Another Thigpen for the bullpen
By signing closer Liam Hendriks, Sox chairman shows commitment
Chicago White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts share the same burden of having to pay players without knowing when or if fans will be allowed inside their ballparks this year.
But one of them isn’t letting that stop him from trying to win a World Series.
After the Sox signed closer Liam Hendriks to a four-year, $54 million deal Friday, their payroll is an estimated $131 million for 2021, according to rosterresource.com, nearly double the payroll of $68 million at the end of the 2018 season.
In a winter in which the hot stove has been ice cold, Reinsdorf can take a bow for looking past the pandemic and making the financial moves necessary to try to make a strong team better.
“He’s given us the flexibility during these extraordinarily uncertain and obviously difficult for a lot of people times to have the economic wherewithal to aggressively pursue premium upgrades to a team we feel is pretty good,” Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. “Not everybody gets to be in that situation, so we’re very appreciative of the fact this offseason we’ve been able to execute on our plan, thanks to Jerry.”
Hahn was able to structure Hendriks’ contract with a Bobby Bonilla-style option year in 2024 with
deferred payments of the $15 million buyout through 2033, assuming the world still exists by then. Bonilla, who retired in 2001, gets paid $1.19 million from the New York Mets every July 1 through 2035 as part of a 25-year deferred payment of the buyout of the remainder of his contract in 2000. It’s still known as Bobby Bonilla Day in New York.
The Sox consider it a four-year deal, and Hahn said the option year is merely “(financial) protection if in fact something does go sideways.”
Reinsdorf came up with the deferment plan, which he has used in contracts with players on his Chicago Bulls. The Sox now have added nearly $29 million to the 2021 payroll with the moves for Hendriks, starting pitcher Lance Lynn and outfielder Adam Eaton, in stark contrast to the Cubs’ lack of activity this offseason.
Why are the Sox and San
Diego Padres willing to make financial commitments while most of the rest of baseball is lying low with only a month before pitchers and catchers report to camps in Arizona and Florida?
“I can’t really speak to any other club in terms of their dynamic or analysis or financial position, which is probably the most important,” Hahn said. “All I can say is, this is obviously a multiyear plan to get us in a position where we could be aggressive to continue to add to a good core.
“Obviously the pandemic threw a huge wrench into not only those small plans, but everyone’s large plans throughout society, so there was no guarantee we’d be able to continue in this direction of adding and being players in the free-agent market, despite that being an important part of our longterm plan of rebuilding this club.
“But in the end … Jerry
has stayed the course with us and has been very supportive and encouraged our aggressiveness as we added to this group, for which we’re very appreciative.”
Signing any reliever for four years is a risk, and Hahn conceded Hendriks fit into that category. But it was a risk the Sox were willing to take at this point of what Hahn called their “success cycle.”
The Sox turned the corner in the 60-game 2020 season that ended with the loss to Hendriks’ Oakland Athletics in the postseason, and Hahn probably could have resigned closer Alex Colome for far less money and fewer years. But he felt Hendriks’ repertoire and ability to take on an extended workload made the upgrade worth it.
“His ability to go multiple innings, as we unfortunately witnessed firsthand last October, will provide Tony (La Russa) and (pitching coach Ethan
Katz) a premium weapon at the end of games,” Hahn said.
Hendriks made a sly reference to his role in the Sox playoff loss.
“My bad,” he said with a grin.
Hendriks spoke Friday about wanting to pitch as many as 90 innings, which is unthinkable these days for a closer. Of the top 15 saves leaders in 2019, the last full season, only one threw more than 69 innings — Josh Hader’s 75 2/3 with the Milwaukee Brewers.
But Hendriks said his goal going into 2021 will be to pitch in 81 games, or half of the 162-game schedule, assuming they play a full season. The Sox record for innings by a reliever is 165 1/3 by Eddie Fisher in 1965, while Wilbur Wood holds the club record for appearances by a reliever with 86 in 1968. But Fisher and Wood were knuckleballers who put little stress on their arms.
The closest equivalent to Hendriks in recent Sox history might be former closer Bobby Thigpen, who threw 90 innings in 1988 over 68 appearances and pitched in 77 games in 1990 while recording a thenmajor-league-record 57 saves, breaking Dave Righetti’s mark of 46.
I covered the game at old Comiskey Park 31 years ago when Thigpen broke the saves record in a 4-2 win against the Kansas City Royals. His ability to bounce back day after day with that rubber arm was amazing to witness. Thigpen also was making only $325,000 in 1990 and wasn’t a star. If Hendriks throws 80 innings this season, he would make $162,500 per inning.
“I want to pitch every day,” Hendriks said. “I want the ball. I tend to do better the more I pitch as well. That’s why my long-toss program has been one of those things because I throw more. The more I throw, the better I end up feeling because it just adds that little bit of fluidity to it.
“I’m constantly doing the exact same thing and being able to go out there, and hopefully I get to a point where we’re up in 100-something games and I get the opportunity to get into a lot of them. And the other times when they want to give me a break or whatever it is, they’re going to have to pry the ball out of my hands.
“But I’m never going to say I’m down. I’m never going to say I need a day. That’s on the organization to tell me how that goes.”
It’s hard to imagine the Sox making that kind of financial commitment and then allowing Hendriks to pitch every day.
But we’ll see. If the innings pile up, that means he’s succeeding.
And if prying the ball out of Hendriks’ hands is his biggest concern in 2021, La Russa will gladly take it.