Veteran Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks is a little more than a month behind the rest of the pitchers in camp, and is hoping to make minor league rehab starts sometime in May, according to Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic.
Hendricks stepped on a mound for the first time since a July 5 injury ended his season on Friday, tossing around ten pitches in a bullpen session. That was slightly ahead of schedule, as Hendricks hadn’t initially been slated to return to a mound until March 1 as he recovers from a capsular tear in his shoulder. That he’s one week ahead of his schedule is promising, but he’s still significantly behind the rest of the pitchers in camp, and that means the Cubs look set to be without Hendricks for a number of weeks to begin the season.
A return to rehab stints in May would put seemingly put Hendricks in a position to rejoin Chicago’s rotation sometime later in that month or in early June. The Cubs look reasonably well positioned to absorb the absence of Hendricks early in the season, with Marcus Stroman, Jameson Taillon, Justin Steele and Drew Smyly holding down four of the spots. It should mean Adrian Sampson will get the opportunity to build off his impressive 19-start run in 2022 and round out the Cubs’ opening day rotation. Sampson pitched to a 3.11 ERA last season, and has a 3.03 ERA over 139 2/3 innings for the Cubs between 2021-22. His previous 153 innings for Seattle and Texas between 2016-19 had resulted in a 5.71 ERA.
Hendricks will surely land on the injured list to start the season, but his progress over the next month should determine whether that’s a trip to the 60-day IL or not. Teams can put players on the 60-day IL again now, which would free up a spot on the 40-man roster, but the 60-day clock would only begin from March 30 (opening day), so a team would want to be certain a player is going to be unavailable until at least the end of May before making that move.
Hendricks is entering the final guaranteed year of his contract and is owed $14MM in 2023. There’s also a vesting $16MM option for 2024 that comes with a $1.5MM buyout. Hendricks, 33, has seen a bit of decline in recent years, working to a 4.78 ERA over 48 starts over the past two seasons. That came on the heels of a number of quality campaigns for the Cubs, as Hendricks owned a 3.12 ERA over 174 previous starts between 2014-20.
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