Last week new White Sox closer Liam Hendriks sat down for a long chat with the Australian media and there was a lot to like for White Sox fans.
His $54 million deal got a lot of attention here. In local currency it’s around $70 million dollars and instantly makes him one of Australia’s highest paid athletes alongside the likes of basketballer Ben Simmons, Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo and golfer Jason Day.
The contract has drawn a lot more attention to baseball in Australia, but there’s still a long way to go for baseball to cut through down under.
One of the news reports proudly announced he’d signed with the ‘Chicago Red Sox’ and even though the local Australian Baseball League (ABL) has had its share of prospects turned big leaguers roll through, the ABL remains a very much a niche competition over here.
There’s a few connections between the ABL and the White Sox. With Hendriks, there’s two current squad members who played in Australia, the other being Adam Engel in 2014/15 who was here with a few other White Sox prospects. Shane Lindsay was another Aussie who played ABL and got a cup of coffee with the Sox during 2011.
Drew Anderson, who Rick Renteria had plans for in 2020 (before he got lit up by Cleveland for six runs in 1.1 innings) is playing in Australia right now as a closer and has scored a new deal with the Texas Rangers as a result.
Chicago will also match up against two Aussies in the American League Central, with Aaron Whitefield and Lewis Thorpe both at Minnesota.
Notable names who played a summer down under include Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr, Seattle’s Yusei Kikuchi, Tampa Bay regulars Mike Brosseau, Kevin Keirmaier and Ji-Man Choi, Philadelphia’s Rhys Hoskins and former Yankees, Phillies now free agent shortstop Didi Gregorius.
And if you’re stuck for conversation at a barbecue, why not bring up that celebrated 2017 White Sox centerfielder (and .056 hitter) Jacob May also played a season in Australia?
Hendriks is one of 35 Australians to have made the Major Leagues. Probably the most remembered Aussies are two-time World Series winner Graeme Lloyd, ‘mad’ closer Grant Balfour and probably the most recognized of them all, former MLB All-Star David Nilsson.
During the interview there was a bit of ground covered, but still some good information for Sox fans to learn about their new finisher.
“It’s all well and good getting the contract, but now I need to make it money that was well spent, that it was worth it, and I can go out and make Australian baseball proud,” Hendriks said.
He says 13-14 teams contacted him and his management during free agency with varying degrees of seriousness, from phone enquiries just to ‘touch base’ up to serious discussions with team managers, general managers and other front office personnel.
Asked about why Chicago was his eventual move, his reply was just what a Sox fan wanted to hear and gave an insight into how deeply he and his management looked at the teams on offer.
“I’m really excited about moving forward with this team, because not only are they a young group, they’re all contracted for the next several years so my contract, even if it maxes out, all the main guys are still going to be there, which is one of the things I was looking for.”
“I don’t want to be a flash in the pan with a contention window of only one or two years - these guys have a contention window of four, five, six years so I have an opportunity to win not just in year one or two, but all the way through in years one through four, so that was one of the factors where we focused on a team we thought could succeed over the long haul.”
“Obviously the finances were going to take care of themselves, I wasn’t too concerned with what I was going to get, I was concerned about getting to a team that I could win with, and that both my wife and I would be happy not only in the city, but in the group of players personality wise and the wives as well personality wise, which is a big thing for us with the stuff we do in the community.”
As you would have heard in the January 15 Sox Machine Podcast, Hendriks works independently with Michael Fisher in California using the Codify pitching analytics tool.
“A lot of teams have their own version of analytics and scouting reports, I’ve just found that his way meshes the best with my personality, my mindset, the way I do things,” Hendricks said.
“The White Sox are very, very open to incorporating his things in there, one of the pitchers (Lucas Giolito) already uses him and one of the catchers (Yasmani Grandal) actually did it for all of the White Sox pitchers so he could have that snapshot and we can formulate that gameplan right away.”
Speaking of his mindset, Hendriks is very much a classic ‘white line fever’ kind of closer. Off the mound, he’s a joker who likes to mess around, but on it he’s a machine.
“It doesn’t matter who’s hitting, it could be the best hitter in the world - I’m better than you at the moment because that’s where my mindset is on the mound,” he said.
“All I’m thinking is whoever’s up - ok, I’m a hundred times better than you, I’m going to beat you and I’m going to show you multiple times how I’m going to beat you right now, and this is how it’s going to go.”
“Off the field I’m a lot more relaxed but on the field I like to pitch aggressive, I like to get angry, I like to yell and to prove to everybody that I’m the best that is currently around, and every single at bat is my opportunity to prove that.”
Considering the deal he signed to come to the South Side, Hendriks had some interesting thoughts about the closer role.
“I’ve told the White Sox I need to be going in there thinking I need to win a job, rather than being given a job,” he said. “I told them I need to earn this (the closer role), I don’t want it to be given to me. I need to make sure I’m the best guy on this team for this role and I’m going to win that and this is how I’m going to prove it to you.”
“That’s how I keep this hunger in me alive - nothing is going to be given, I need to earn absolutely everything I get.”
“The White Sox have a young group that has proven they can win, and I’m not by any means the final cog of any chapter or anything like that, because they had one of the best closers in baseball last season with them in Alex Colome.”
“Every team has little tweaks to make, but the White Sox are very close to being a complete team and I can see them winning for multiple years in a row now.”
Hendriks and his wife Kristi’s community work is well known (he was Oakland’s nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award in 2019) and he’s looking to continue this in his new hometown. As well as their work with the ‘Strike Out Bullying’ program for school kids, the Hendriks have been part of Animal Rescue Chicago since 2014 and are excited to be able to get ‘boots on the ground’ and help out.
“At the end of the day, we want to make sure we leave the game better than we found it, that’s what our goal is.”
He hasn’t met with new White Sox manager Tony La Russa since signing on, but they’re not strangers, which shed a light on how the connection might have helped secure his signature.
“I knew Tony La Russa from his Animal Rescue Foundation in the Bay Area,” he said. “I’ve known him for maybe four, five years now and we’ve done some things together for the Animal Rescue Foundation. Because he was a Manager of the A’s he used to come in and he knew my old Manager Bob Melvin well, so I’d get a chance to see him and talk for a little bit.”
“He was one of the Managers who reached out with a text and a call, we had some conversations about the way everything was moving and him being more of an ‘old school manager’ was right up my alley.”
“I like being the guy who gets used every day, I want to be pitching as much as I can, I want to be used the most in the league and that’s one of my goals to try and pitch in exactly half the games.”
“He’s very aware of my desire to pitch - he was one of the originators of the closer role, so he gets that point of view and I’m excited about learning from him - I mean, this is a guy who’s got 50 years in the game, managing in the game.”
“You don’t just come across those minds all the time and I’m excited about learning, sitting with him, kinda picking his brain a little bit and see maybe he can tweak a couple things for me because at the end of the day I’m always trying to learn, get better at my craft, and hearing from a guy with so much experience is exciting."
(Photo by Cody Glenn/Icon Sportswire)
