The righthander had a stellar career in Chicago.
One thing to remember about Kyle Hendricks’ mostly good-to-great 11 seasons in a Cubs uniform is that they nearly didn’t happen.
And wouldn’t have, if a proposed trade of Ryan Dempster to the Braves for Randall Delgado would have been consummated near the trade deadline in 2012. That deal fell through for reasons that are documented here (it wasn’t Dempster, it was the Braves moving on).
The Cubs got lucky. Delgado, a top young pitcher at the time who had already made several starts in the major leagues, washed out and his MLB career ended after 2018 (though he was still pitching in the Mexican League in 2024).
Instead, Theo Epstein traded Dempster to the Rangers on July 31, 2012, for Christian Villanueva and Hendricks.
I mention Villanueva first because at the time, he was more highly regarded. He was a Top 100 prospect. Hendricks was an eighth-round pick in his second full year in pro ball.
Villanueva left the Cubs as a free agent after 2016, played two years with the Padres, then was let go. He later played in Japan and he, too, played in the Mexican League in 2024.
I became a fan of Hendricks right away. In 2013, splitting the season between Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa, he posted a 2.00 ERA and 1.058 WHIP. He didn’t walk guys and didn’t give up long balls (only five in 166⅓ innings).
When he had basically the same year, though with a bit higher ERA, at Iowa in 2014, he was called up to the major leagues in early July, right after Jeff Samardzija was traded. He basically took Shark’s rotation spot.
The first game Hendricks started was the first game of a doubleheader at Cincinnati July 8, 2014. The start was just okay for Kyle — six innings, four runs. He struck out seven in that outing. Here are those seven K’s:
You know, he didn’t look much different, or pitch much differently, 10 years later.
And right after that he went on a 10-start run in which he posted a 1.60 ERA and 1.030 WHIP, with just two home runs allowed in 56⅓ innings. As you surely know, Kyle has never had great velocity — even in his best years, he didn’t much crack 90 miles per hour. It was his devastating changeup that allowed him to strike out eight batters per nine innings for several seasons, most notably in 2016, when he led MLB with a 2.13 ERA and 196 ERA+, struck out 170 in 190 innings, and finished third in Cy Young voting. He became nicknamed The Professor for his cerebral approach to the game and his Ivy League degree from Dartmouth.
Hendricks took a no-hitter into the ninth inning Sept. 12, 2016 in St. Louis, only to see it broken up on a home run by Jeremy Hazelbaker. It’s the closest Kyle came to a no-no.
In the 2016 postseason, Kyle’s start in the division series against the Giants wasn’t great, but then he shut down the Dodgers twice in the NLCS, including outpitching Clayton Kershaw in Game 6, Here are highlights from that game:
He didn’t finish the fifth inning in either of his two World Series starts, the second one, in Game 7, not entirely Kyle’s fault — he got jobbed on some ball-and-strike calls that might have changed the entire tone of that game.
Well, you know what happened, and that win and Kyle’s demeanor spawned memes:
Kyle continued to pitch well into 2020, issuing few walks, not allowing long balls and carving up hitters with his changeup. One of the most memorable of those was an 81-pitch complete-game shutout against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field May 3, 2019. Here’s the condensed game from MLB showing all the plays from that game [VIDEO].
During the 2020 pandemic season, Hendricks again got Cy Young votes, finishing ninth, and walked just eight hitters of 315 faces, a walk rate of 2.5 percent.
The following year, things fell apart for Kyle. He started allowing home runs at an alarming rate (10 in 22⅔ innings in April) and though he did right the ship somewhat after that (a 16-start stretch with a 2.79 ERA), his last eight starts in ‘21 were poor (7.96 ERA). It’s likely no coincidence that stretch came after the big selloff in ‘21, when the Cubs defense got significantly worse. As a pitch-to-contact guy, Hendricks often depended on his defense.
In 2022, a poor start culminated with a 116-pitch outing May 9 in San Diego, David Ross letting Hendricks try to finish a contest he probably shouldn’t have (the Cubs were leading 6-0!) and that seemed to lead to some shoulder issues which kept him sidelined after July 5, 2022 and he didn’t return to action until May 25, 2023, choosing to rest his shoulder rather than have surgery.
He pitched reasonably well in ‘23, cutting down on the home runs (13 in 137 innings, 3.74 ERA, 1.4 bWAR), leading the Cubs to exercise the contract option they had on him for 2024.
Well, you know what happened — another year’s worth of allowing home runs that eventually got Kyle shuttled to the bullpen where, truth be told, he threw reasonably well, a 3.14 ERA and 1.116 WHIP in 14⅓ relief innings.
But as a starter, Kyle was up and down in 2024 and it was clear it would be his last year with the Cubs.
He was given one last start, the final Saturday of the season, Sept. 28 at Wrigley Field.
And he rose to the occasion — 7⅓ innings of two-hit, shutout ball. Here’s the BCB recap of that game, complete with a number of videos of a love-fest for Kyle at Wrigley. It’s so rare for a talented and popular longtime Cub to get a sendoff like that at home; the last one I can remember before that was for Ryne Sandberg back in 1997.
And now, the news today that Hendricks is signing with the Angels on a one-year deal reported to be worth $2.5 million, with incentives. Hendricks grew up nearby (Mission Viejo) and so this will be sort of a homecoming for him. The Angels likely aren’t going anywhere in 2025, and Hendricks can help be a veteran mentor for some of their younger pitchers.
Hendricks has some top rankings in Cubs history. His 270 starts rank tied for ninth with Hippo Vaughn and his 1,259 strikeouts rank seventh, 46 behind Greg Maddux. He didn’t get to the milestone 100th win I know he’d have liked, but his 97 wins as a Cub rank 22nd (17th in the Modern Era, post-1900). He posted 22.5 bWAR for the Cubs and a few years down the road, he’ll certainly get a plaque in the Cubs Hall of Fame, located underneath the left-field bleachers.
He’s long been one of my personal favorites and is the only 2016 Cub for whom I own a jersey. I’ll always have fond memories of The Professor, wish him well in Anaheim, and hope he will come back to the Cubs to work in some capacity after he’s done playing.