Cubs fan favorite Kyle Hendricks reportedly retires from Major League Baseball

On July 10, 2014, a 24-year-old Dartmouth alum named Kyle Hendricks toed a Major League mound for the first time, making his debut for the Chicago Cubs.

The young right-hander got through six innings, allowing four runs and doing just enough to keep Chicago in the ballgame. The Cubs went on to win 6–4 that afternoon in Cincinnati — and little did anyone know, that would be the first of 270 starts Hendricks would make in a Cubs uniform.

Just two years later, in 2016, Hendricks went 16–8 with a 2.13 ERA and was named a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award alongside teammate Jon Lester. That was the year he cemented himself as a fan favorite and a franchise pillar.

Hendricks made four combined starts for the Cubs in the NLCS and World Series that postseason. He pitched 21.2 innings and allowed just two earned runs across those games. In the clinching Game 6 of the NLCS — the night Chicago punched its ticket to the World Series — Hendricks spun 7.1 shutout innings, giving up only two hits to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And then came Game 7 of the 2016 World Series — the most important game the Chicago Cubs have ever played, and likely will ever play. Hendricks got the ball.

With a precise, cerebral style built on command and pitch sequencing rather than velocity (and a degree from an Ivy League University), Hendricks earned the nickname “The Professor.” Around baseball, he was respected. In Wrigleyville, he was revered.

Over 11 seasons with the Cubs, Hendricks racked up 97 wins, a 3.68 ERA, and 1,580.1 innings pitched. He sits Top 10 all-time in career starts for one of the most storied franchises in the sport.

Hendricks left the Cubs before the 2025 season, signing with the Los Angeles Angels as a free agent. As a California native, it made sense — especially considering the Angels were the first team to draft him out of high school back in 2008. He didn't sign then, choosing Dartmouth instead. The Texas Rangers would later draft him in the eighth round of the 2011 MLB Draft, and he would arrive in Chicago in the Ryan Dempster trade on July 31, 2012.

It’s rare to see a pitcher like Hendricks even reach the Major Leagues in today’s game — let alone make more than 300 career starts and win over 100 games. But after a remarkable run, The Professor is reportedly calling it a career, according to Jon Heyman.

And maybe that’s fitting. Hendricks was never loud. Never flashy. He just showed up, took the ball every fifth day, and gave the Cubs a chance to win. In an era obsessed with velocity and algorithms, he stood as a reminder that pitching is still an art — one that rewards poise, intelligence, and belief in your craft.

For a franchise that chased ghosts for more than a century, Kyle Hendricks didn’t just help deliver a World Series — he gave Cubs fans peace of mind every time he walked to the mound. And now he retires, quietly, but with one whale of a legacy in The Windy City.