Halos Stay Busy, Add Kyle Hendricks

Properly, the Angels aren’t ready round, are they? Within the week instantly following the World Sequence, the Halos have accomplished the one commerce thus far this offseason involving gamers stepping into every path. They’ve additionally acquired Scott Kingery from the Phillies for money issues and executed a waiver declare on Oakland’s Ryan Noda, each low-risk acquisitions with the potential to fill a distinct segment on the huge league degree.

The Triple-A primary base depth chart for the Angels proper now lists Noda alongside Niko Kavadas and Sonny DiChiara, which is a bumper crop of cube-shaped faculty sluggers if ever there have been one. Somebody discover out what Tim Elko is as much as and provides him a name so the Angels can have the total set. However I digress.

Amidst all that different exercise, Perry Minasian and Co. have made this offseason’s most notable free agent signing to this point: right-handed pitcher Kyle Hendricks, late of the Chicago Cubs. Hendricks was the second main league free agent to signal thus far this offseason, after Dylan Covey’s one-year cope with the Mets, and he’s a much bigger title by far. A two-time Cy Younger vote-getter and a cornerstone of the profitable Cubs groups of the late 2010s, Hendricks joins the Angels on a one-year, $2.5 million deal.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, who reported the worth of Hendricks’ contract on Wednesday afternoon, famous that the Angels had been within the 34-year-old right-hander partially as a result of he might mentor a younger pitching employees. I feel baseball individuals are typically fast to guage character primarily based on stereotype. Hendricks went to Dartmouth and hasn’t damaged 91 mph in a aggressive sport in eight years — which seems like hyperbole however is actually true — so he have to be good. And if he’s good, he have to be a coach on the sector or one thing prefer it.

If that’s the motivation for signing Hendricks, it’s a reasonably amusing idea, contemplating the Angels aren’t precisely placing out a Era Okay-type hype prepare for his or her younger arms. Nonetheless, the soft-tossin’-est righty starter of his era makes for an amusing distinction with Ben Joyce. And the cabinet isn’t fully naked. Reid Detmers was horrendous final season, however his underlying numbers had been merely dangerous and he had two good seasons earlier than that. And I favored what I noticed out of Jack Kochanowicz the couple instances I noticed him pitch in 2024. (Although I understand now at the very least a type of begins was towards the White Sox, so take that for what it’s price.)

With all that stated, Hendricks does really appear to be a wise man, and think about this: Since that final 91-mph pitch in Recreation 6 of the 2016 NLCS, Hendricks has thrown 1,130 main league innings with an ERA- of 96 and gathered 16.4 WAR. So he will need to have some methods up his sleeve.

And whereas $2.5 million may be rather a lot to pay for a pitching coach, it’s a pittance for a pitcher with even a distant likelihood of throwing 100 or more practical huge league innings. For distinction, it’s lower than a 3rd of what the Angels are going to pay Evan White to benefit from the scenic fantastic thing about Salt Lake Metropolis this summer time. However hey, the Angels are a big-market workforce. Even of their post-Shohei Ohtani lean years, the Halos ran a $170 million payroll final season, which was thirteenth within the majors. It is a rounding error.

Hendricks had spent his complete 11-season main league profession with the Cubs, who acquired him in a commerce with the Rangers in 2012. (Ryan Dempster went the opposite method.) After a interval of decline for each participant and workforce, it appeared like the 2 had been sure to half methods ultimately, and it is smart that he’d wish to go to the Angels. Hendricks grew up in Orange County, and was even drafted by the Angels out of highschool in 2008. He’s one among 4 future huge leaguers who had been drafted within the thirty ninth spherical in 2008 however didn’t signal that 12 months. The others: Mikie Mahtook, Brad Miller, and Yan Gomes. If “traded for Ryan Dempster” doesn’t offer you a way of Hendricks’ age, maybe a Mikie Mahtook reference will put you in the appropriate state of mind.

Now, I’ve been burying the lede somewhat right here. These of you who didn’t comply with the Cubs final season may be curious how Hendricks acquired on, and are questioning why I haven’t introduced up his stats from 2024 but. Properly, they’re not superior.

This previous season, 126 pitchers threw at the very least 100 innings within the majors. Hendricks ranked 124th in ERA, two spots behind Patrick Corbin, who’s mainly a punchline at this level in his profession. Now, Hendricks’ peripherals recommend he was somewhat laborious performed by, however a 5.92 ERA offers lots of room for a pitcher to be unfortunate and dangerous on the identical time. Certainly, Hendricks was 107th in xERA (4.80) and 121st in FIP (4.98). He was second from the underside in strikeout fee, at 15.3%, and his stroll fee was merely common and never distinctive, which left him a hundred and twentieth in Okay-BB%.

Breaking it down pitch by pitch, issues don’t get a lot rosier. Hendricks acquired respectable outcomes on his curveball in 2024, however that’s not his make-or-break pitch. The important thing for Hendricks is his changeup — it has been his complete profession.

Hendricks’ repertoire has developed since he was a rookie, which is to be anticipated for a pitcher who’s lasted so long as he has. However the core of it has all the time been the sinker and the changeup. Hendricks has all the time thrown an extra fastball — initially a cutter, extra not too long ago a four-seamer — and had at the very least the credible risk of a curveball. However in each season of Hendricks’ profession, his sinker and changeup have mixed to make up between 61% and 81% of his whole pitches thrown.

That combo has labored very nicely as not too long ago as 2023, when Hendricks allowed a 3.74 ERA in 24 begins for the Cubs. That’s not fairly pretty much as good as he was in 2016, but when Hendricks had hit free company 12 months earlier, he’d be in line to make 4 or 5 instances as a lot as he’s making now. Probably extra.

What’s the distinction between 2023 and 2024? Properly, in 2023, Hendricks’ sinker was satisfactory and his changeup was a legit out pitch. A 12 months later, each of these pitches acquired completely torched:

One among two issues goes to occur to Hendricks within the season to come back. He might determine one thing out and get his 2023 kind again; it’s not like he’s shedding the rate or stuff that when made him nice. He tinkered along with his fastball combine to lefties in 2024, throwing them extra sinkers than four-seamers for the primary time since he began throwing a four-seamer repeatedly. And what occurred? Left-handed hitters hit a fair .400 — once more, not a joke — towards his sinker. Contemplating the same motion profiles of the 2 pitches, and the mere six mile-an-hour distinction between them, that may appear to be an apparent place to begin on the subject of triaging Hendricks’ issues.

But it surely’s additionally potential that Hendricks put up an ERA close to 6.00 final season as a result of he simply doesn’t have it anymore. There are actually worse locations to search out that out than in Southern California, 30 miles from residence. And if that is the tip, he’s already acquired irons within the fireplace on his subsequent job. At the least any person thinks he’d be a great coach.