White Sox closer Liam Hendriks diagnosed with cancer

White Sox closer Liam Hendriks announced on social media Sunday that he has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

"My treatment begins [Monday], and I am confident that I will make a full recovery and be back on the mound as soon as possible." Hendriks said in his Instagram post. "I know with the support of my wife, my family, my teammates and the Chicago White Sox organization, along with the treatment and care from my doctors, I will get through this.”

White Sox general manager Rick Hahn released the following statement:  

“Our thoughts and reactions at this time are for Liam the person, not Liam the baseball player. I know the entire Chicago White Sox organization, our staff, his teammates, and certainly White Sox fans, will rally in support of Liam and [wife] Kristi during the coming months. Knowing everyone involved, especially Liam, we are optimistic he will pitch again for the White Sox as soon as viable. In the meantime, we all will do everything in our power to support our teammate and his family as they face this challenge, while also respecting their privacy.

“We do not expect to have any updates on Liam’s playing status prior to Opening Day at the very earliest.”

Hendriks, 33, has made the American League All-Star team in each of his two seasons with the Sox. He led the league with 38 saves in 2021 when the South Siders won the AL Central Division championship. He followed that up with 37 saves and a 2.81 ERA over 58 appearances for the Sox in 2022.

Once spring training begins, we'll have plenty of time to speculate about how the Sox will deal with Hendriks' absence on the field. For now, the best thing to do is wish Hendriks well as he begins treatment, and pray for his return to full health.

White Sox make Andrew Benintendi signing official

Andrew Benintendi

Andrew Benintendi is now wearing No. 23 for the White Sox. His signing became official Tuesday after he passed his physical, and the outfielder met with the media Wednesday afternoon.

The structure of the five-year, $75 million contract is notable. Benintendi receives a $3 million signing bonus, and the rest of it is backloaded:

• 2023: $8 million
• 2024: $16.5 million
• 2025: $16.5 million
• 2026: $16.5 million
• 2027: $14.5 million

We've discussed before how the Sox are bumping up against their self-imposed payroll limits for the 2023 season, so perhaps they convinced Benintendi to take a little less money in the first year of the contract in order to free up space to make one more free agent signing.

All of the big free agents are off the board now, but the Sox still have needs at second base, in the outfield and in the starting rotation.

We're hearing more talk of the Sox being satisfied with their internal options at second base and starting pitcher. I'm not satisfied, but my roster evaluations tend to be different than those of the Sox front office. 

But I digress.

Is there another outfield signing in the future? Perhaps the Sox would be interested in Adam Duvall, or some other right-handed hitting outfielder? 

It would make sense. The projected starting outfield is Benintendi in left, Luis Robert in center and rookie Oscar Colas in right. (Eloy Jimenez is a designated hitter, as far as I'm concerned.)

Victor Reyes and Billy Hamilton will be in spring training on minor league contracts, but neither man should be anything more than a fifth outfielder.

The Sox need a reliable fourth outfielder in case the rookie Colas struggles. Not to mention, they need a reliable fourth outfielder in the event that Robert gets injured again. We've yet to see Robert play 100 games in a season, so it only makes sense to have a sensible option in place should a backup center fielder be needed.

Right now, Colas is probably the backup center fielder, which isn't fair to the rookie. Or, maybe Hamilton is the backup center fielder, but frankly, he's not good enough to be trusted in that role.

I'd prefer a right-handed bat for the outfield, since Colas bats left. We'll see if the Sox have a move up their sleeve.

Happy New Year from The Baseball Kid

 

Some more free agent signings to catch up on ...

Here's a look at some recent free agent signings:

• Michael Conforto, San Franciso Giants, 2 years, $36 million
• Nathan Eovaldi, Texas Rangers, 2 years, $34 million
• Corey Kluber, Boston Red Sox, 1 year, $10 million
• Jean Segura, Miami Marlins, 2 years, $17 million
• Drew Smyly, Cubs, 2 years, $19 million
• Taylor Rogers, San Francisco Giants, 3 years, $33 million

Segura's signing takes the most prominent remaining free agent option at second base off the board, which caused White Sox Twitter to melt down for approximately the 23rd time this offseason.

You can't really blame the fans, though, since the internal "options" being sold to them by the front office include Romy Gonzalez, Lenyn Sosa and ... gulp, Leury Garcia.

Gonzalez has not shown that he's good enough to start for a team that expects to contend. Sosa has promise, but he's simply not ready yet. The big fear is this road leads back to Garcia. Again.

San Francisco's signing of Rogers had a ripple effect, too, as the Giants designated second baseman Tommy La Stella for assignment to make room for the veteran pitcher on the roster.

Thus, La Stella is a free agent, and some Sox fans are talking about him as a possible option. Buyer beware. 

Injuries limited La Stella to 60 games last season, when he accumulated -0.7 WAR. He's entering his age-34 season, and it's not unreasonable to believe his days as a useful player are past. He doesn't merit anything other than a minor league contract, if that. There's a reason the Giants let him go.

Carlton Fisk, now age 75, was the rare great White Sox free agent signing

It's been almost 30 years since Carlton Fisk was unceremoniously let go by the White Sox in the summer of 1993, and he was age 45 at the time. 

So, I shouldn't be surprised that a player I grew up watching is now 75 years old -- Fisk's birthday was Dec. 26. When I read Fisk's age the other day, my first thought was, "Geez, he's almost as old as Tony La Russa!" 

My second thought: Fisk has to be on the short list of rare great Sox free agent signings. After Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn bought the team, they were looking to make some headlines, so they signed Fisk on March 18, 1981.

At the time Fisk came to the South Side, he was 11 years into a Hall of Fame career, with all of those seasons being spent with the Boston Red Sox. And he had been named to the All-Star team in seven of those 11 seasons. 

The signing paid immediate dividends on Opening Day -- April 10, 1981 -- when Fisk hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the eighth inning in an eventual 5-3 Sox victory.

Fittingly, the home run came at Fenway Park against Boston. Harry Caray's call is now immortalized as part of the introduction to Chuck Garfien's White Sox Talk podcast:

For you kiddos out there, yes, Caray was once a Sox broadcaster.

This home run was the first of 214 Fisk hit over his 13 seasons with the White Sox. He made four more All-Star appearances with the South Siders (for a career total of 11) and was third in AL MVP voting in 1983, which is the first season of Sox baseball that I can remember. 

That season, Fisk hit .289/.355/.518 with 26 homers and 86 RBIs. In 1985, Fisk hit 37 homers and 107 RBIs, both career highs. As late as 1991, at age 43, he made the All-Star team.

Sometimes it pays to sign a premium free agent, doesn't it? 

Believe it or not, it's been almost 23 years since Fisk was inducted into Hall of Fame. He was elected in 2000. Time flies.

Take a digital stroll around the original Comiskey Park

This is a slow time for baseball news, so let's entertain ourselves by watching this video. It allows you to take a digital stroll through the lower concourse of the original Comiskey Park, as it stood at the end of its life.

For those of you unfamiliar, Comiskey Park was home to the White Sox from 1910 to 1990. Watching this video, I'm suddenly 10 years old again. I definitely remember the old picnic area in left field, where you could sit at a table at field level and look out across the playing surface.

Merry Christmas from The Baseball Kid