Sox all-star Liam Hendriks closes out cancer, readies for rehab start
While the White Sox were battling through their second-worst start (8-21) in franchise history, all-star closer Liam Hendriks was wrapping up a much more important fight.
It was a battle he was willing to wage.
"Since my career turned around in 2018, 2019, I haven't changed my mindset," Hendriks said Wednesday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field. "It's always been a positive next day is what we are going to do. It's never been a look to the future. It's been taking care of today. I think that was a contributing factor that really helped me attack everything with this."
"This" is Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which Hendriks learned he had in early December.
"It was never a thing to me where I ever worried," he said. "Like I never looked into it as a 'Why me?' thing. I looked at it as a 'Why not me?' As some of you may understand, I tend to have a little rosier perspective on life than the general population, so that was process behind it. 'Look, I've got this. This is my next challenge.'"
As he has done on the mound as one of baseball's best relief pitchers, Hendriks is winning in his scrap against a formidable opponent.
The 34-year-old Australian is in remission and cancer free after beginning chemotherapy in early January and ending treatments on April 3, the day of the Sox's home opener.
On Friday, he'll begin a rehab assignment with Class AAA Charlotte and could be back in the White Sox's bullpen at a later point in May.
"What he went through, how he went through it, not only did he fight through cancer, he still prepared for this through cancer, which is really incredible," Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. "Most people, when they are diagnosed with (cancer), that is all they can concentrate on, right? That's all they think about. And not only did he concentrate on that and battle through that, he still worked at this, which is allowing him to speed that up a little bit now and be here and go through this rehab and hopefully come back here pretty soon.
"He lifts us all up. He's an inspiration to us all. And just the way he went about it is just incredible."
Hendriks discussed every detail of his Non-Hodgkin lymphoma battle Wednesday, pointing out he noticed lumps on his neck last June that "were the main triggers."
"I didn't tell anybody until July," he said. "I got a blood test done and nothing came up, which is fun, that blood cancer doesn't come up in the blood, which is great."
By December, Hendriks discovered he also had "bigger" tumors in his hip.
"There's no way to put a real timeline on it, but if I had the ones in my neck in June and the ones in my hip were bigger, there was always the chance I pitched damn near all (last) year with lymphoma in my system," Hendriks said. "I'd like to think that was the reason I struggled to recover and the end of the year I was damn near limping to the finish line."
He's up and running again, and Hendriks is scheduled to make four or five relief appearances for Charlotte before being reevaluated.
When he does rejoin the White Sox, the animated right-hander is going to place the usual high demands on himself.
Over the last four seasons, Hendriks leads all major league relievers in saves and strikeouts.
"I don't plan on regressing," he said. "There's no taking it easy. If I go out there and I give up a hit, I'm still going to be (peeved). If I go out there and walk somebody, I'm still going to be (peeved). If I go out there, it's going to be the same mentality that I have and that's the only way I've been able to do what I've done the last couple of years.
"My job is to get this done and if I don't do it, I'm going to be mad. There's no give or take. I can't be that way. There's no middle ground for me. It's either I'm OK with sucking or I'm not OK with not succeeding."