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Liam Hendriks pitches for Charlotte Knights after cancer-free announcement

Hendriks was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in December 2022 after spending 12 years in MLB.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Liam Hendriks returned to the mound after striking out cancer just a few weeks ago and proved why he's a former All-Star pitcher.

Hendriks appeared for the Charlotte Knights on Friday for the first time just 15 days after announcing he was cancer free. Hendriks came on in the bottom of the seventh against the Gwinnett Stripers and retired all three batters he faced. He earned one strikeout with a fastball that caught Joe Hudson looking.

Before taking the mound, both teams gave him a standing ovation. Hendriks told reporters after the game that he was grateful for the gesture but worried it would throw him off his game.

"Don’t get me wrong, it's really, really nice and I very much appreciated it. It made me very emotional. But I'm a guy who pitches on anger and it's really hard to get angry when you know the other team is full of nice people who would do something like that," Hendriks said.

Charlotte would ultimately lose Friday's game 2-0.

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Hendriks' second appearance came on Sunday, once again in the seventh inning against the Stripers. He surrendered a run on a sac fly after allowing two singles but was able to make it out of the inning without any further damage. The run he allowed didn't factor much into the final score, as the Knights won 18-11.

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Hendriks' miraculous return to the diamond comes just a few months after he announced he was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. 

The right-handed pitcher was coming off an all-star campaign as a closer for the Chicago White Sox when he announced the diagnosis in January.

He entered treatment the next day and finished his final round of chemotheraphy on April 5. 

On April 20, Hendriks posted to Instagram that he was cancer free.

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Just a little over two weeks later, he was back on the mound for the Knights and seems to be hitting his stride to return to the White Sox soon.

Hendriks has excelled as the White Sox closer since joining the team in 2021. He led the American League in saves (38) and pulled off 113 strikeouts in just 71 innings of work in 2021. He made the All-Star game roster in 2021 and 2022.

Before joining the White Sox, Hendriks played five seasons with the Oakland A's, where he made one All-Star game (2019). Hendriks previously played for the Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, and Toronto Blue Jays.

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