It’s the Beginning of the End for Kyle Hendricks

I truly hope that in a few months someone will screenshot this headline, send it to me and call me an idiot for saying that it’s over for Kyle Hendricks. But man, it sure does seem like this is the beginning of the end for Hendricks and well I’m not taking any joy in this, I don’t want to be right about this. It hurts to see. It’s sad.

Hendricks made his third start of the 2024 season in the series finale against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday and it was his worst effort of the year. Yes, just like his previous start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Hendricks did run into some bad luck, as he gave up a pair of runs in the second inning despite not a single ball being hit hard.

However, as has become a trend for Hendricks, the Padres did start to hit the veteran hard. Michael Busch hit a two-run homer in the fourth off Dylan Cease to tie the game at two, but then Hendricks began the bottom of the inning by allowing three consecutive hits, a single, double and triple. He was fortunate that Jurickson Profar was thrown out at third after his liner into the right-field gap because it could have been worse for Hendricks.

Seeing that the Cubs bullpen has already been overworked, Craig Counsell trotted Hendricks out for the sixth inning and it was more than reasonable. It was still only a 4-2 game and Hendricks had only thrown 74 pitches. Well, three batters later the Cubs were down 7-2.

That is now five home runs allowed in 12.2 innings by Hendricks through his first three starts of the season.

He simply does not have the stuff to fool hitters anymore and more importantly for his success, Hendricks does not have the pinpoint location and he keeps getting crushed. And the thing is, even when he does get some bad luck, you kind of expect those cheap hits to fall in because Hendricks doesn’t have swing and miss stuff anymore.

Hendricks has been a slow starter throughout his career and maybe he’s earned the benefit of the doubt, but when you begin to look around and see who the other options are for the starting rotation, then you have to imagine that Counsell and the front office are already talking about what to do with Hendricks.

Jameson Taillon should be back in a week or so and at that point how can you look at Hendricks and his struggles and think he gives you a better chance to win than Ben Brown. Justin Steele will hopefully return in early May and he’ll bump someone else from the rotation. There’s really no value in having Hendricks in the bullpen…so what do you do then?

I said it after the Dodgers start, there are going to be some uncomfortable conversations about one of our World Series heroes.

This is reminding me of Jake Arrieta’s 2021 season. The big difference is that the Cubs are actually trying to win in 2024 and right now Kyle Hendricks is doing a lot more to hurt the team than help. One of the reasons that the bullpen has been used so much early is that Hendricks only lasted 3.2 innings against the Texas Rangers and 4 innings against the Dodgers.

I hope it’s not the end, but this is what it looks like when a pitcher does not have it anymore.