After 680 days on sidelines, Red Sox Liam Hendriks is ready to reset the clock

BOSTON — After 680 days out of the game, Liam Hendriks finally gets to stop the clock and start anew.

“That’s the exact number of days I was gone,” the veteran right-hander, 36, said in the Red Sox clubhouse on Saturday, after being activated from the injured list. “Since June 9 of 2023, 680 days to today.”

Hendriks’ last quote-unquote normal season was 2022. That December, the Perth, Australia native was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer. Having completed treatment, he made a triumphant return to the mound in May ‘23, only to get shut down after five outings due to elbow inflammation, which led to Tommy John surgery.

He came close to activation last September, only to be shut down due to some non-structural issues. Then, after waiting through another long winter, Spring Training yielded another setback. The three-time All-Star could tell he wasn’t at his sharpest because his fastball lacked its “jump,” a crucial element of his game. He was diagnosed with nerve inflammation, received a cortisone injection and was shut down from throwing.

“(That jump) it plays up a little bit but it also just, it gets on guys and it’s a little bit different than your average, even if I’m (throwing) 92, 93, 94 mph, it plays up and it’s not your prototypical 92,” he explained. “So that, even when I was 96 in spring, they were taking way too comfortable a swing on it, and that was one thing that was really hampering me. … That was one thing that really hampered me, was not having that little thump, that little jump to the end of the heater.”

Even as those 680 days dragged on and he missed his third consecutive Opening Day roster, Hendriks didn’t doubt that he’d get back. He did, however, grapple with other uncertainties along the way. He admitted it was a “mental struggle” to figure out what was different with his fastball, especially because how he felt physically varied throughout the preseason, and that he “got very aggressive early” in camp trying to correct the situation.

“(I didn’t question) whether I’d be active,” he said. “Spring Training was a time I questioned my capabilities a little bit more, and that was just mainly because I was lying to myself with my arm, and trying to get through things and do things that (got) me to where I am now, which is pitching through things.”

“This time, it was not – instead of pitching through things and kind of flushing the system out, it just compounded the system,” he continued, “and trying to get that through my stubborn head is not the easiest thing to do.”

A “relatively competitive person,” Hendriks had no shortage of motivation to get back.

“Usually it’s trying to beat timelines and do that sort of stuff – which I did not do this time – and then a lot of it is just showing up every day and make sure you get that little bit better, so there’s no real motivational like, sayings or anything like that that get me going, but that and the disdain from my wife about still being on the IL, that was one of those motivating factors as well,” he said with a chuckle.

The last time Hendriks took the mound in a big-league game, he wore a White Sox uniform. When he takes the mound at Fenway this weekend, he’ll be facing them. Already known as a very passionate and vocal presence on the mound, he said pitching against his former team elicits “extra energy levels.”

“I think there’s definitely going to be a little bit more in there, coming out with the last team I played with many moons and going back out there,” he said. “I think it’ll definitely hold that little extra-special moment and hopefully it gives me a little extra adrenaline going out there.”

Even if most of his former teammates are no longer with the White Sox, either. Hendriks said he looked over the White Sox roster and saw only four remaining. Garrett Crochet, Lucas Giolito and Romy Gonzalez are with him in Boston; Crochet is starting on Saturday.

The two-time Mariano Rivera Reliever of the Year and ‘21 AL saves leader isn’t the closer anymore, either. He was in competition for the job during spring training, but graciously ceded to Aroldis Chapman before the team made a decision.

“I have no clue, and that’s what I want,” Hendriks said about his role. “I’m just excited for that adrenaline rush from the phone call (to the bullpen). That’s the thing that I think I’ve missed most about being here. … You don’t have that ‘Oh crap!’ moment when the phone rings, no matter what your situation is, that kind of gets that heart going, that extra little nth degree.”

The waiting was frustrating, though not to such an extent that Hendriks was actually counting the days. He Googled it.

Regardless, 680 days is a long time to wait, watch from the sidelines and know you can’t go out and contribute.

“Feels like at least 1,000 (days),” he said. “It feels a hell of a lot longer than that, but yeah, it’s been a long and arduous journey to get here. But now I’m here and now I can actually perform and go out there and do what these guys are paying me to do."

“Now,” Hendriks said, “I can get back to being me.”

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