Oakland Athletics: Liam Hendriks deserves All-Star consideration
The Oakland Athletics have a few worthy All-Star candidates, but one has been better than you may have noticed — that being reliever Liam Hendriks.
Most Oakland Athletics fans are aware that Matt Chapman should, and hopefully will be an All-Star this season. After all, Chapman is fourth in the American League in fWAR and trails only Alex Bregman among AL third baseman in that category.
Josh Phegley and Marcus Semien have also built respectable cases to represent Oakland in the mid-summer classic, but that is for a different discussion. There is another Athletics player who deserves some All-Star attention — one who may be flying under the radar a bit, even among A’s fans.
More from Golden Gate Sports
- Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
- 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
- Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
- 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
- 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve
Enter Liam Hendriks, who is having nothing short of an elite season so far in 2019. The hard-throwing righty sports a 1.06 ERA as a reliever (he’s started two games as an opener — his overall ERA is 1.42) which ranks second in the AL His 1.4 fWAR is also good for second in the AL but ranks at the top for non-closer relief pitchers.
Additionally, Hendriks ranks sixth among AL relievers in both innings pitched and strikeouts. And on an A’s team that besides Yusmeiro Petit has not had great seasons by its relief corps, Hendriks’ performance has been all the more valuable.
But Liam Hendriks hasn’t just been good this year, he’s been a revelation.
The Aussie’s career as an Oakland Athletics pitcher was nearly over when he was designated for assignment in June of 2018. Hendriks ended up being outrighted to AAA, but worked his way back up to the big-leagues — eventually becoming the A’s opener in the ill-fated wild-card game against the Yankees.
More from Oakland Athletics
- Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
- Oakland Athletics end perfect game, still lose Game 1 of Wild Card round
- Oakland Athletics: Jesus Luzardo will start Game 1 of Wild Card round
- Oakland Athletics clinch first AL West title since 2013
- Oakland Athletics: Can Jamb Lamb save the restructured infield?
Contributing to Hendriks’ newfound success is a slight uptick in velocity and altered pitch usage. He is relying more on his breaking pitches now than ever before and has almost completely scrapped his sinker.
But, how he is getting the job done isn’t the point, all that matters is that he is performing and in turn, deserves serious All-Star consideration.
A fun side-note worth mentioning is that if Hendriks were to make the All-Star team, he would be the first Australian-born player to do so since Grant Balfour made the team in 2013 while playing for — you guessed it — the A’s!
Next. Oakland Athletics: Ranking the most likely All-Star candidates. dark
Let’s see if history will repeat itself come this July when Hendricks looks to follow in the footsteps of his fellow countryman and former A’s reliever.