Angels Sign Kyle Hendricks – MLB Trade Rumors

The Angels announced the signing of an experienced right-hander Kyle Hendricks to a one-year contract. The Wassrman client reportedly receives a base salary of $2.5 million.

Hendricks, 35 in December, will make his first appearance for a team other than the Cubs if the deal is finalized. Although he was drafted by the Rangers in 2011, he was traded to the Cubs in the July 2012 trade before his major league debut Ryan Dempster to Texas.

He made it to the big leagues in 2014 and quickly established himself as a solid rotation player. He wasn’t overpowering, but showed a flair for damage control, earning him the nickname “The Professor.” In his debut, he made 13 starts and logged 81 1/3 innings, allowing just 2.46 earned runs per nine innings despite a low 14.6% strikeout rate.

From there he found a few more punchouts, but his success generally came from weak contact. From 2014 to 2020, he pitched over a thousand innings for the Cubs with a 3.12 ERA, 20.8% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate, and 47.5% groundball rate. He was a pillar of the Cubs at the time, helping them become a perennial contender and breaking their World Series curse in 2016.

However, the last few years have been a little rockier. In 2021, his strikeout rate dropped to 16.7% and his ERA increased to 4.77. In 2022, a torn capsule in his right shoulder limited him to 16 starts with a 4.80 ERA. He did not require surgery but was out of action until May 2023.

When he got back on the mound, he managed something like a rebound. Last year, he posted a 3.74 ERA over 24 starts after recovering from that shoulder injury. His 16.1% strikeout rate was still low, but he struck out only 4.7% of the batters he faced and prevented batters from achieving high exit velocity.

The Cubs were emboldened enough to exercise a $16.5 million club option to bring him back for 2024, part of the extension the two teams agreed to before the 2019 season. But that’s a move they’ll likely regret as Hendricks failed to sustain his momentum in 2024. He struggled out of the gate and was thrown into the bullpen. Although he eventually returned to a rotation role, he finished the year with a 5.92 ERA.

There might be some bad luck here, as Hendricks has only stranded 64.2% of baserunners this year, which is well below the league average of 72.1%. His 4.98 FIP and 4.83 SIERA this season suggest he deserves better than his ERA suggests, but they’re still not stellar numbers.

Putting these recent ups and downs together, Hendricks has a 4.80 ERA since the start of 2021. His ground ball rate of 43.3% is about league average during that time and his walk rate of 6% is fairly high, but his strikeout rate of 16.5% is well below average.

Maybe the Angels see a way to get him back on track or simply want some affordable veteran innings at what may have been a hometown discount. Experienced innings eaters can often secure deals near eight figures, even without strong overall results. 43 years old Rich Hill received $8 million from the Pirates through 2023, after a season in which he posted a 4.27 ERA. Jon Lester received $5 million from the Nationals for his 37-year-old after posting a 5.16 ERA. Corey Kluber received $10 million from the Red Sox after posting a 4.34 ERA in his age-36 season.

Hendricks is younger than these guys but signed for less money, very early in the offseason when he first hit free agency. Having grown up in Orange County, he may have wanted to be close to home and quickly made a deal with the Halos, although that is entirely speculative.

Signing Hendricks would fit the club’s longstanding aversion to spending on the rotation. As MLBTR’s contract tracker shows, the most they’ve spent on a starting pitcher over the past decade is three years and $39 million Tyler Anderson. Apart from that and a two-year arbitration agreement for Shohei Ohtanithey have not given a starting pitcher a multi-year contract during this period.

This tendency, along with the difficulty of developing pitching internally, has led to persistent pitching deficiencies in Anaheim. The club has a rotation ERA of 4.54 over the last decade, ranking 24th in baseball, largely ahead of clubs that have gone through years of rebuilding. 2024 was no exception, as the Angels’ starters had a collective ERA of 4.97 that year, which was better than just the Marlins and Rockies. One of their more talented starters will be on ice for a while Patrick Sandoval had UCL surgery in June.

The rotation mix is ​​subject to many uncertainties until 2025. Anderson, Jose Soriano, Jack Kochanowicz, Reid Detmers, Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri And Chase Silseth are some of the options, although each is marked with a question mark. Anderson had a 3.81 ERA but outperformed his peripherals and had a 5.43 ERA the year before. Soriano seemingly had a breakthrough year this year, but wasn’t able to accomplish much in 2020-2023 thanks to two Tommy John surgeries. Detmers has shown promise at times, but had a 6.70 ERA in the majors this year and wasn’t much better in Triple-A. Silseth spent most of 2024 battling an elbow injury. Kochanowicz only has 11 MLB starts, while Dana and Aldegheri only have three each.

For a club looking to compete in 2025, expanding this rotation is a sensible path. There are more exciting options than Hendricks, but his reliability record is pretty strong. His modest earning power is consistent with the club’s track record of not spending much on the rotation, so the Stars are aligned on Hendricks being almost home this year. The Cubs no longer have a roster connection to their curse-breaking team, as Hendricks was that club’s last holdout.

Bruce Levine of 670 The Score (X-Link) initially announced that the two sides were close to a one-year deal. Jon Heyman of the New York Post (X-Link) put the value at about $3 million. Joel Sherman of the New York Post (X-Link) first reported the $2.5 million figure.