Australian Liam Hendriks on the rise after signing massive Major League Baseball deal

Liam Hendriks grew up with an Australian rules ball in his hands.

Every winter was spent playing the Australian game, which his father Geoff had also played at a high level, having notched 170 matches for WAFL side West Perth.

All things pointed to him following in his father’s footsteps.

“As a kid, from the time I could walk, I was kicking a footy around,” Hendriks said.

“You can see me in the old Greenwood Knights stuff, you can see me in the Sorrento Duncraig Hawks stuff kicking the footy around.

“That was always my goal. Baseball was always an off-season thing for me, and then one day it all flipped and I thought ‘OK, I have an opportunity to actually travel a little bit, pursue this and see where it takes me’.”

That opportunity was the chance to join the Major League Baseball Australia Academy Program on the Gold Coast, where he spent two months playing baseball while continuing his schooling.

“The whole premise was I was going with baseball and if it didn’t work out, if I didn’t like it in two years, I had an opportunity to come back to footy,” Hendriks said.

“I had teams calling up my dad, saying ‘Hey, baseball, is that a real thing? Or is he using that to get everyone off the scent of him possibly going father-son to the Eagles?’

It was the advice of then-WA Australian rules under-16 state coach Brett Barber that convinced Hendriks to pursue baseball.

“He even said ‘Go do baseball, footy will be here even if you’re a 20, 21, 22-year-old, don’t ever miss out on a possibility of going into baseball as a career based on the fact you don’t think anything will be there if you don’t succeed’,” Hendriks said.

Hendriks, 31, signed as a relieving pitcher for the Chicago White Sox last week on a three-year deal worth $70 million, with an option of a fourth season at the club.

The deal is the most expensive for a reliever (a pitcher who “relieves” the opening pitcher during a game) in Major League Baseball (MLB) history.

“The opening pitcher is like the opening bowler [in cricket],” Hendricks explained.

“Then you bring in the guys that have fresh arms when you may be getting into a bit of rut, or when you’re getting into a little bit of trouble, you go to those fresh bowlers and you make sure it’s a different angle, a different view.

“I was last year known as what they call a ‘closer’, so I need to come in and I need to get the last three outs, so it’s my job to finish the game.

“That is my entire job, I need to come in and make sure the other team doesn’t score.”

Hendriks wants to prove his worth

Hendriks earned MLB representative honours for his success in that role, having been named in the All-MLB First Team and recognised as the Reliever of the Year in 2020 while he played for the Oakland Athletics, where he spent five seasons.

His good form coincided with free agency and his services were in high demand.

“We had about 13 or 14 teams reach out, out of a 30-team league,” Hendriks said.

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Hendriks settled on the White Sox because of the make-up of their side, which he believes can challenge for a World Series championship in coming years.

And while he does not see himself as the final piece in the puzzle, he knows he has a lot to live up to.

“I saw an article which translated it (size of his contract) into Aussie dollars, and I didn’t realise it was that extreme,” Hendriks said.

“It now adds that little extra bit of a pickle on there as the fact I need to make sure I was worth the money.

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The path to becoming baseball’s highest-ever paid reliever was not easy, with Hendriks suffering numerous setbacks.

He has been released from contracts five times, including as recently as 2018 when he was sent to play for minor league side Nashville Sounds in the triple-A competition, the level below MLB.

“I’d been in the big leagues for three or four consecutive leagues, and had five-and-a-half years service time, and I got waived,” Hendriks said.

“That was a big eye-opener for me.

“Being waived five times, being delisted five times, and getting to where we are today doesn’t happen too often.”

West Australian link to Chicago

Basketball fans know of Luc Longley from his time at the Chicago Bulls, where he won three NBA championships alongside Michael Jordan in the 1990s.

Longley was an influence on Hendriks when he was considering moving to the United States, but their respective careers share even more similarities.

“The owner of the White Sox (Jerry Reinsdorf) is also the owner of the Chicago Bulls, so not only am I going into pretty much Luc’s city, I am dealing with Luc’s owner,” Hendriks said.

“Luc won three rings with the Bulls and was an integral part of those teams, and he’s going down as one of the greatest Australian basketball players of all time.

“But I am keen to get out there and prove [to] Chicago teams they need an Aussie to win a championship.”

While securing a contract that Hendriks thought matched his value, there was more to his decision to join the White Sox.

Hendriks and his wife Kristi are involved in an animal rescue program, Players for Pits, which rescues pit bull-type dogs and matches them with families.

It was through animal advocacy that he first met White Sox manager Tony La Russa.

“I’ve known Tony for four or five years now, we’ve done some things with his animal rescue foundation and he was an old manager of the Oakland Athletics,” Hendriks said.

Hendriks also runs an anti-bullying campaign called Strike Out.

“Both my wife and I were bullied as kids, whether it be through school, whether it be online,” he said.

“We want to really make sure we give a voice to these kids who may or may not realise that athletes, celebrities, anyone you can think of, have gone through certain types of bullying in their lives.

“You’re not alone, and you will get through this, and you will get through this the strongest.”