It was going to be a long offseason, Kyle Hendricks thought. He expected to go unsigned for a while.
He knew his time with the Chicago Cubs had come and gone. He’s turning 35 years old in a few weeks. He didn’t pitch effectively in 2024. He saw the direction and knew what it meant for him.
What he didn’t know, however, was that there would be a team quick to court his services: the Los Angeles Angels, whose ballpark is located just 30 minutes from where he grew up. They provided a perfect opportunity to pitch — even if signing that contract meant putting an official end to a meaningful tenure in Chicago.
“It was a slow process, throughout the course of the year,” Hendricks said of when he realized his time in Chicago was ending. “It’s a results-based league. Of course, I would have loved to be a Cub my whole life if it could have happened. But you have to produce, and it didn’t happen for me.”
Hendricks has never been an All-Star, and he won’t go into the Hall of Fame. He’s had a very good career — a model of stability. But his legacy, what he’ll be known and remembered for, was being a Chicago Cub. A consistent presence who helped shepherd a tortured franchise into a World Series winner. He was the last remaining face on that iconic team, for which he finished third in the National League Cy Young Award voting during that championship season.
Going to the Angels isn’t just about joining a new club. It’s about leaving his old one. His introductory press conference, held on Zoom, brought out the entire Chicago media contingent. Not customary for most soon-to-be 35-year-old pitchers coming off a 5.92 ERA season. But sensible because of what he meant to that fan base.
“I am so grateful and so lucky to have what I had in Chicago,” Hendricks said. “I could have never imagined it. It just made sense for both sides to move on.”
Now, he’s going to the Angels. They have assured him a spot in the rotation, and believe they’ve identified mechanical deficiencies to address within Hendricks’ delivery.
He said it took a long time for him to sync up his timing last season, and as a result, he didn’t have “any angle” on his pitches. His changeup didn’t work off his fastball.
“I kind of have a tuck when I get to the balance point in my delivery,” Hendricks said. “At first, I was really over-tucking. I wasn’t in a strong balanced position. I was getting a little too much rotation as I was going down the mountain. I wasn’t staying directional, which is very important for me.”
He posted a 3.12 ERA over his final four appearances of the season, which has given the Angels some hope that he will be effective. But largely this move represents where the two franchises are at with rotation needs.
The Cubs have Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon as anchors of the rotation, along with several young arms who will get more opportunities to start. They’re also more readily willing to spend.
The Angels — who are clearly more set on crafting an offseason with reclamation projects — are not in that position. Tyler Anderson has sewn up a spot in their rotation. José Soriano is expected to be back healthy. But beyond that, the Angels are working with a slew of question marks. At the very least, Hendricks can eat innings at a relatively low price, and he throws strikes, which was an issue for the Angels in 2024.
It’s such a clear area of need that Minasian, who often avoids specifics, made it clear he’s still hoping to add at least one more starting pitcher.
“We still think he can pitch. We think there’s a lot left in the tank,” Minasian said. “He’s a year removed from being very good, and we don’t see any reason he can’t get back to that point, where he was in 2023. He’s not somebody that relies on velocity, he can really pitch.”
For most pitchers of this price — $2.5 million for one season — their deals are but a hot-stove footnote. But for Hendricks, it means more because of what he represents to a team and its fans.
He didn’t rule out rejoining the Cubs someday, be it with the coaching staff or front office. For now, the Angels hope that he can be a mentor to their young pitchers and position players — a veteran leader on a team that needs that type of help.
The question is how much he has left in the tank. His strikeouts were down, his walks were up. In-zone and out-of-zone contact against him were both at career lows in 2024 — he generaged whiffs on just 18.7 percent of swings against him. His changeup and sinker were as hittable as they ever have been.
It’s a low-risk signing for the Angels. But the stakes are still high for the team and for Hendricks, who is trying to prove that the end of his Cubs career isn’t the end of his big-league career.
“Right now, they’re in a window where they’re really looking to go win with what they have set up, and I’m happy for them,” Hendricks said of his old team. “For myself, I’m just happy to have another opportunity to play baseball.”
(Top photo: Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
