The Chicago White Sox signed free agent Liam Hendriks to a three-year, $ 54 million deal by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Jim Bowden, CBS Sports HQ Baseball Insider, confirmed the signing. The deal includes a club option for a fourth year, and it is $ 54 million guaranteed, Rosenthal notes.
At $ 18 million a year, Hendriks breaks the record average annual value for a relief jar, Bowden says. He surpasses right-winger Wade Davis’ $ 52 million three-year deal he signed with the Colorado Rockies in 2018.
Hendriks, who turns 32 next month, has spent the past five seasons with the Oakland Athletics and helped the A’s win an AL West title last season. In 2020, Hendriks saved 14 games in 15 chances and scored a 1.78 ERA, 0.67 WHIP and 37 strikeouts against two unintentional runs in 25 1/3 overs. He finished ninth in the AL Cy Young poll and 13th in the AL MVP poll.
CBS Sports ranks Hendriks as the 20th best free agent available this winter. Here’s what we had to say about RJ Anderson on the right:
The beauty of speed ball shift lighters is that you never know which one is going to break out or when. Hendriks is a good example. Over the past two seasons, he has thrown 110 overs of 1.79 ERA ball, doing so while hitting 161 and running 24. Was there any indication that it would come? Not so much. In the preceding three years (all along with athletics, mind you), he had a 4.01 ERA and a 3.64 stroke-to-step ratio. Either way, here’s the hope that Hendriks receives the payday he deserves, especially after following in the footsteps of Nathan Eovaldi and Brandon Morrow this post-season, above and beyond danger and despite his looming free agency appointment dared. Selflessness must be rewarded after all.
It was another busy winter for the White Sox. Along with signing Hendriks, the club also acquired right-handed starter Lance Lynn in a deal with the Texas Rangers and signed free agent Adam Eaton. In 2020, the White Sox reached the extended playoffs through a 12-year drought after the season, before falling 2-1 to the Oakland Athletics in the U.S. League Wild Card Series.
This off-season they shot ALL Manager of the Year finalist Rick Renteria before announcing the mysterious appointment of Tony La Russa as the new skipper.