Veteran Chicago Cubs Star Reaches Key Career Milestone

Kyle Hendricks has spent his entire Major League career with the Chicago Cubs and now he’s reached a longevity milestone.

Jun 25, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks (28) walks off the field against the San Francisco Giants in the fifth inning at Oracle Park. / John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports

Chicago Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks has never played a Major League game for another team. And, after Wednesday, he controls his destiny in a new way.

The Major League Baseball Players Association congratulated the veteran right-hander on reaching 10 years of MLB service time, a milestone that is a life-changer for a player like Hendricks.

For one, fewer than 10% of players in MLB history reach the milestone. When you consider that under 21,000 have played at least one MLB game, Hendricks is part of a club of roughly 2,000 players.

Second, Hendricks is now eligible for a lifetime pension per the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. That pension starts at age 45 and continues for the rest of his life.

Third, and most importantly at the moment, Hendricks is now a 10/5 player — that is, a player with 10 years of MLB experience, five of which is with the same team. With that, Hendricks can now veto a trade to any team.

Kyle Hendricks, aka "The Professor,” left the Ivy League for the ivy of Wrigley Field. Today, he hits 10 years of big-league service with the @Cubs!
 
Read Kyle's conversation with the MLBPA as he reflects on his career and reaching the milestone: https://t.co/R9mC6OT0yp pic.twitter.com/yXPdLZbCmo

— MLBPA (@MLBPA) June 26, 2024

The 34-year-old vet would like to stay with Chicago, even though it’s been an up-and-down year for him. He had a rough start that ended when he suffered a lower back strain and went on the injured list on April 23. When he returned on May 12 he went to the bullpen as the Cubs wanted to ease him in.

Something happened after the IL stint. While Hendricks is 1-5 with a 6.87 ERA for the season, he is 1-1 with a 2.67 ERA in his last seven appearances, two of which were starts.

He lost to the San Francisco Giants in his last start on Tuesday, but he went seven innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts and a walk. Before that he claimed a win on June 19 against the Giants, as he allowed an earned run and two hits in 5.2 innings with eight strikeouts and a walk.

Hendricks was an eighth-round pick of the Texas Rangers out of Dartmouth in 2011. The Rangers flipped Hendricks to the Cubs for MLB starter Ryan Dempster the next year.

The right-hander built up to his MLB debut in 2014 after the Cubs traded pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to Oakland. He was the NL Rookie of the Month for August, went 7-2 with a 2.46 ERA and finished tied for seventh in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Ever since, the player Cubs fans call “The Professor” has been a fixture in the rotation. He helped the Cubs win the 2016 World Series, a season in which he went 16-8 with an MLB-best 2.13 ERA and finished third in NL Cy Young voting. He was also ninth in Cy Young voting in the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season.

Hendricks is 94-74 with a 3.61 ERA in 255 career starts (261 games) with 1,215 strikeouts and 338 walks in 1,507.1 innings.