I’ll be honest – I’m happy for Hendricks, but less so for my Cubs fandom.

Hendricks is the last player remaining from the 2016 World Series champs – the greatest moment of my Cubs fandom. So, to see Hendricks leave is a melancholy thought. However, he’s struggled in recent years. His control isn’t what it was and the Cubs kept bringing in pitchers who threw more like him – and what made Hendricks work wasn’t just that he was smart and all that, but that he was not a fire baller like everyone else. Sometimes being different helps out. If you saw a knuckleball guy two or three times in a row, that second and third guy get hit harder for lack of surprise.

I get why the Angels would give him a low cost contract with incentives. If he works out, great. If not, Hendricks likely retires and the Angels are only out a couple of million bucks. I’ll root for Hendricks to put it together for one more go – because I root for all the players (most of the players), but I will remain cautiously optimistic.

Image from mlb.com.