White Sox put Hendriks on IL with elbow injury

CHICAGO —

When Hendriks missed the start of the season, the White Sox also were without Garret Crochet while the left-hander finished his recovery from Tommy John surgery. Crochet returned last month, and Kendall Graveman and Keynan Middleton had been pitching well before stumbling in the series finale against Miami.

Grifol also had been easing Hendriks back into the closer role.

“Obviously losing Liam can hurt any bullpen,” Grifol said before Sunday’s loss. “But we are better prepared than if it just happened just out of the blue. I trust our guys that we have back there. They’ve been pitching great baseball. They’ve been pitching in different roles.”

Hendriks made his major league return from cancer when he pitched an inning against the Los Angeles Angels on May 29. The 34-year-old right-hander is 2-0 with a save and a 5.40 ERA in five appearances this year.

Hendriks has 116 saves and a 3.82 ERA over 13 seasons with Minnesota, Toronto, Kansas City, Oakland and Chicago. He signed a $54 million, three-year deal with the White Sox in January 2021.

He led the American League with a career-high 38 saves in his first year with Chicago. He was third in the majors with 37 saves and made his third All-Star team in 2022, but he noticed some lumps on his neck last summer.

He was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma and underwent immunotherapy and chemotherapy. He announced in April that he was in remission.

“I’m disappointed for him, just because of how much, like you said, he has fought through and what he’s personally been through to get himself back to this level,” Hahn said. “So, I feel for him the person first. Secondly, yeah, it’s disappointing to lose a potential weapon for the back end of our bullpen for some sort of period of time. That said, we feel a lot of confidence in the other options we have down there.”