Former Major League Baseball star and Perth product Liam Hendriks announces retirement

Former Major League Baseball star and Perth product Liam Hendriks has announced his retirement, closing the book on a storied professional career which carried him from Wanneroo to Chicago White Sox.

The man who was once WA’s wealthiest athlete, proved to the scourge of many a batter late in games and, most triumphantly and importantly, beat cancer in 2023 has called time on his career after 14 years in the major league system.

Hendriks spent time with six Major League teams across his career but it was at Oakland Athletics and Chicago White Sox where he established himself as one of the leagues’ best relief pitchers, which culminated in three All-Star games, two All-MLB First Team nods and two Reliever of the Year awards.

But after battling injury late in his career, which has seen him play just 19 games since 2023, Hendriks took to Instagram to announce his retirement in a statement laced with the trademark sense of humour which endeared him to fans.

“My arm has told me in no uncertain terms that it has exactly zero fastballs left in it, and my elbow has made it clear that throwing anything harder than a light breeze now requires a three-day recovery window,” Hendriks said.

“To the hitters who let me strike them out: Thank you for the memories (and the stats). To the hitters who launched my pitches into orbit: Thank you for helping me practice my ‘stare blankly at the sky while turning around on the mound’ face.

“I will deeply miss the rush of coming out of the bullpen to close out a game in the ninth inning.

“I will not, however, miss sitting in a pitch-black video room watching endless tape of opposing hitters, getting my arm scraped raw by the athletic trainer every week, or the existential dread of facing Aaron Judge or Salvy Perez — who I am completely convinced treat my heater like a light afternoon snack.

“I owe a massive debt of gratitude to my agent, a true miracle worker. It takes a serious talent to look a GM in the eye and convince them that my unhinged, on-mound screaming while sealing a win was just ‘elite leadership’ worth an insane contract.

“And a huge thank you to my wife for always believing in me, which was honestly a terrifying display of delusion on her part.

“Sticking by me through consecutive outings where I couldn’t stop bouncing pitches into the dirt proves you either have unwavering faith, or you just really like the stadium chicken tenders.

“My immediate retirement plans include testing whether my elbow can survive holding onto the leash when my dog sees a rabbit, and choosing a new hobby where being single-handedly responsible for losing a game doesn’t lead to ESPN SportsCenter breaking down my psychological collapse in slow motion for the next 24 hours.”

After starting his career with Perth Heat, the former Wanneroo Giants and Carine Cats junior entered Minnesota Twins’ minor league system and eventually graduated to an MLB debut in 2011.

Two stints at Toronto Blue Jays, either side of a spell with Kansas City Royals followed, but it was not until Hendriks’ time in Oakland he began to hit is stride.

After being dropped to the minor leagues in 2018 for the first time in his career, the journeyman turned his career around in a way few could have imagined.

Hendriks became the first Australian-born player to start a play-off game later that year, before being named to the All-Star game for the first time in 2019.

After winning the first of two-consecutive American League Reliever of the Year awards in his final season with Oakland, Hendriks signed a four-year, $70m deal with the Chicago White Sox.

In 2023, Hendriks announced revealed he been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, before completing chemotherapy and announcing he was cancer-free soon after.

After his inspirational return to the mound, he was named Comeback Player of the Year, but a raft of elbow injuries plagued him afterwards and he was unable to have the same impact with either Chicago or Boston Red Sox.