What we’ve got here, is failure to communicate.
Red Sox pitcher Liam Hendricks told reporters today that Alex Cora had a “slip of the tongue” on Sunday when the Sox manager said that the veteran reliever’s season is likely over due to a hip injury.
Hendriks said he’s discussed the matter with Cora and added that he fully expects to pitch again this season.
In the interest of making matters entirely clear, the loquacious Australian issued a rather memorable update of his own on the second opinion he received.
“I saw a different guy and he was like, ‘You’ve got the body of a gorilla but you’ve got the hips of a cheerleader.’ I didn’t like that euphemism as much. I like, ‘Your body is a brick s—house and your door is made out of a sheet,'” Hendriks said, via MassLive’s Chris Cotillo.
The 36-year-old righty has missed more than two months with a hip injury, which is the latest in a long run of bad injury luck for the three-time All-Star.
The Red Sox signed Hendriks to a two-year, $10 million contract before the 2024 season while he was recovering from Tommy John surgery, with the hope that he could return to the mound late in the season. But he never saw the field in 2024, and was placed on the injured list with right elbow inflammation just hours before Opening Day back in March.
After he was activated from the IL in April, Hendriks struggled in 14 appearances, posting a 6.59 ERA. He’s been sidelined since late May with the hip injury and was transferred to the 60-day injured list in early July.
Just months after submitting an All-Star season for the White Sox in 2022, Hendriks underwent treatment for stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He returned to the big leagues in May of 2023 and pitched in just five games before suffering the elbow injury that led to Tommy John surgery.
