Confident Kyle Hendricks — a ‘lock’ for Angels rotation, GM says — eager to prove himself again

TEMPE, Ariz. — It was the first full-squad workout of spring training Friday at Cubs camp. That’s a slightly longer way of saying it was Kyle Tucker Day. The team’s new star right fielder and instant best player, clad in Cubs blue for the first time, grabbed a bat, donned a glove and cast a long shadow with his 6-4 frame.

Is it really true Tucker might be a Cub for only one season? Criminal, if so.

But not every Kyle can be an 11-year Cub.

A 10-mile drive from Cubs camp, Kyle Hendricks is breaking in with his new team, the Angels. At 35, he’s the oldest pitcher on their 40-man roster and the second-oldest player, by a matter of months, behind catcher Travis d’Arnaud, his next-door-locker neighbor.

“He’s my Yan [Gomes],” Hendricks joked in reference to the catcher who was 36 when the Cubs released him last season. “I’ve got to have one guy who’s older, at least.”

Coming off the worst season of his career and on a one-year, $2.5 million free-agent deal, Hendricks isn’t that much of a big shot in the impressive, fully-renovated spring clubhouse of the team he rooted for growing up in Orange County, Calif.

“You know me and my personality — I don’t need to be looked at that way,” Hendricks said. “I’m just so thankful and excited to be here. I mean, play in the big leagues? How could I not be? And thinking back to when I was a kid? I mean, I loved the Angels. Having that kind of connection is amazing, and then just the luck that it kind of just fell together to end this way.”

Hendricks at times was the Cubs’ best pitcher and almost always was an asset on the mound, but last season was brutal for much of the way. Five starts in, his ERA was a cartoonish 12.00. That early, questions began to arise about whether or not Hendricks belonged in the rotation anymore or even if he’d pitch again in a Cubs uniform.

But the Angels are glad to be in the Hendricks business. Already, general manager Perry Minasian is referring to Hendricks as a “lock” for the rotation.

“We believe in him, right?” Minasian said. “In the not-too-distant past, if you look at two years ago, he had an outstanding year. Doing the work on him and what he brings to the clubhouse, we believe he can still be very productive.”

No Angel has spent more time at the team complex in Tempe than Hendricks has since he signed in November. Some players show up to Arizona this time of year and get lost trying to find their way to and around the digs of their new teams. The famously fastidious Hendricks came early to establish a precise routine.

“You know me,” he said again.

In doing due diligence on Hendricks before signing him, Minasian was “blown away” by things said about Hendricks’ approach and collaborative nature.

“Rave reviews is an understatement when it comes to him,” Minasian said.

Hendricks will wear his customary No. 28, thanks to young infielder Niko Kavadas kindly giving it up. There was no diva move involved, Hendricks wants it known; the Angels coaxed a perfectly willing Kavadas in the No. 20 without Hendricks even having inquired about it.

At his best or his worst — his 2024 ERA ended up at 5.92 — Hendricks never unraveled or played his emotional cards. He walked to and from the mound in Game 7 of the World Series like it was a spring training game. Eyes on the grass. Hat pulled down low. It was no different last season when opposing hitters were bombing away.

And it’s no different now, though he clearly is confident.

“I am, extremely,” he said. “Last year was a big struggle for me, especially in the beginning of the season, but I made some big adjustments about halfway through the season. I was really happy with my progress and how I ended the year, getting back into myself more. I feel more prepared now than I’ve been in other years. And I like trying to come out and prove myself again.”

Does he miss the Cubs? Sure, he does.

“To be in that place so long? I’m lucky,” he said. “I’m one of the luckiest people in the world.”

And he has no regrets.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I feel like I put everything I had into every single day. I was surrounded by so many people who made me a better person, a better player, and the list is long. I’m so thankful to all of them. I got the most out of my career with the Cubs, I think, that I could, and I wouldn’t have asked for anything else.”