After quite an unbelievable journey, Liam Hendriks is ready to return to the White Sox.
Both Liam Hendriks and the White Sox announced that he will be returning to the ballclub and bullpen on Monday, May 29. Hendriks posted on his Instagram “See you soon on the South Side” with a “5.29” date this afternoon, giving a pretty clear indication he will be reinstated from the injured list. Not long after, the White Sox released a video titled, in part, “Welcome back, Liam Hendriks!” with some wonderful words from his teammates.
All of this means that Liam Hendriks could make his first appearance of the season as soon as Monday night when the Sox host the Los Angeles Angels at Guaranteed Rate Field.
It’s been an incredible journey for Liam Hendriks. Back in January, Hendriks announced that he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and received support from the entire baseball community. Hendriks had his last round of chemotherapy on April 3 of this year, and soon after announced that he was cancer-free.
As part of his road back, he made six rehab appearances in Charlotte with the Knights, allowing six earned runs in five innings. Since then, he has thrown live BP a few times to White Sox hitters. Hendriks last threw live batting practice at Comerica Park on Friday. According to Daryl Van Schouwen, he threw 19 pitches to Elvis Andrus, Adam Haseley, and Seby Zavala in Detroit. Aside from a ground ball to the third base side of second base by the left-handed hitting Haseley, contact was limited.
The Australian closer has been rock solid for the White Sox over his two years as the team’s closer. More importantly than that, however, Hendriks has been a leader in the clubhouse and in the Chicago community. Hendriks’ South Slydah Society is the most well-known way, however, he and his family have been outspoken supporters of the LGTBQ+ community and have spoken out against gun violence in Chicago. He has also partnered with organizations focused on animal welfare, including Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation, One Tail at a Time, Fetching Tails Foundation, Mission K-9, the Petco Foundation, and the Rescue Me Thursday campaign.
It is unclear what the roster move will be to bring Hendriks back onto the roster, nor is it clear if he will be starting games immediately upon his return. What we do know, however, is that Hendriks will provide a huge morale and leadership boost to a roster and clubhouse in desperate need of one.
Guaranteed Rate Field is likely to be very loud on Monday night.
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Featured Image: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
As an incredibly proud Christian conservative, I am sad to see that Liam spends so much of his time helping God’s creatures. He should be out shooting at beer cans, angrily marching around a statue with a torch, and spreading lies about elections. But if he can save some games for the Sox, I will attempt to tolerate his antics.