Liam Hendriks, a relief pitcher for the MLB’s Chicago White Sox, won the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award after returning to baseball following a cancer diagnosis, MLB.com reported.
Liam Hendriks has been named the recipient of the 2023 American League Comeback Player of the Year Award. Congratulations, Liam! pic.twitter.com/5tIt7h6k3h
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) November 28, 2023
Hendriks, who made his triumphant return to the mound in May, was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December 2022, per MLB.com.
The three-time all-star apparently threw bullpen sessions in between rounds of chemotherapy and doctors proclaimed his cancer was in remission by April. “He would essentially have chemo on Monday and immunotherapy and then on Tuesday, he would have chemo only. On Wednesday and Thursday, he would sleep the majority of the day and then on Friday, he would get up and go to the field,” his wife Kristi told MLB.com. “It was his motivating factor to get up again, to feel really good, to feel like he’s doing something normal,” she noted.
His supercharged post-cancer debut was a highlight of the 2023 season for the otherwise lackluster White Sox, though the 34-year-old appeared in only five games before an elbow injury required him to get season ending Tommy John surgery. (RELATED: Ichiro Suzuki Throws Shutout Against High School Girls
Still, the Australian-born hurler’s inspiring comeback reminds us all that with an iron will and raw determination, there are no challenges we cannot face.
Hendriks contract ended following the 2023 season but he hopes to find a new team and pitch again in 2024. I know I’ll be rooting for him.