‘I will be back’: Chicago White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks ready for next challenge after Tommy John surgery

Liam Hendriks figured if he had to throw between 92 and 94 mph with no pain, he could do it.

If he got up to 96 to 98 mph, but with pain, the Chicago White Sox reliever said he would be able to bear it.

But in what turned out to be his final live batting practice session of the season while the Sox were in Minnesota in late July, Hendriks was clocked at 92 mph and he felt pain.

“And that’s just not quite the recipe we needed,” Hendriks said Friday.

Hendriks underwent successful surgery on Aug. 2 to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

The 34-year-old right-hander has been an inspiration by returning to the mound earlier this season after battling stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which he publicly disclosed in January.

And now after Tommy John surgery, Hendriks said, “There’s no doubt in my mind I’ll be back.”

“Same thing as when everything happened in January,” Hendriks said. “There’s no doubt I will be back.

“I’ve always said I wanted to pitch until I was 40 and this means after this one I should be able to hopefully go longer than that.”

The recovery is expected to take approximately 12 to 14 months. Hendriks is aiming to pitch next season.

“I know the regular timelines are 12 to 15 months getting back,” he said. “The lower end of that if I push it, 13 months will be around Sept. 2. My goal is to be able to pitch next year and then be able to have a relatively normal offseason. It’s going to be an important facet for me.

“Depending on what happens contract-wise, who knows if I’m going to need that little showcase at the end of the season to be able to get a job. We’ll take that as it comes. The plan is to pitch and we’ll see how it goes.”

When Hendriks signed with the Sox in January 2021, the deal included the Sox holding a $15 million option or $15 million buyout for 2024. If the option is declined, the buyout will be paid in 10 equal installments between 2024-33.

“The ball is in their court, obviously, I have an option for at the end of the year,” Hendriks said. “I have put it in their ears that I’d like to stay. I think I have unfinished business here and that’s why I wanted to rehab here. I petitioned to rehab with the team.

“I’ll be traveling with them, doing everything with them, just because I feel I have a little bit of value off the field.”

Hendriks went 2-0 with a 5.40 ERA, three strikeouts and one save in five relief outings this season. He made his first appearance of the season on May 29 against the Los Angeles Angels at Guaranteed Rate Field and received multiple standing ovations throughout the night.

“(He) brought a lot of energy, you could see the team kind of change right away,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “But you know what, it’s some other adversity that he has to go through, he’s got the mind to get through it quicker than most.”

Hendriks went on the injured list with right elbow inflammation on June 10. He made clear that he didn’t feel he rushed back from the cancer treatments.

“It was something I’ve dealt with before and I felt I could throw through it and it just kept kind of compounding on each other,” Hendriks said of the elbow discomfort. “I’m not exactly one to say I can’t pitch and went out there and took the ball for as long as I can and unfortunately it ended up this way.”

In the July live batting practice session at Target Field while trying to return from the IL, he had pitching coach Ethan Katz film his last pitch “just in case it was the last pitch I throw in a White Sox uniform.”

“I gave it everything I had,” Hendriks said. “I pushed. But when I went from 92 to 95 (mph) in New York to maxing at 92 in Minnesota, I realized my velocity was trending in the wrong direction and at that point there was nothing I could do to prevent what was going on.”

Hendriks described his 2023 as “not ideal,” but he remains positive.

“It’s not the way we drew it up,” Hendriks said. “But there’s always a silver lining and this year on Nov. 23, Kristi and I will hit our 10-year wedding anniversary. So we are going to finish off well. We don’t have the middle that’s good, but there’s nothing I can do to change what happened at the end of the day.

“There’s nothing I have done myself that has caused anything I’ve gone through — the elbow maybe a little bit with the way I pitched and the way I want to pitch and the way I want to be on the mound. There’s nothing I can do to change it. If you don’t have a positive attitude with certain things it will derail all the progress.”

Sox drop series opener against Brewers in 10

Mark Canha drove in the go-ahead run with a double in the 10th inning as the Milwaukee Brewers topped the Sox 7-6 in the opener of the three-game series in front of 30,059 on Friday at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Eloy Jiménez had three hits, including a two-run homer, and scored three runs in the loss.

Sox starter Michael Kopech allowed four runs on five hits with four strikeouts and five walks in 4 1/3 innings.

“It’s focus on one pitch at a time right now,” Kopech said. “I have a game where I’m able to do that and then have a game like that where I don’t carry that to my next one. I got four or five days to whenever my next one comes up and I’ll take care of that then.”

Before the game, the Sox said infielder Romy Gonzalez had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder during the All-Star break and is expected to be ready for spring training.