Cubs Legend Kyle Hendricks Retiring After 12 Seasons

From the early comps to Greg Maddux to a starring role in the Cubs’ 2016 World Series championship, Kyle Hendricks cemented himself as a legend over 11 seasons on the North Side. He then headed back to his Southern California roots to pitch one season in Anaheim, but the time has come for him to hang it up. Though he initially dismissed a September report from Bob Nightengale that he would be retiring, Maddie Lee of the Sun-Times has confirmed that Hendricks is calling it a career.

And what a career it was. He went 105-91 over 307 appearances (301 starts), with 97 of those wins coming as a Cub. Hendricks’ 3.79 ERA was inflated by a handful of rough seasons over the last handful of years, but he was incredible for a long stretch earlier on. That included an MLB-best 2.13 ERA and a third-place Cy Young finish in the Cubs’ championship season.

Hendricks rarely showed any of the sweet emotion teased by his warmup music, but his stoic demeanor was part of what fans loved. He just showed up and did his job, never getting too high or too low, and executing with precision in spite of a fastball that averaged 87.2 mph and didn’t top 90 after his sophomore campaign. A quiet throwback who never put himself ahead of the team, Hendricks’s career arc essentially mirrored that of the Cubs during his tenure.

He’ll never have to buy a beer or hard seltzer in Chicago, and he will probably be back in some capacity moving forward. Not as a coach or advisor, but just as a fan. His goal for now is just to enjoy spending time with his family, and now he can actually accompany them to the games.

“My family can’t get enough of it,” Hendricks told Marquee when the Cubs were in Anaheim this past season. “Wrigley is the best place to be, especially in the summertime…so yeah, they’ve made a couple trips up and caught a couple ballgames without me.”

That fits right in with the idea that Hendricks was just one of us, a seemingly normal dude who just happened to be exceptionally good at throwing a baseball. He was part of what made those great Cubs teams so fun to watch and root for, and I think we can all agree that we were so lucky to have been able to witness what he accomplished over the last decade-plus.

Thanks for everything, Kyle, now go enjoy your retirement.