Chicago Cubs Icon Kyle Hendricks to Retire After 2025

Reports surfaced Monday that Chicago Cubs Starting Pitcher Kyle Hendricks will be retiring after the 2025 MLB season. While no official announcement has been made as of yet, people close to the situation say that Hendricks has told friends and family that this will be his final season in MLB. The veteran right-hander is in his first season with the Los Angeles Angels, but spent the first 11 years of his career with the Chicago Cubs.

The 35-year-old was seemingly from a different era. Rarely exceeding 90 MPH, Hendricks used cunning and guile to get hitters out for over a decade. His career pinnacle was in 2016 when he won the NL ERA title and started the clinching games of the NLCS and World Series for the Chicago Cubs. Known as “The Professor,” Hendricks will leave the mound as one of the most accomplished pitchers in Chicago Cubs history, and he will leave a legacy of humble success as a thinking man’s pitcher who used his understated repertoire to be effective for over a decade.

Kyle Hendricks Plans to Retire After 2025

Hendricks announced to people close to him that he plans to make the 2025 MLB season his last. The 35-year-old is in his first season with the Los Angeles Angels after an 11-year career with the Chicago Cubs. Hendricks made his mark as an effective right-hander who never blew anyone away with his repertoire, but found a way to get the best hitters in the world out for over a decade.

Hendricks showed Chicago Cubs fans shades of Greg Maddux from decades ago with his command and ability to generate weak contact. The Dartmouth grad offered a window to the past of what pitching was before the emphasis was entirely on velocity, spin rate, and increased movement. His success defied the era, but ended up becoming one of the most important pitchers in the latter half of the 2010s, including a 2016 campaign that will live on far beyond the final time he dons the mound as a big leaguer.

For his career, Hendricks is 105-91 with a 3.79 ERA and 1.19 WHIP in 1970 innings of work across 12 seasons. When he takes the mound for the final time, he will be making his 308th career start. Hendricks’ career has been waning for a couple of years now, but if you had told Hendricks 12 years ago that he would make it this far in MLB, he would take this ending in a heartbeat.

Career Background

In Chicago, Hendricks came up in the middle of the 2014 season and was instantly effective. Even in 2014, Hendricks was toward the bottom of the league in terms of fastball velocity. His command and pitch sequencing made him a viable starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs as they built a championship contender. With that came an influx of proven talent to the starting rotation, so even after a full 2015 campaign as a starter, Hendricks was battling in spring training of 2016 for the fifth spot in the rotation.

Up until the final days of Spring Training, it was unclear whether Hendricks or Adam Warren was going to be the fifth starter for the 2016 Chicago Cubs. Hendricks edged out Warren and won the job. Hendricks went on to have the best season of his career. He went 16-8 with a league-leading 2.13 ERA and 0.98 WHIP with 170 strikeouts in 190 innings of work across 30 starts. Hendricks finished third in the National League in Cy Young voting, but the regular season success became a footnote on Hendricks’ campaign with what he did for Chicago in the postseason.

The 2016 season saw Hendricks’ legacy be born. In five postseason starts, Hendricks went 1-1 and only surrendered four earned runs in 25.1 innings of work. The year started with questions about Hendricks’ role on the team and ended with him starting two of the most iconic games in Chicago Cubs history. On their way to the 2016 World Series championship, Hendricks was the starter in Game 6 of the NLCS and Game 7 of the World Series. The Cubs clinched both games, ending a combined 179 years of drought.

Final Thoughts

Hendricks ended his Chicago Cubs career with a 97-81 record and 3.86 ERA in 1580.1 innings across 277 starts. He finished seventh in franchise history in strikeouts, ninth in starts and innings, and 22nd in wins. There will be a time for the Chicago Cubs to bring “The Professor” home and honor him for the work he has done for the franchise and cement his legacy as an integral member of the World Series team of 2016. For now, he is wrapping up his career in Los Angeles and is set to make one more start to bookend his impressive career.

Hendricks is in his first season with the Los Angeles Angels. In 30 starts, he is 8-10 with a 4.79 ERA and 1.28 WHIP across 159.2 innings of work. After signing a one-year, $2.5 million deal last offseason, Hendricks’ role with the team was unclear coming into the year. On a team that wasn’t expected to contend, Hendricks was thought to be a coach in the locker room to help out younger pitchers in the organization, but Hendricks stayed healthy all year and remained in the Angels’ starting rotation. He is expected to make the final start of his career this Friday against the Houston Astros.