The Chicago White Sox signed free agent Liam Hendriks for a $ 54 million deal for three years, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. CBS Sports HQ Baseball Insider, Jim Bowden, confirmed the signing. The deal includes a fourth year club option, and is $ 54 million guaranteed, Rosenthal Notes.
With $ 18 million a year, Hendriks breaks the record average annual value for a substitute pitcher, Bowden notes. He surpassed the three-year-old $ 52 million right-handed Wade Davis contract he signed in 2018 with the Colorado Rockies.
Hendriks, who turns 32 next month, has spent the past five seasons with the Oakland Athletics, helping the A’s win the AL West title last season. In 2020, Hendriks saved 14 games in 15 chances and recorded 1.78 ERA, 0.67 WHIP and 37 strikeouts against two unintended walks in 25 1/3 innings. He finished ninth in the AL Cy Young vote and 13th in the AL MVP vote.
CBS Sports ranked Hendriks as the 20th best free agent available this winter. Here’s what our RJ Anderson had to say about the right-handed:
The beauty of fastball relievers is that you never know which one will burst or when. Hendriks is a good example. In the past two seasons, he launched 110 1.79 ERA ball entries, and did so while eliminating 161 and walking 24. Was there any real indication that this was coming? Not much. In the previous three years (all spent with athletics, mind you), he had an ERA of 4.01 and a scratch-to-walk ratio of 3.64. Either way, we hope Hendriks gets the payday he deserves, especially after following in the footsteps of Nathan Eovaldi and Brandon Morrow this postseason, going further and risking injury despite his encounter with the free agency. After all, selflessness must be rewarded.
It was another busy winter for the White Sox. Along with Hendriks’ signing, the club also acquired right-handed titleholder Lance Lynn in an exchange with the Texas Rangers and signed free-field player Adam Eaton. In 2020, the White Sox made the playoffs expanded, breaking a 12-year post-season drought, before dropping 2-1 to the Oakland Athletics in the American League Wild Card Series.
In this off season, they fired LA Manager of the Year Finalist Rick Renteria before announcing the intriguing signing of Tony La Russa as the new captain.