Injuries limited veteran reliever Liam Hendriks to just 13 ⅔ innings over the term of the two-year, $10 million contract he signed with the Red Sox last spring. As he enters the open market again, he’ll have another rehab process to overcome.
Hendriks underwent elbow surgery Monday — a successful right elbow ulnar nerve transposition with posterior interosseous nerve release, according to the Red Sox. The procedure was performed by Dr. Keith Meister at the Texas Metroplex Institute for Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Surgery in Arlington, Texas.
Hendriks, who turns 37 in February, spent his first season with the Red Sox rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, only to be shut down last September in the middle of a rehab assignment because of persistent tightness. He arrived in spring training fully healthy but then hit the injured list on Opening Day due to a nerve issue in his throwing arm. Hendriks made his long-awaited Red Sox debut on Easter (April 20), then struggled in 14 outings (6.59 ERA) before being placed on the IL with a hip issue at the end of May. That injury, originally diagnosed as hernia-related, was a strain in his abdominal side wall. While pushing to return from that injury late in the season, he felt a recurrence of forearm tightness. That led to Monday’s procedure.
Hendriks had the same procedure — a common revision for those who have Tommy John surgery — that Red Sox righty Zack Kelly had on May 2, 2023. Kelly returned to pitch in a big league game four months later, on September 3, so Hendriks might be able to be a full-go by spring training.
Hendriks, an All-Star in three of four years from 2019 to 2022, has been limited to just 18 ⅔ big league innings over the last three seasons. First, as a member of the White Sox, he battled stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma late in 2022 and returned to pitch five innings in 2023 before suffering a torn UCL that required Tommy John surgery. Despite all of the setbacks, he said earlier this month that he’s fully intent on pitching in 2026.
“Very much so,” said Hendriks when asked if he planned to keep pitching on September 13. “I got a new elbow for a reason. If I wasn’t going to continue playing, I probably wouldn’t have gone through that whole process.
“There’s definitely a lot of desire left for me to get back out there because I really feel like I haven’t come back, even since the cancer journey.”
Hendriks knows his market won’t be as robust as it was two years ago when the Red Sox were willing to guarantee $10 million to see through the end of his rehab. Technically, there’s a $12 million mutual option on his contract for 2026 but that will be declined and the Red Sox will pay him a $2 million buyout (that’s part of the $10 million guarantee.
“Generally, it’s just waiting for a call,” Hendriks said a few weeks back. “We’ll reach out and see what happens and who’s there, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to prove health now. That’s the one big thing that’s going to be hanging over it.
“It’ll be proving health and proving stuff and going into it like any free agent who had some health concerns the year before. I think I’ll probably have to end up showcasing and doing all that sort of stuff.”