendriks was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He went through chemotherapy, was pronounced cancer-free and — incredibly — was back on the mound for the Sox in a big-league game on May 29. After five appearances in 11 days, though, he was shut down; the eventual 2023 American League Comeback Player of the Year needed Tommy John surgery.

How many pro athletes are built to deal with all that emotionally?

“Luckily, I’m a resolute, positive person,” he said. “I’ve got a good support base around me, which has been fantastic, and also I’m OK not thinking that I’m perfect. That’s one thing I think is a really big problem, especially with [athletes], is pride. It’s not taking accountability, thinking you’re going to be able to gut it out, white-knuckle it through things without talking to people. I made sure to talk to people — therapists, my wife, family members, the general public — about everything I’ve gone through. It doesn’t have to be a professional, either; it can be having a conversation with your local barista, something like that. The more you talk about things, the easier it gets because you realize you’re not alone.”

The Red Sox gave him a two-year contract, with most of the money — up to $16 million, including all incentives — packed into 2025, when few expect current closer Kenley Jansen to still be with the team. Manager Alex Cora says the goal is for Hendriks to pitch for the Red Sox before the end of this season. Hendriks is aiming for by or before Aug. 2, the one-year anniversary of his reconstructive surgery.

He has bet on his own willfulness many times before and won. According to Hendriks, he has pitched with ligament damage his entire career and in pain for the last “seven or eight” years. It was a “head thing,” at times, to convince himself he could do it.

“The elbow was on the precipice for a long while,” he said.

The Tommy John development hardly came out of left field, but it did give him a chance to downshift from an intense drive to prove he could fight through cancer and get back on the mound at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Was overtaxing his arm worth it?

“Yes, without a doubt,” he said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that me coming back was what I needed mentally. I’m someone who needs a goal; I need something to do, something to try and beat, an agenda. There was no way in hell I wasn’t coming back last year. And I can’t even tell you how much it means to me to be able to do it in front of the home crowd.”

He’ll see that crowd again in June, when the Red Sox visit the South Side.

“It’s a great place,” he said, meaning Chicago. “That city embraced my wife and I like no other. We felt like family from the minute it started. I’m sad the way it ended — it wasn’t the way I wanted it to — but I want to thank all the people for embracing me and continuing to embrace me, because the well wishes have been fantastic and overwhelming.”

Hendriks has a healthy outlook and an arm that just needs to catch up. If it does, he says he’ll try to “beat” former Blue Jays teammate LaTroy Hawkins, who pitched until he was 42.

“The key to it all is resiliency,” he said. “If you never give up, if you never quit, at some point [expletive] is going to change. There are only so many times bad things can happen in a row, right? …

“It’s been an interesting career — the adversity that I’ve gone through, but also what I’ve been able to overcome. My favorite thing about it is I’ve tried to remain positive as much as I can.”