FORT MYERS, Fla. — He’s already returned to the field after surviving cancer, but Liam Hendriks maintains another lofty goal: He wants to thrive again.
“I haven’t really come back since cancer,” Hendriks said. “I came back a little bit last year, but I still wasn’t in a good spot. There were some underlying issues there. I was trying to push through a little too much.”
Nobody would fault the new Twins relief pitcher for doing all he could to pitch in 2025. Hendriks, who signed a minor-league deal with the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday, hoped for so much in 2025 after all he’d endured since announcing a diagnosis of Stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma in January 2023.
That May, less than five months after his cancer announcement, Hendriks miraculously returned to the mound for the Chicago White Sox. His stay was short-lived as Hendriks’ elbow blew out after only five appearances, requiring him to undergo Tommy John surgery in August 2023.
Twenty months later, Hendriks returned last April to pitch for the Boston Red Sox. Yet his season was marred by multiple injuries and ended with another surgery, an ulnar nerve transposition with a posterior interosseous nerve release to address numbing in three fingers on his throwing hand.
Though there was some thought Hendriks might retire at the end of the 2025 season, the three-time All-Star scoffed at that notion after reporting to Twins camp Friday morning. Now feeling healthy after he participated in a new offseason conditioning program, Hendriks, 37, is ready to compete for a job and wants to prove he’s still a viable major-leaguer.
Hendriks returned to the White Sox in May 2023, less than five months after announcing he had Stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. (Photo by Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
“Why would I go under the knife twice to not play or at least not attempt it?” Hendriks said. “It just doesn’t make any sense. … Not only was I able to train my body to get into a better spot, but I was able to train my mind. Take a step back and not try to run through that same brick wall over and over again. Do enough work to make it a plywood wall, and that’s easy to run through.”
Hendriks said the most recent surgery occurred after he experienced numbness in his fingers for multiple months because of a pinched nerve in the right elbow. Part of the procedure included relocating his pinched nerve and removing scar tissue.
After wearing an arm brace for three weeks, Hendriks headed to Cressey Sports Performance to revamp his offseason conditioning program. He said the decision was made after he struggled to properly recover from Tommy John.
“I was kind of stubborn and kept on my old workout program, which was nothing, and just tried to throw through things, which I had been doing,” Hendriks said. “But then (I was) not able to.”
Hendriks has thrown six bullpens, one of which was a Jan. 27 showcase for scouts. The Twins reached out after the showcase to gauge Hendriks’ interest in returning to the team that in 2007 signed him to his first professional contract and for whom he pitched from 2011 to 2013.
Hendriks was intrigued by the offer. Not only is he still familiar with many members of the support staff, but Hendriks also likes that the Twins have multiple vacancies in the bullpen.
If he proves to be healthy, Hendriks could easily assume a late-innings role in a relief corps lacking that kind of experience.
Hendriks acknowledged he’s got work to do to ready himself for the season. It’s one reason he won’t pitch for Team Australia in the first round of the World Baseball Classic, which begins March 5 in Japan. He’d love to pitch for his country if the team advances to Miami and he’s throwing well.
“It was definitely a tough decision,” Hendriks said. “Hopefully, once they advance, I’ll be in a position where I’m still in the pitchers pool, and I can still go to that. We’ll base it upon that, but at this point in time, I have to base it on trying to win a job here.”
One of baseball’s top closers from 2019 to 2022, Hendriks acknowledged he’s in an unfamiliar position, trying to earn a bullpen job.
“I’m using spring training this year as a springboard,” Hendriks said. “It’s going to be interesting. I’ve never really had to do it. It’s going to be a new spot for me. I did it a little bit in ’15, trying to win that spot with the Jays as the last person added to the roster. I don’t mind not peaking until towards later in camp because I know I can still do it. It’s a matter of showing. I much would prefer (pacing) than going too hard too early, and all of a sudden you’re starting to get a little sore toward the end, and then it’s ‘OK, what do I do now?’”
Shelton enjoying first week
Whereas he was in charge of running Twins camp as the bench coach in 2018 and 2019, Derek Shelton is enjoying the freedoms of being the manager. As manager, Shelton isn’t in charge of making sure everyone’s in the right place at the right time. That responsibility falls on field coordinator Toby Gardenhire.
Instead, Shelton is free to roam, watch bullpen sessions, pitchers’ fielding practice, what have you. Shelton also noted after the team’s first workout Thursday how much enjoyment he had simply putting on a uniform again after he’d been fired as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates last May.
“I was really excited putting the uniform on,” Shelton said. “I think you don’t realize the privilege of putting a major-league uniform on until you don’t put a major-league uniform on. Putting it on, it was like, I haven’t done this in a while, and it’s not just another regular spring training. That gets taken away from you for four months? (Thursday) was a really cool day for me.”
Et cetera
The Twins signed right-hander Cody Laweryson to a minor-league deal Friday with an invite to big-league camp. Laweryson debuted for the Twins last season, striking out seven in 7 2/3 innings (1.17 ERA) but was claimed off waivers by the Los Angeles Angels on Nov. 6. The Angels released Laweryson last Friday to make room on the 40-man roster for Yoán Moncada. … Shelton said the Twins would reevaluate right-handed pitcher Cory Lewis (shoulder injury) in two weeks. An early arrival in camp, Lewis noted his injury after a bullpen session last weekend. … Hendriks will wear 31, a number he’s long hoped to don because he’s the 31st Australian to play in the major leagues. … Twins great Johan Santana is in camp this week and watched Pablo López’s bullpen Friday. Santana is the pitching coach for Venezuela in the upcoming WBC, and López is one of his starting pitchers. Twins broadcast analyst Justin Morneau will arrive in camp next week before he joins Team Canada as its hitting coach.