The top free agent reliever is off the board.
The Chicago White Sox have signed Liam Hendriks to a four-year, $54 millon deal. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was the first to report the deal.
Jeff Passan reports the contract details are as follows: he gets $39 million over the first three years, and then there is a fourth year club option for $15 million. However, if the club option is declined, Hendriks still gets the $15 million–it’s just spread out across multiple years after the option is declined.
This feels like a creative way to soothe the luxury tax impact of the deal while also guaranteeing Hendriks the money he was asking for. Rather than sign Hendriks to three years and over $50 million, the luxury tax impact is reduced to $13.5 million per year rather than $18 million if it was a straight up three-year, $54 million deal. This is, of course, assuming the White Sox don’t pick up the fourth year of the contract. However, if Hendriks is still beasting heading into his age-35 season, the $15 million could be worth it.
Hendriks is coming off a wonderful five years with the Oakland A’s, accruing a 2.57 FIP, 136 ERA+ and 1.129 WHIP over 263 innings. His last two years are particularly nasty out of the bullpen: 110.1 innings, 237 ERA+, 1.70 FIP.
He is the latest addition to an active offseason for the White Sox after the acquisition of Lance Lynn and Adam Eaton.
Hendriks always would’ve been nice for the Mets, but the number he got (though the same as Jeurys Familia got, as Sam Lebowitz pointed out, in a different market a couple years ago and with a different administration in charge) seems a little high if the Mets are trying to fill other needs and stay under the luxury tax.
They can look to other relievers like Brad Hand, Alex Colomé, and Jeremy Jeffress, among other ‘pen pieces, as they look toward spring training.
