Cubs legend Kyle Hendricks swaps his cleats for the front office, reuniting with former colleagues to shape pitching development for the Detroit Tigers.
Longtime Chicago Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks is staying in baseball.
Hendricks will join the Detroit Tigers as a special assistant. He will focus on pitching and help with the team's pitching development in Detroit. His prior relationships with Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris and Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg helped him land this new role.
Hendricks knows both Harris and Greenberg very well, dating back to his days with the Cubs. Harris was the Cubs assistant general manager for a few seasons in 2018 and 2019, and Greenberg was in the Cubs front office for 11 years from 2012 to 2022.
The 36-year-old will now get to work alongside Harris and Greenberg in Detroit’s front office.
“Hendricks wanted to spend time with his family immediately after retiring,” Tigers beat writer Cody Stavenhagen said. “His new position both reunites him with old friends and adds an asset to the Tigers organization that could spark the next stage of Hendricks’ life in baseball.”
Hendricks announced his retirement from Major League Baseball back in November following a 12-year career. He spent 11 of those seasons with the North Siders, where he became a fan favorite in the city of Chicago.
He had a career 3.68 ERA and 1,259 strikeouts across his 11 seasons with the Cubs. He was also a member of the 2016 World Series team that broke the 108-year championship drought.
During that 2016 season, Hendricks posted the best numbers of his career. He went 16-8 with a 2.13 ERA, a 0.979 WHIP, and 170 strikeouts across 190 innings pitched. Those numbers helped him finish third in the National League Cy Young voting, only behind Max Scherzer and teammate Jon Lester.
Hendricks was one of the biggest reasons the Cubs were World Series champions that season. He had a 1.42 ERA in five postseason starts, which included allowing only one earned run across 4 ⅔ innings in Game 7 of the World Series against the Cleveland Guardians.
It is unfortunate that Hendricks will be joining the Tigers as a special assistant rather than the Cubs. He basically played his whole career in Chicago and will always be remembered for his time with the team.
It’s unclear whether the Cubs did offer Hendricks some sort of front office role.
Either way, it’s nice to see The Professor helping out the next generation of young pitchers develop. He will always be a Cubs legend.